DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 2/26/2025 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 14 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 14 recites the limitation "the method according to claim 4." There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim, as claim 4 has been canceled. For purposes of examination, claim 14 is taken to depend from claim 12.
Claim 15 recites the limitation "the method according to claim 5." There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim, as claim 5 has been canceled. For purposes of examination, claim 15 is taken to depend from claim 12.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1, 7, 8, and 12-13are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Krause (US8706300) in view of Huonker (US8110774).
Regarding claims 1 and 12, Krause teaches a method for automatic welding and an automatic welding system, wherein the welding system comprises
a welding robot (16); and a controller assembly (20), the controller assembly, in operation, operates the welding robot (16),
the method comprising and the controller assembly comprises:
defining and storing a number of predefined sections with predetermined welding parameters in a computer memory (Col. 4 lines 25-50 storage system 32 is adapted to store the instruction set 34, instruction sets being defined to include features of a weld, that are sectioned, with different creation properties per each segment ),
wherein each predefined section is associated with specific characteristics chosen from the group comprising:
a configuration of the structural steel assembly bounding the section; the weld type of the section; the shape of the weld of the section; the length of the weld of the section; the width of the weld of the section; the location of the section relative to the entire weld; and the local path of the section (Col. 4 lines 25-40, Col. 6 lines 50-67 features, being information of each weld, include any area or edge that may form any shape , complex or simple, or contour, for example, taken to be a shape of the weld, or critical points that determine the path of the weld, take to be the path of the weld),
using an automated process to receive information from a computer aided design and computer aided manufacturing program about welds for welding the structural steel assembly (Col. 4 lines 25-40 feature extracted from CAD)
Krause is silent on a structural steel assembly comprising workpieces, including profiles and/or a sheet material which have to be connected by one or more welds; wherein the model weld data comprises at least one of: a type of a workpiece or of workpieces of the structural steel assembly which bound the weld; configurations of the structural steel assembly at various locations along the length of the weld; a weld type; a position of the respective weld relative to the workpiece or workpieces of the structural steel assembly that bound the weld; a shape of the weld; a length of the weld; a path of the weld and a width of the weld; and using the automated process to post-process the model weld data of each-the weld, wherein the post-processing comprises: comparing the model weld data of the parts of the weld with the predefined weld data of the predefined sections to associate welding parameter of a corresponding predefined weld data with model weld data of the parts of the weld; identifying sections of the weld having model weld data matching the predefined weld data of a respective one of the predefined sections thus being associated with that respective one predefined section; and splitting the weld into the identified weld sections, each identified weld section having the welding parameters associated with the model weld data; and creating the weld thereby applying varying welding parameters for each identified weld section in accordance with the welding parameters of the identified weld sections into which the weld has been split.
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Fig. 1 of Huonker
Huonker teaches the structural steel assembly comprising workpieces (Col.4 lines 1-5 one or more workpieces 4, Table 1 sheets may be steel), including profiles and/or a sheet material which have to be connected by one or more welds (Table 1 welding a joint, taken to be between one or more workpieces),
wherein the model weld data (Col. 5 lines 40-50 a storage medium 10 that stores data about possible welding defects X1, X2, . . . along with associated sets of repair welding parameters P1, P2, . ., where the possible weld defects are taken to be a model weld data) comprises at least one of:
a type of a workpiece or of workpieces of the structural steel assembly which bound the weld; configurations of the structural steel assembly at various locations along the length of the weld; a weld type; a position of the respective weld relative to the workpiece or workpieces of the structural steel assembly that bound the weld; a shape of the weld; a length of the weld; a path of the weld and a width of the weld (Table 1, welding defects being a model weld data, including shape of the weld, such as welding worth, root formations, melt eruptions, which are all indicative of a shape of the weld)
and using the automated process to post-process the model weld data of the weld (welding defects X1, X2 . . .), wherein the post-processing comprises:
comparing the model weld data of the parts of the weld (welding defects X1, X2 . . .) with the predefined weld data of the predefined sections (Col. 4 lines 15-45 defective welding 5’, where in Table 1, detection of defective weld 5 occurs and is compared to possible welding defects X1, X2, . . . .)
