DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed on 11/20/2025 has been entered and accepted. The amendment with regard to the 101 rejection has been accepted and the rejection has been withdrawn.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument. A new rejection has been made in view of Shimizu (JP 2010253538 A) in view of OKUI (WO 2018122929 A1). A full rejection can be found below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claim(s) 1-2, 5, and 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shimizu (JP 2010253538 A) in view of OKUI (WO 2018122929 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Shimizu (JP 2010253538 A) teaches a repair welding control device (Figure 1), comprising:
a memory that stores instructions (Paragraph 29, CPU is designed to perform predetermined controls based on programs stored in memory); and
a processor that executes the instructions (Paragraph 29, CPU is designed to perform predetermined controls based on programs stored in memory), wherein the instructions cause the processor to perform:
acquiring information (Paragraph 32, welding defect is photographed by camera 8) indicating a range of at least one defective portion in a main welding of a workpiece (Paragraph 32, data of the location of the welding defect is remembered when it is determined that a welding defect has occurred; Figure 12 Paragraph 44, welding failure extending from 26 to 27 is within the main welding trajectory);
determining a repair welding start point indicating a start point of repair welding and a repair welding end point indicating an end point of the repair welding (Paragraph 47, determining two teaching points that encompass the range of the welding failure extending from 26 to 27) such that a repair welding range includes all the range of the defective portion and a range wider than the range of the defective portion (Figure 15 Paragraph 47, welding torch 4 is moved between two teaching points 23 and 25 that include the welding defect occurrence position 26 and the welding defect termination position 27 and designating the entire area between the two teaching points 23 and 25 within that range as the corrective welding range 29);
editing of a repair welding program for executing the repair welding based on the determined repair welding start point and the determined repair welding end point (Paragraph 36, robot control device 6 extracts and determines data related to the location of welding defects and stores a range where correcting welding is necessary; Paragraph 42, robot control device 6 controls the welding robot 3 based on the position data of the welding robot related to the location of the welding defect determined in step 120; Paragraph 56, location of welding defects is stored within the teaching program used to perform corrective welding); and
issuing a control signal to a repair welding robot that causes the repair welding robot to perform the repair welding based on the edited repair welding program (Paragraph 29, the jig control device 5 and the robot control device 6 correspond to the welding defect determination means, corrective welding control means, and welding defect location identification; Paragraph 29, the jig control device 5, the robot control device 6, and the welding outline inspection device 9 each include a central processing unit (CPU) and memory; Paragraph 29, the CPU is designed to perform predetermined controls based on programs stored in memory; Paragraph 42, robot control device 6 controls the welding robot 3 based on the position data of the welding robot related to the location of the welding defect determined in step 120).
Shimizu fails to explicitly teach:
the repair welding start point being a welding teaching point not used during the main welding
OKUI (WO 2018122929 A1) teaches a weld repair method and container, wherein:
the repair welding start point being a welding teaching point not used during the main welding (Paragraph 18, length L1 of the repair weld bead differs from piece to piece based on the weld defects in the welded join 3 which occur due to random causes; thus the welding start point does not need to be a start point of the welding teaching point but instead depends on the size and shape of the specific defect; Figure 5 Paragraph 23, first and second buildup bead portions 9A and 9B are also parts of the repair welding, which together with the repair weld bead portion 6, would reasonably include a repair welding start point and repair welding end point which is not used in the main welding when the start point is on one of the build-up beam portions 9A or 9B)
It would have thus been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Shimizu with OKUI and have the repair welding start point be a welding teaching point not used during main welding. This would be done to adjust the repair weld bead length based on the size and shape of the defect (OKUI Paragraph 18) and/or to facilitate forming build-up beam portions which help distribute stress (OKUI Paragraph 25).
Regarding claim 2, Shimizu as modified teaches the repair welding control device according to claim 1, wherein the instructions cause the processor to perform:
acquiring defect start point information indicating the start point of the defective portion in the main welding and defect end point information indicating an end point of the defective portion in the main welding (Paragraph 29, CPU executes predetermined control based on a program stored in the memory; Paragraph 36, robot control device 6 extracts and determines data related to the location of welding defects and stores a range where correcting welding is necessary; );
determining, as the repair welding start point, a first position shifted by a first predetermined distance from a position indicated by the defect start point information in a direction opposite to a welding direction (Paragraphs 40, determine a welding condition to be used for correction by referring to a pre-registered welding condition map for each welding failure mode; Paragraph 51, corrective welding can be appropriately performed according to specified type of welding failure; Figure 15, start point is shifted in a direction opposite to the welding direction from 26 to 23); and
determining, as the repair welding end point, a second position shifted by a second predetermined distance from a position indicated by the defect end point information in the welding direction (Paragraphs 40, determine a welding condition to be used for correction by referring to a pre-registered welding condition map for each welding failure mode; Paragraph 51, corrective welding can be appropriately performed according to specified type of welding failure; Figure 15, start point is shifted in the direction of the welding direction from 27 to 25).
