Appeal No. 2003-0806 Page 5
Application No. 09/219,275
bonding the smaller particles to the first particulate material (see column 4, lines 26-53).
The first particulate material is placed on the rotor disc 23 and particles thereof are
entrained in the air stream flowing through gas supply and exhaust conduits 51 and 61
and are whirled around the vessel by rotation of the rotor disc into the processing space
31, where they are sprayed with liquid from spraying device 35 and contacted with a
second dry particulate material input through inlet 33. The coated particles are dried by
their movement within the processing space by the rotation of the rotor disc and by the
air passed through the vessel.
The examiner concedes that Imanidis fails to disclose a plurality of fluid
passages, wherein each of the single nozzles is connected to a different one of the fluid
passages and at least one gas passage connected to each of the single nozzles, as
called for in claims 1 and 22. The examiner also concedes that Imanidis fails to
disclose a housing surrounding the fluid passages and the gas passage in the portion
of the housing that extends into the expansion chamber (i.e., the processing space 31
of Imanidis), as recited in claim 22.
Martin discloses a rotating drum 1 rotated on rollers 2 by an electromotor 5 for
coating particles. The particulate material to be coated, which may be, for example, bi-
convex tablets, is supplied into grooves 7 on the inside of the drum by a tablet feeding
device 24. Several sprayers or nozzles 14 are arranged along the interior of the drum.
As illustrated in Figures 1 and 2, these sprayers are connected to a common
compressed air duct 15 and to individual solution supply ducts 16 fed from a container
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