to associate welding parameter of a corresponding predefined weld data (Table 1 Col. 4 lines 15-45 defective welding 5, parameters taken to be shape of the weld, which is predefined by a prior welding process) with model weld data of the parts of the weld (Col. 4 lines 15-45 a comparing apparatus 11 that compares a defective welding 5 detected by the defect monitoring apparatus 7 with the welding defects X1, X2 . . . stored in the storage medium 10)
identifying sections of the weld (5, 5' weld sections) having model weld data (welding defects X1, X2, . . ) matching the predefined weld data (Col. 4 lines 15-45 defective welding 5, parameters taken to be shape of the weld, which is predefined by a prior welding process) of a respective one of the predefined sections thus being associated with that respective one predefined section (Col. 4 lines 15-45 the welding 5′ is compared with the welding defects X1, X2, . . . stored in the storage medium 10. If the defective welding 5′ corresponds, for example, to the stored defect X1, i.e., if the result is positive, the comparing apparatus 11 provides the control apparatus 6 with a repair welding parameter set associated with this detected welding defect, X1, and the control apparatus 6 performs a repair welding 12 corresponding to the set of repair welding parameters, P1, in the region of the detected welding defect 5′)
and splitting the weld into the identified weld sections (5, 5' , each identified weld section (5, 5') having the welding parameters associated with the model weld data (Col. 5 lines 40-55 defect monitoring apparatus 7 that monitors the weldings 5 and 5′ for welding defects, where weldings 5 and 5' are shown to be split in different sections in Fig. 1, where the comparison and welding parameter associate is applied to each)
and creating the weld thereby applying varying welding parameters (Col. 5 lines 45-50 repair welding parameters associated with welding defects X1, X2 . . .) for each identified weld section (5, 5') in accordance with the welding parameters of the identified weld sections into which the weld has been split (Col. 5 lines 50-55 the apparatus 7 can provide the repair welding parameters associated with the detected welding defect to a control apparatus 6 that is adapted to control the laser welding apparatus 2 to perform repair welding)
Krause and Huonker are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of welding. It would have been obvious to modify Krause to include the teachings of Huonker to apply the method to a steel assembly as the method of Huonker is used to optimize welds over a variety of materials for the purpose of improving weld quality and reduce the rejection of welded products amongst a variety of materials (Huonker Col. 1 lines 20-40, Table 1). It would have been obvious to have modified Krause to incorporate the teachings of Huonker to have a model weld data and to post processing model weld data through a comparison of model weld data and predefined weld data, identifying matching sections, splitting the weld to identified sections and welding using the identified welding parameters so that the quality of a welded seam may be increased and the likelihood of defective welds may be decreased given that using known parameters associated with known weld problems minimizes the occurrence of rejections based on weld quality (Huonker Col. 2 lines 25-60).
Regarding claim 7, Krause and Huonker teach the method according to claim 1, and Krause teaches wherein the method further comprises: providing an automatic welding system comprising a welding robot (robotic tool 18) using the automated process to create the weld including the sections in one go without interrupting the welding process when passing from one section to another within the welding process of the weld (Col. 5 lines 10-20 generating a continuous three dimensional path and moving the tool along the path, taken to move the tool continuously on the continuous three dimensional path), but is silent on providing steel assembly parts.
However, Huonker teaches providing steel assembly parts (Table 1 steel sheet metal).
It would have been obvious to modify Krause to include the teachings of Huonker to apply the method to a steel assembly as the method of Huonker is used to optimize welds over a variety of materials for the purpose of improving weld quality and reduce the rejection of welded products amongst a variety of materials (Huonker Col. 1 lines 20-40, Table 1).
