Appeal 2007-1420
Application 10/992,431
fluid parallel manner provides an air bearing inlet region 96 for the lower
herringbone air bearing 92.
We agree with Appellants’ observation at page 6 of the principal Brief
that claim 1 requires separate entrances provided in the structure of the
housing for motor and air bearing cooling flows. We also agree with the
view expressed there that Jesinger’s housing 30 comprises an inlet 91 which
mandates an interpretation of one, shared inlet through which cooling flow
does enter. On the other hand, however, claim 1 merely recites that there is
one housing inlet or an inlet to the housing itself but separate inlet portions
for the motor and bearing cooling inlets are required within the housing. A
common housing inlet feeds these two separate motor and air bearing
cooling inlets. The claim does not exclude the Examiner’s interpretation and
ours. The artisan would well appreciate that there are separate paths for the
motor and air bearing portions in the claim and in Jesinger. We do not agree
with Appellants’ views expressed at the top of page 7 of the principal Brief
that the stator may not receive air that is flowed through the air bearings nor
that these bearings cannot receive air that has flowed through the stator
because these features are not required to be completely separately arranged.
The claim does not require that the flows not be intermixed or intermixable.
Moreover, we agree with the Examiner’s observation at the bottom of
page 4 of the Answer that claim 1 merely recites separate and parallel paths
to the motor and bearing mounts and not separate and parallel paths into the
housing. Notwithstanding these remarks, Appellants’ Reply Brief at the
bottom of page 1 insists that claim 1 require separate motor and bearing
cooling entrances “to” the housing, a feature plainly not required by the
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Last modified: September 9, 2013