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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 02 April 2026 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim(s) 17-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2018/0057405 A1 to Al-Chaar et al. in view of US 2005/0196484 A1 to Khoshnevis.
Regarding claim 17, Al-Chaar et al. disclose a method of forming a wall structure of a building comprising: mixing unprocessed clay (Claim 1) with sand (claim 1) to form an aggregate without heating the clay or removing a portion of the clay from the sand (no process taught regarding clay and sand); adding water (claim 1), a binder material of cement (claim 1; Paragraph [0015]), and a supplementary cementitious material (claim 1; fly ash) to the aggregate to form mortar; the binding material comprising the cement (Paragraph [0015]) and a supplementary cementitious material (Paragraph [0015]), the supplementary cementitious material further comprising a pozzolan material (silicate, Paragraph [0015]) configured to react at room temperature without heating to form a compound having one or more cementitious properties (pozzolan materials are known to react without heating, but the reaction is just known to be slower); pumping the mortar from a nozzle of an additive three dimensional printing assembly as a bead of mortar (Paragraph [0035]) and repeating the pumping step by applying layers of mortar and reinforcement upon one another to form the building (Fig.2A).
Al Chaar et al. discloses the process of providing the material for 3-D printing, and the process of printing to layers upon each other, but does not specifically disclose the specifics of the additive three dimensional printing assembly.
Khoshnevis discloses pumping the mortar (within 1982, Fig.19) through a conduit (1984 and 1990) coupled to a nozzle (1960) of an additive three dimensional printing assembly (Fig.19) configured to be moveably disposed along a truss structure (1920) between a first rail assembly (1940) and a second rail assembly (1940 on opposite side), the mortar being printed as a bead of mortar extruded from the nozzle (Fig.2), the nozzle being coupled to the printing assembly including the truss disposed between a first vertical assembly (1930) and a second vertical assembly (1930 on opposite side), the first vertical assembly and the second vertical assembly being coupled to the first rail assembly and the second rail assembly (Fig.19) and configured to move controllably along an outer sidewall perimeter of a foundation on which the bead of mortar is extruded (Fig.19), the nozzle being moveable in a plurality of orthogonal movement axes (across 1920 and along rails 1940); and repeating the pumping and applying steps in succession to form a vertically stacked layer of beads to 3D print the building (Fig.2 and 19).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have provided the 3d printing nozzle of Al Chaar et al. on a printer assembly as taught by Khoshnevis so to provide a printing assembly which is able to form walls or other portions of a building within all orthogonal directions to efficiently and remotely construct a building with a great reduction in unreliable manual labor being required.
Regarding claim 18, Khoshnevis discloses while pumping, moving the nozzle of the printing system along the plurality of orthogonal movement axes (Fig.2 and 19).
Regarding claim 19, Al Chaar et al. disclose wherein adding comprises adding the binder material comprising cement in a ratio of 0.8 and wherein fly ash is present in amounts ranging from 7.5% to 15.5% of the solid mix. Al Chaar does not disclose the specific percentages of the cement to cementitious material.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have provided the cement and fly ash taught by Al Chaar et al. in the desired percentages of cement and fly ash to effectively control the flowability and the durability of the material.
Regarding claim 20, Al Chaar et al. discloses the sand having dimensions greater than 75 microns (grains between 0.6 and 0.15 mm) but does not specifically disclose the size of the clay and the specific ratio of clay to sand.
Typically, the dimensions of clay granules are less than that of sand. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have provided sand having larger granule size than clay and to control the ratio of sand to clay so to control the density and the water absorption of the material, thereby controlling the strength, durability, flowability, shrinkage, and set time of the material.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 02 April 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues that Al-Chaar does not disclose the newly recited amendment to the claims. This is not found to be persuasive. Al-Chaar discloses wherein the binder is cement and can contain silicates which are know pozzolan materials. The claims recited wherein the materials are “configured to” react at room temperature without heating. It is further known that pozzolan materials are capable of reacting at room temperature without heat. It is known that the reaction will be slower without heat but is still capable of reacting without the heat. Therefore, Al-Chaar discloses the limitations as claimed since the materials are capable of performing the desired reaction.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RYAN D KWIECINSKI whose telephone number is (571)272-5160. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Thursday from 8:30 am to 4:00 pm.
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RDK
/RYAN D KWIECINSKI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3635
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