Regarding claims 8 and 13, Krause and Huonker teach the method according to claim 7 and the welding system of claim 12, and Krause teaches wherein the method further comprises using the automated process to measure the provided steel assembly parts for establishing actual dimensions along a welding area (Fig. 6 guide lines 404, drawn on the workpiece)
and to, based on the measuring, generate actual weld data for each weld which is corrected with respect to the data received from the CAD-CAM program so as to better reflect the actual dimensions along the welding area in which the weld has to be created (generated ideal path 400), wherein the actual weld data of each weld comprises at least one of: a weld type; a position of the respective weld relative to the workpiece or workpieces of the structural steel assembly that bound the weld; a shape of the weld; a length of the weld; a path of the weld; and a width of the weld (guide lines 404, being a path or length of the weld),
and wherein the post-processing of the weld data of each weld is based on the actual weld data (actual position of weld 402) so that the splitting of each weld in sections better complies with the actual dimensions of the welding area and that the individual welding parameters for each section better complies with the actual dimensions of the welding area (Col. 7 lines 30-50 adjusting positions to new relationship of actual path).
Claims 2, 3, 9, 11, and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Krause (US8706300) in view of Huonker (US8110774) as applied to claims 1 and 12 above, in further view of Tsuchiya (US10035208).
Regarding claim 2, Krause and Huonker teach the method according to claim 1, but are silent on wherein one of the sections created during the post-processing is a weld layer, the weld layer being a ground layer, an intermediate layer or a cover layer of a multilayer weld.
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Fig. 5 of Tsuchiya
Tsuchiya teaches wherein one of the sections created during the post-processing is a weld layer (53), the weld layer being a ground layer, an intermediate layer or a cover layer of a multilayer weld (fillet bead 53 being an intermediate between stiffening beads 55a and 55b).
Krause, Huonker, and Tsuchiya are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of welding. It would have been obvious to have modified Krause and Huonker to incorporate the teachings of Tsuchiya to have one of the sections created be a weld layer that is one of a ground layer, an intermediate layer or a cover layer in order to be able to increase the stiffness of the welded steel members (Tsuchiya Col. 6 lines 40-45).
Regarding claims 3 and 17, Krause and Huonker teach the method according to claim 1 and Krause, Huonker, and Tsuchiya the method according to claim 2, but Krause and Huonker are silent on wherein the post-processing further comprises extending the path of the weld at least one end thereof, wherein one of the identified weld sections created during the post-processing is a start section or a finish section corresponding to an extended part of the path of the weld.
Tsuchiya teaches wherein the post-processing further comprises extending the path of the weld (54 extended bead) at least one end thereof, wherein one of the sections created during the post-processing is a start section or a finish section (Fig. 5 fillet bead 53 having extended bead 54 at a start section) corresponding to an extended part (54) of the path of the weld.
It would have been obvious to modify Krause and Huonker to include the teachings of Tsuchiya to extend the path of weld and have a section be a start or finishing section in order to be able to increase the stiffness of the welded steel members in particular at the start and end of the weld (Tsuchiya Col. 6 lines 40-45).
Regarding claim 9, Krause and Huonker teach the method according to claim 1, but Krause is silent on wherein a used welding technique comprises arc welding.
Tsuchiya teaches a used welding technique comprises arc welding (Col. 1 lines 30-45 arc welding).
It would have been obvious to modify Krause and Huonker to include the teachings of Tsuchiya as arc welding is often used for steel structures such as underbody members (Tsuchiya Col. 1 lines 30-45).
Regarding claim 11, Krause and Huonker teach the method according to claim 1, but Krause are silent on wherein a used welding technique comprises one of: oxyfuel gas welding, resistance welding, solid-state welding, laser welding and laser-hybrid welding.
Tsuchiya wherein a used welding technique comprises one of: oxyfuel gas welding, resistance welding, solid-state welding, laser welding and laser-hybrid welding (Col. 18 lines 20-25 consumable electrode welding in AR 20% CO2 gas).
