Appeal No. 1998-1805
Application No. 08/596,734
sealing means, and means for supplying an impregnating medium.
The chamber also has a cross-section which over a path from
the inlet to the outlet “narrows and again increases many
times.” According to the appellants, the narrowings and
increases provide a location-dependent dynamic pressure
component which is superimposed upon the static pressure
component present in the means for applying the impregnating
medium, so as the web moves through the chamber it is
repeatedly compressed and released, causing the impregnating
medium to be intensely pressed into the pores of the web
(specification, page 9).
Long, the primary reference, discloses a web impregnating
device that appears to be the type over which the appellants
believe their invention to be an improvement (see
specification, page 2). The difference between the Long
apparatus and that of claim 1 is that Long lacks a plurality
of narrowing and expanding portions in the chamber. In Long,
the chamber narrows in from the inlet to the outlet, and
therefore has only one narrowing portion. It is the
examiner’s view, however, that to modify Long so that it has a
plurality of narrowed portions would have been obvious to one
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