Appeal No. 2000-2267
Application No. 08/764,576
references to provide the remote air turbine driven paint
applicator power source set forth in the appealed claims.
Further, even assuming, arguendo, that the fan 8 in Eckert
could be construed as an air turbine, we find no basis for the
Examiner’s proposed combination of references. The Horn
reference, despite the Examiner’s assertion to the contrary, has
no disclosure of a sealed explosion-proof housing and, further,
does not disclose an electrostatic paint applicator but, rather,
an ionizer for dusting prior to painting. The Seewaldt
reference, while disclosing that a generator can be located
interiorly or exteriorly to an applicator housing, has no
disclosure of being powered by a turbine. As such, these
references disclose completely opposite approaches to the problem
of providing a power supply to a paint applicator structure and,
in our view, any attempt to combine them could only come from
Appellants’ own disclosure and not from any teaching or
suggestion in the references themselves.
We have also reviewed the Lunzer and Gschwender references
added to the proposed combination by the Examiner as providing
teachings of, respectively, a low voltage circuit for a paint
applicator and a machine housing located control circuit. We
find nothing in these references which would cure the previously
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