Appeal No. 2002-1874 Page 4
Application No. 09/553,302
The appellants’ invention relates to an apparatus for storing and dispensing high
purity liquids for use in fabricating microelectronic substrates and the like, such as
deionized water. Each of the appellants’ independent claims is directed to an
apparatus for storage of a liquid comprising a storage tank in fluid communication with
a liquid inlet port, a liquid outlet port, a gas inlet port and a gas outlet port, and a floating
plug valve connected to and in fluid communication with the gas outlet port.
Mair is directed to a system for storing in the liquid phase products that normally
are in the gaseous phase, such as compressed ammonia. Mair discloses a tank (17) in
which the ammonia is present in liquid form in the lower portion of the tank and in
gaseous form in the upper portion. The tank is in fluid communication with a first liquid
inlet port (61) through which liquid ammonia is delivered to the tank from a storage
system, a liquid outlet port (70) in fluid communication with the tank through which liquid
ammonia is delivered from the storage tank to a point of use, and a gas outlet port (23)
in the form of a relief valve which activates upon the presence of an unacceptably high
pressure in the tank. A flash tank (40) is provided for receiving gaseous ammonia from
the upper portion of the tank and recondensing it into liquid for return to the tank. As
explained in column 4, line 53 et seq.,
liquid ammonia from the body 41 [of liquid ammonia] contained in the
flash tank 40 is supplied via the pipe 47 through the expansion valve 48
and the outlet 49 into the interior of tube 25 [in the tank]. This liquid
ammonia is relatively warm and under relatively high pressure, whereby a
first portion thereof immediately flashes within the tube 25 into gaseous
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