Appeal No. 2004-0616
Application 09/692,982
manner” and over a transition length within the range specified
in appellants’ claims on appeal.
As for Ripka, this patent shows a heat exchanger (Figs. 1-
14) which transitions, at (106), from a single flow passageway
with a generally elliptical configuration as seen in Figures 9
and 10 to a reduced cross-section, single flow passageway of
generally rectangular configuration as seen in Figure 11. Thus,
although both of the applied references seek to maintain an
increase in flow velocity as the combustion gas flow moves
through the heat exchanger so as to enhance internal gas-to-
surface heat transfer, given the clearly different configurations
selected by Ripka and Chase to achieve this result, we see no
cogent reason why one of ordinary skill in the art would have
sought to import selected dimensional features of some portion of
the heat exchanger in Chase into the structurally different heat
exchanger of Ripka. Moreover, as we noted above, it does not
appear to us that Chase actually teaches or suggests a gradual
transition region having a length like that claimed by
appellants. Accordingly, we will not sustain the examiner’s
rejection of claims 1, 4 through 6, 8 through 11, 14 through 16
10
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