Appeal No. 2006-0934
Application No. 10/327,852
Attention is directed to the main and reply briefs (filed May 26, 2004 and
September 23, 2004) and answer (mailed July 26, 2004) for the respective positions of
the appellant and examiner regarding the merits of this rejection.
DISCUSSION
Cotter, the examiner’s primary reference, pertains to heat exchanger headers
designed to accommodate a stacked array of thin-walled heat exchange channel
elements. Figures 1-3 and Figure 9 respectively show individual heat exchange
channel elements 10 and 175 having slightly different constructions, and Figure 4 and
Figure 7 respectively illustrate these heat exchange channel elements arranged in
stacked arrays 21 and 50.
The header for the stacked array 21 comprises a tank 39, a pair of sealing
members 33 and a pair of structural support members 43, with these elements being
operatively associated with each other and the stacked array as shown in Figures 4-6.
Each sealing member 33 comprises a bearing surface 34 having a corrugated contour
defining grooves 36 for receiving flanges on the stacked array.
The header for the stacked array 50 consists of a tank 74, a pair of contoured
sealing members 58 having grooves 59 for receiving flanges on the stacked array, a
pair of clip members 69, a pair of angle brace members 61 and a pair of structural
4
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