Ex Parte Wepfer

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Sep 29, 2016

13197890 (P.T.A.B. Sep. 29, 2016)

UNITED STA TES p A TENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR
13/197,890 08/04/2011
26353 7590 10/03/2016
WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC COMPANY, LLC
1000 Westinghouse Drive
Suite 141
Cranberry Township, PA 16066
Robert M. W epfer
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
United States Patent and Trademark Office
Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS
P.O. Box 1450
Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450
www .uspto.gov
ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO.
NSD201 l-004 6708
EXAMINER
OSWALD, KIRSTIN U
ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER
3744
NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE
10/03/2016 ELECTRONIC
Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding.
The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication.
Notice of the Office communication was sent electronically on above-indicated "Notification Date" to the
following e-mail address( es):
guerral@westinghouse.com
spadacjc@westinghouse.com
coldrerj@westinghouse.com
PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07)
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
Ex parte ROBERT M. WEPFER
Appeal2015-001387
Application 13/197,890
Technology Center 3700
Before BENJAMIN D. M. WOOD, GEORGE R. HOSKINS, and
LEE L. STEPINA, Administrative Patent Judges.
WOOD, Administrative Patent Judge.
DECISION ON APPEAL
Appeal2015-001387
Application 13/197,890
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Appellant appeals under 35 U.S.C. § 134 from a rejection of claims
1-15. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b ).
We reverse.
THE INVENTION
The claims are directed to a steam generator tube lane flow buffer.
Claim 1, reproduced below, is the sole independent claim and is illustrative
of the claimed subject matter:
1. A tube and shell steam generator for transferring heat
from a primary fluid to a secondary fluid, the steam
generator comprising:
a primary fluid header closed at one end by a first side
of a tube sheet and separated into an inlet plenum and an
outlet plenum by a divider plate;
a plurality of U-shaped hollow heat exchange tubes,
respectively, substantially all of which have a diameter and
pitch and a cold leg and a hot leg, with the cold leg and the
hot leg connected by a U-shaped bend section at one end
and terminating respectively in an inlet section of the hot
leg and an outlet section of the cold leg at another end with
the inlet section of the hot leg extending through the tube
sheet and opening into the inlet plenum and the outlet
section of the cold leg extending through the tube sheet and
opening into the outlet plenum;
a linear tube lane on a shell side of the tube sheet,
opposite the first side, and centered between and having a
side respectively adjacent the hot legs and the cold legs of
the plurality of U-shaped hollow heat exchange tubes and
extending completely across the plurality of U-shaped heat
exchange tubes; and
a plurality of elongated flow buffer rods extending
within and on either side of the tube lane in a direction
substantially perpendicular to the tube sheet, the flow buffer
rods not communicating with the primary fluid in the
primary fluid header and having substantially the same
2
Appeal2015-001387
Application 13/197,890
diameter as the U-shaped hollow heat exchange tubes at
elevations along the U-shaped tubes having relatively
greater turbulence than other elevations along the U-shaped
tubes and the same pitch of the U-shaped hollow heat
exchange tubes.
Cattanach
Sylvester
Jensen
REFERENCES
us 1,987,891
us 5,699,395
US 2004/0194932 Al
REJECTIONS
Jan. 15, 1935
Dec. 16, 1997
Oct. 7, 2004
Claims 1-3, 6-9, and 11 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as
anticipated by Sylvester. Final Act. 2.
Claims 4, 5, 12, and 13 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. §103(a) as
unpatentable over Sylvester and Jensen. Final Act. 6.
Claim 10 stands rejected under 35 U.S.C. §103(a) as unpatentable
over Sylvester. Final Act. 8.
Claims 14 and 15 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. §103(a) as
unpatentable over Sylvester and Cattanach. Final Act. 9.
ANALYSIS
A. Claims 1-3, 6--9, and I I-Anticipation-Sylvester
For the limitation reciting a "linear tube lane" that is "centered
between and having a side respectively adjacent the hot legs and the cold
legs of the plurality ofU-Shaped hollow heat exchange tubes," the Examiner
relies on "tube lanes 93" depicted in Figure 4 of Sylvester. Final Act. 3
(citing Sylvester, 5:5-7, Figs. 1, 4). For the limitation reciting "a plurality of
elongated flow buffer rods extending within and on either side of the tube
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Appeal2015-001387
Application 13/197,890
lane," the Examiner relies on segmented "stayrods" 120. Ans. 2; Final Act.
3 (citing Sylvester, Figs. 1-2).
Appellant acknowledges that Sylvester discloses "a basic U-tube tube
and shell steam generator having a number of segmented stay rods," Appeal
Br. 5, but contends, inter alia, that Sylvester does not disclose stayrods that
extend "within and on either side of a tube lane centered between and having
a side respectively adjacent the hot legs and cold legs of the U-tube bundle
as expressly called for in Claim 1." Id. (citing Sylvester Figure 5).
According to Appellant, the "stay rods 120 in Sylvester et al. are made up of
a number [of] segments 130, 170 and 230 ... and occupy spaces between
the tubes that are outside the central tube lane as can be appreciated from
Figures 4 and 5, which expressly show the lateral locations of the segments
170." Id.; see also Reply Br. 1 ("tube lanes 93 ... are not centered between
the hot legs and cold legs nor do they have a side respectively adjacent both
the hot legs and the cold legs").
We agree with Appellant. The claimed "linear tube lane" is required
to be "centered between" the hot and cold legs of the plurality ofU-tubes,
and to have "a side respectively adjacent" the hot and cold legs of the
plurality of U-shaped tubes. Appeal Br. 9 (Claims App.). In Sylvester, the
only lane that corresponds to the claimed linear tube lane is one of the two
lanes that run through the center of the tube bundle, as depicted in Figure 5,
because, as depicted in Figure 1, U-tubes 90 each have a hot leg and a cold
leg on either side of one center lane. Thus, claim 1 requires flow buffer rods
to be "within" that center lane of Sylvester. But Figure 5 makes clear that
stayrods 120 (as Appellant notes, segments 170 are part of stayrods 120) are
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Appeal2015-001387
Application 13/197,890
only positioned outside of the center lanes. 1 Thus, we are not persuaded that
Sylvester anticipates claim 1, as well as claims 2, 3, 6-9, and 11, which
depend from claim 1. 2
B. Remaining Rejections
The remaining rejections rely on the Examiner's erroneous finding
that Sylvester discloses flow buffer rods positioned within the claimed linear
tube lane. The Examiner has not relied on either of Jensen or Cattanach to
cure the deficiency. Accordingly, for the reasons discussed supra, we do not
sustain the Examiner's rejections of claims 4, 5, 12, and 13 as obvious over
Sylvester and Jenson; claim 10 as obvious over Sylvester; and claims 14 and
15 as obvious over Sylvester and Cattanach.
DECISION
For the above reasons, the Examiner's rejections of claims 1-15 are
reversed.
REVERSED
1 We note that Figure 1 of Sylvester depicts an unlabeled structure in the
middle of the steam generator that appears to be a stay rod. But Figure 5,
which is "a view taken along section line 5-5 of [Figure] 1," and (unlike
Figure 1) is expressly described as depicting "the placement of stayrods 120
... relative to tubes 90," Sylvester, 7: 16-17, makes clear that there are no
stayrods in the center lanes of the tube bundle.
2 Sylvester's "tube lanes 93" refer to the spaces between the tube rows,
Sylvester, 5:5-7, and not to the center lanes. But to the extent that "tube
lanes 93" does encompass the center lanes, Sylvester makes clear that "no
stayrods 120 are located in the tube lanes 93." Id. at 7: 19-20.
5