Appeal No. 2004-1207 Page 4
Application No. 09/759,411
with appellant’s underlying disclosure, we interpret “by gas contact” in the final
paragraph of claim 1 as requiring direct contact of the pressurized gas with the washers.
Lamb discloses a staple or nail gun assembly 10 provided with a staple or nail
gun 20, and a cap feeding device 40 including a cap container 60, a base 50 and a
shuttle 80. The base 50 includes a cap feeding chamber 52 and a cap holding chamber
54 and a channel 56 connecting the two chambers. The shuttle 80 is movably disposed
in the channel 56 of the base 50 and is adapted to move a cap at the cap feeding
chamber 52 toward the cap holding chamber 54 through the holding chamber. As best
illustrated in Figure 5, the shuttle 80 is moved by a piston-cylinder arrangement 100
powered by compressed air.
The examiner concedes that Lamb lacks a supply of pressurized gas for
propelling washers by gas contact from the acceleration chamber (the cap feeding
chamber 52 of Lamb) to the retention region (the cap holding chamber 54 of Lamb), as
called for in claim 1. The examiner finds suggestion to provide Lamb with such a gas
contact arrangement in the teachings of Young. See page 5 of the answer.
Young discloses a fastener feed assembly wherein fasteners F are fed from a
vibrating hopper 12 along a chute 13 to a discharge tube 18. At the junction of the
chute 13 and the tube 18 is a body member 21 having a slide 30 therein, the slide 30
provided with a notch 35 for receiving the shank of a fastener therein. The body
member also includes a discharge opening 26 aligned with the discharge tube 18. The
slide 30 is transversely slideable between a first position wherein the notch is aligned
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