Appeal No. 2006-1862
Application No. 09/954,443
The only disclosure in Nakamura relied upon by the examiner
is Nakamura’s discussion of a prior art heat sealer for forming a
sheet of synthetic resin into bags (answer, page 6). That prior
art heat sealer uses heat pipes (26a, 26b) (col. 2, line 64)
which correspond to the appellants’ heat tubes. Nakamura
discloses (col. 10, lines 1-20):
[T]he heat pipes employed in the prior art transverse heat-
sealing jaw are of a design wherein a wick is fitted to an
inner peripheral surface of each heat pipes [sic] having its
opposite ends closed and a working liquid is filled therein.
This design utilizes the phase change of the working liquid
which is vaporized when heated, but returns to a liquid
phase when cooled in contact with a portion of the
respective heat pipe where the temperature is low, so that
heat can be quickly and efficiently transmitted in the
lengthwise direction of the respective heat pipe. However,
as a result of a series of experiments conducted by the
inventors of the present invention, it has been found that
the heat pipe has not sufficient heat conductive
characteristic in a radial direction, and that the use of
the heat conducting members having a high heat
conductivity λ such as employed in the practice of the
present invention has exhibited an excellent heat conductive
characteristic in a radial direction and, also, a sufficient
heat conductive characteristic in a lengthwise direction
although somewhat lower than that exhibited by the heat
pipes.
The appellants argue that the above disclosure by Nakamura
is an express teaching that heat pipes should not be used in heat
sealing dies because they do not distribute heat adequately in
the radial direction (brief, page 8).
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