It would have been obvious to modify Krause and Huonker to include the teachings of Tsuchiya as arc welding, in particular an oxyfuel gas welding, is often used for steel structures such as underbody members (Tsuchiya Col. 1 lines 30-45).
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Krause (US8706300) in view of Huonker (US8110774) and Tsuchiya (US10035208) as applied to claim 9 above, in further view of Keiko (JPH08286722) with citations made to attached machine translation.
Regarding claim 10, Krause, Huonker, and Tsuchiya teach the method according to claim 9, but are silent on wherein the welding parameters comprise one or more of the group comprising: an amperage, a voltage, a speed, a frequency of weaving, a horizontal distance of weaving, and a vertical distance of weaving.
Keiko teaches wherein the welding parameters comprise one or more of the group comprising: an amperage, a voltage, a speed, a frequency of weaving, a horizontal distance of weaving, and a vertical distance of weaving ([0045] the welding conditions such as welding current, welding voltage, and welding speed are separately designated by the welding condition table number which is a combination of these parameters).
It would have been obvious to modify Krause, Huonker, and Tsuchiya to include the teachings of Keiko to have the welding parameters be a current, voltage or welding speed so that a working condition may be set with various parameters automatically rather than relying on an operator influence (Keiko [0006]).
Claims 14-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Krause (US8706300) in view of Huonker (US8110774) as applied to claims 1 and 12 above, in further view of Keiko (JPH08286722) with citations made to attached machine translation.
Regarding claim 14 Krause and Huonker teach the method according to claim 12, but are silent on wherein the configuration of the structural steel assembly at various locations along the length of the weld is defined by at least one of: the type of workpieces which bound the weld at each respective location of the various location including at least one of, the type of profile, and the type of sheet material; and a gap between the workpieces at each respective location of the section of the various locations.
Keiko teaches wherein the configuration of the structural steel assembly at various location along the length of the weld is defined by at least one of: the type of workpieces which bound the weld at each respective location of the various location including at least one of, the type of profile, and the type of sheet material; and a gap between the workpieces at each respective location of the section of the various locations ([0033] work target element type).
It would have been obvious to modify Krause and Huonker to include the teachings of Keiko to have the configuration of the structural steel assembly at the location of the section is defined by at least one of: the type of workpieces which bound the respective section including at least one of, the type of profile, and the type of sheet material; and a gap between the workpieces at location of the section in order to adapt to different types of work targets as to overcome the issue where teaching robot welding systems cannot apply to other types of work objects (Keiko [0008]).
Regarding claim 15 Krause and Huonker teach the method according to claim 12, but are silent on wherein the configuration of the structural steel of each predefined section is defined by at least one of: the type of workpieces which bound the weld at each predefined section including at least one of, the type of profile, and the type of sheet material; and a gap between the workpieces bounding the predefined section.
Keiko teaches wherein the configuration of the structural steel of each predefined section is defined by at least one of: the type of workpieces which bound the weld at each predefined section including at least one of, the type of profile, and the type of sheet material; and a gap between the workpieces bounding the predefined section ([0033] work target element type).
It would have been obvious to modify Krause and Huonker to include the teachings of Keiko to have the configuration of the structural steel assembly at the location of the section is defined by at least one of: the type of workpieces which bound the respective section including at least one of, the type of profile, and the type of sheet material; and a gap between the workpieces at location of the section in order to adapt to different types of work targets as to overcome the issue where teaching robot welding systems cannot apply to other types of work objects (Keiko [0008]).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Pg. 2, filed 12/18/2024, with respect to the rejection of claims 1 and 12 under Krause and in view of Tsuchiya have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Krause in view of newly cited reference Huonker (US8110774).
Conclusion
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/ABIGAIL H RHUE/Examiner, Art Unit 3761 8/18/2025
/VY T NGUYEN/Examiner, Art Unit 3761