Appeal No. 1998-1425
Application No. 08/437,808
coating. However, claims 1 and 2 require that the flux be2
sprayed in a particular manner, namely, that prior to forming
the tube the plate material be placed with its inner surface
facing downwardly and the flux material be sprayed upwardly to
flux the inner surface of the plate material as the plate
material passes over the flux material spray nozzle. We find
nothing in the applied prior art to support a finding that it
would have been obvious to have sprayed the flux material of
the AAPA in this manner. In the first place, while Kawase
does disclose an upwardly-directed nozzle 2 for spraying heat
exchanger tubes 1, we do not consider that this disclosure
would have taught or suggested the claimed flux spraying
method to one of ordinary skill because the Kawase apparatus
is used for the flame spraying of zinc (to prevent corrosion),
rather than for spraying flux. Second, we do not agree with
the examiner that Kawase applies the zinc "in the same manner
as claimed," because Kawase discloses spraying the tubes 1
2Also, although not applied by the examiner, we note that
several of the references of record disclose spraying flux
onto heat exchanger parts prior to brazing. See, e.g.,
Saperstein et al. (Pat. No. 4,688,311), col. 5, lines 51 to
55, and Barten et al. (Pat. No. 5,322,209), col. 1, lines 28
to 35.
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