Appeal 2007-2815
Application 10/498,809
expansion element 18 to the refrigerant/coolant heat exchanger 15,
functioning as the evaporator” (id.). Thus, in this mode, by using
refrigerant/coolant heat exchanger 15 to transfer heat from the engine-heated
coolant to the refrigerant, Burks’ system uses engine coolant as a heat
source. We therefore agree with the Examiner that Burk meets the limitation
requiring the system to be interconnected “such that . . . coolant circulated
from the vehicle drive system can . . . partially or fully be used as a heat
source . . . in a heat pump mode.”
Figure 7 of Burk shows the system in “reheat mode with heat
recovery” in which the cooling air/refrigerant heat exchanger 6 is inactive
(Burk [0054]). Burk describes this mode as “a modified air conditioning
mode, where the supply air/refrigerant heat exchanger 4 in turn functions as
the evaporator, in this case to cool the supply air for the purpose of drying”
(id. at [0047]). In this mode the compressed refrigerant is routed “to the
refrigerant/coolant heat exchanger 15, acting as the condenser/gas cooler,”
eventually through the “supply air/refrigerant heat exchanger 4, functioning
as the evaporator,” ultimately back to the compressor (id. at [0054]).
Because the refrigerant transfers heat to the coolant at the refrigerant/coolant
heat exchanger 15, we agree with the Examiner that the system uses coolant
as a heat sink in this mode.
Burk discloses that in the “reheat mode with heat recovery” shown in
Figure 7 the heat transferred from the refrigerant to the coolant can be
transferred to the heater 11 (id. at [0047]). However, Burk describes this
mode as “a modified air conditioning mode” (id.). Moreover, the refrigerant
absorbs heat from the supply air via the supply air/refrigerant heat exchanger
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