Appeal No. 98-0984
Application 08/428,561
the Voss patent cannot be a basis for
rejecting the claims as obvious because the
reason for placing only the capacitor
outside the hermetically sealed housing is
not apparent from the references.
We note initially that, in powering a D.C. motor
such as Voss' motor 34 from the usual A.C. power supply, the
A.C. power must be rectified, and, as disclosed by Ruff, the
rectifier 3 may have a smoothing filter capacitor 8 across its
output. As for the placement of the rectifier and capacitor,
we do not necessarily agree with appellant that one of
ordinary skill following Voss' disclosure would necessarily
locate them within the housing 48, because although Voss does
state at col. 3, line 49, that the motor is "powered and
controlled" by electronics 44, 46, the general teaching of
this reference is
that the "control electronics" should be located in the
housing in order to cool them (col. 1, lines 60 to 64; col. 2,
lines 10 to 13). In our view, the rectifier and capacitor
constitute part of the power supply for the motor, rather than
5
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007