Appeal No. 2004-0616
Application 09/692,982
Ripka and Chase, the examiner concludes (answer, pages 4-5) that
it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to
modify Ripka by including the length of said transition being
defined by the relationships as purportedly taught by Chase for
the purpose of providing a furnace with compact construction to
maximize heat transfer.
Again, we note that the examiner has not specifically
identified in the rejection exactly which one of the flow
passages in either Ripka or Chase contains a transition region
like that defined in the claims on appeal. Like appellants, we
observe that Chase shows a heat exchanger (Figs. 4-6) which
transitions from a single flow passage (24b) with a generally
flat with rounded ends configuration as seen in Figures 4 and 6
to an enhanced three flow passageway arrangement (25a, 25b, 25c)
seen in Figures 4 and 5, wherein each of the three flow
passageways is generally circular in configuration. The actual
transition from the passageway configuration (24b) seen in Figure
6 to the three passageway arrangement (25a, 25b, 25c) of Figures
2 and 5 in Chase appears from Figures 4-6 of that patent to be
rather abrupt and thus would not seem to occur in a “gradual
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