Appeal No. 1999-0033
Application No. 08/514,255
In the summary of the invention on page 2 of the brief, appellants describe their
invention as follows:
The present invention relates to a fluid transferring or compressing
machine, such as a turbo-pump, a turbo-compressor or the like in which a
vibration generated at a front end of a diffuser vane, which receives a fluid urged
by a rotating impeller, is prevented or restrained from being transmitted to an
outer casing which contacts the atmosphere.
According to one embodiment of appellants’ invention (see Figure 2), an elastic
member 44 is disposed between the vane member 4 and an inner casing 3. The elastic
member 44 is understood to be deformable by the vibrations to reduce what appellants
call the “connecting rigidity”1 between the vane member and the casing.
All of the appealed claims are independent claims, which vary in scope as
discussed below.
Appealed claim 1 recites that “at least one of the vane member and the casing has
an elastically deformable portion connected to another [sic] one of the vane member and
the casing to obtain a decreased connecting rigidity between the vane member and the
casing in at least one of an impeller radial direction and an impeller circumferential
direction.”2 Appellants acknowledge that the claimed elastically deformable portion is
readable on the elastic member 44 (see appellants’ answer filed June 30, 2000 (Paper
No. 28) in response to Interrogatory No. 5 in our Order mailed May 31, 2000 (Paper
No. 27)). The capability of the elastic member 44 to deform in a radial direction reduces
the connecting rigidity in that direction (see appellants’ answer in Paper No. 28 in
response to our Interrogatory No. 1 in our Order mentioned above). Similarly, the
1 The “connecting rigidity” is defined on page 3 of the specification as being the “vibration transfer
function.”
2 Our interpretation of this claim language is set forth infra.
2
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007