Appeal No. 2002-0064
Application No. 09/084,042
passages 17 and 19 are bonded and connected to separate headers
to provide impermeable barriers to the mixing of the two flows is
reasonable.
Turning to appellant’s regenerator, in the paragraph
spanning pages 9-10 of the specification it is explained that,
within the context of a regenerative gas cycle machine, fluid is
cycled back and forth through the regenerator such that:
As fluid flows back and forth through regenerator 24,
it leaves heat in the regenerator material as it flows
in one direction and picks up heat from the regenerator
material as it flows back in the other direction. The
material of the regenerator must be porous to permit
fluid to flow, and the size and shape of the flow
passages determines both the effectiveness of heat
transfer between regenerator material and fluid and the
the [sic] amount of pressure drop experienced by the
flow.
The examiner’s assertion (answer, page 5) that the device of
Pauletta can be used in all the same environments and systems as
the claimed device and operate in the same fashion as appellant’s
claimed device is not well taken. Nothing in Pauletta either
expressly or impliedly discusses the use of the Pauletta heat
exchanger as a “regenerator” in the sense described in
appellant’s specification wherein the material of the regenerator
itself is porous to permit fluid to flow through the regenerator,
and wherein the flow passages of the regenerator are sized and
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