Appeal No. 1999-0404 Page 11
Application No. 08/580,256
and preferably less than eight degrees;
e. the ratio between the interval between notches in a
rib and the tube inner diameter should be between 0.025
and 0.1, or
0.025#S /D [sic, D ]#0.1;n i 2
f. the angle between the opposite faces of a notch should
be less than 90 degrees, or
(<90°; and
g. the notch depth should be at least 40 percent of the
rib height, or
D /H #0.4.
n r
The examiner regarded (answer, p. 4) the recitation "for
a condenser and an evaporator in a refrigerating cycle using a
refrigerant mixture" to be a statement of intended use and was
not given any patentable weight. As to the limitation that
"said auxiliary grooves are formed in a direction where a
pressure gradient in said heat transfer pipe is reduced," the
examiner stated (answer, p. 6) that the notches of Chiang
inherently are formed in a direction where a pressure
gradient in the heat transfer tube is reduced. The remaining
limitations of claim 1 were considered by the examiner to be
clearly met by Chiang.
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