OKUI further teaches:
determining, as the repair welding start point, a first position shifted by a first predetermined distance from a position indicated by the defect start point information in a direction opposite to a welding direction (Paragraph 17, length L1 of the repaired weld bead is longer than the length of the repaired weld defect; Figures 1-5, start of the repair weld bead portion extends beyond the end of the defect area hole 4; Paragraph 18, length L1 of the repair weld bead differs from piece to piece based on the weld defects in the welded join 3 which occur due to random causes; Figure 5 Paragraph 23, length of the buildup bead portions 9A and 9B are longer than the length L1 of the repair weld bead portion 6); and
determining, as the repair welding end point, a second position shifted by a second predetermined distance from a position indicated by the defect end point information in the welding direction (Paragraph 17, length L1 of the repaired weld bead is longer than the length of the repaired weld defect; Figures 1-5, end of the repair weld bead portion extends beyond the end of the defect area hole 4; Paragraph 18, length L1 of the repair weld bead differs from piece to piece based on the weld defects in the welded join 3 which occur due to random causes; Figure 5 Paragraph 23, length of the buildup bead portions 9A and 9B are longer than the length L1 of the repair weld bead portion 6)
It would have been obvious for the same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding claim 5, Shimizu as modified teaches the repair welding control device according to claim 2, wherein
in a case where the at least one defective portion is a first defective portion (Figure 15, first defect portion extending from welding failure occurrence point 26 to teaching point 24) and a second defective portion shifted in the welding direction from the first defective portion in the main welding of the workpiece (Figure 15, second defect portion extending from teaching point 24 to welding failure end point 27 wherein said second defect portion is shifted in the welding direction from the first defect portion), the instructions cause the processor to perform:
acquiring at least first defect start point information indicating a start point of the first defective portion and second defect end point information indicating an end point of the second defective portion (Paragraph 29, CPU executes predetermined control based on a program stored in the memory; Paragraph 36, robot control device 6 extracts and determines data related to the location of welding defects and stores a range where correcting welding is necessary);
determining, as the repair welding start point, a position shifted by the first predetermined distance from a position indicated by the first defect start point information in the direction opposite to the welding direction (Paragraphs 40, determine a welding condition to be used for correction by referring to a pre-registered welding condition map for each welding failure mode; Paragraph 51, corrective welding can be appropriately performed according to specified type of welding failure; Figure 15, start point is shifted in a direction opposite to the welding direction from 26 to 23); and
determining, as the repair welding end point, a position shifted by the second predetermined distance from a position indicated by the second defect end point information in the welding direction (Paragraphs 40, determine a welding condition to be used for correction by referring to a pre-registered welding condition map for each welding failure mode; Paragraph 51, corrective welding can be appropriately performed according to specified type of welding failure; Figure 15, start point is shifted in the direction of the welding direction from 27 to 25).
OKUI further teaches:
determining, as the repair welding start point, a position shifted by the first predetermined distance from a position indicated by the first defect start point information in the direction opposite to the welding direction (Paragraph 17, length L1 of the repaired weld bead is longer than the length of the repaired weld defect; Paragraph 18, length L1 of the repair weld bead differs from piece to piece based on the weld defects in the welded join 3 which occur due to random causes; Figures 1-5, start of the repair weld bead portion extends beyond the end of the defect area hole 4; Figure 5 Paragraph 23, length of the buildup bead portions 9A and 9B are longer than the length L1 of the repair weld bead portion 6); and
determining, as the repair welding end point, a position shifted by the second predetermined distance from a position indicated by the second defect end point information in the welding direction (Paragraph 17, length L1 of the repaired weld bead is longer than the length of the repaired weld defect; Paragraph 18, length L1 of the repair weld bead differs from piece to piece based on the weld defects in the welded join 3 which occur due to random causes; Figures 1-5, end of the repair weld bead portion extends beyond the end of the defect area hole 4; Figure 5 Paragraph 23, length of the buildup bead portions 9A and 9B are longer than the length L1 of the repair weld bead portion 6)
It would have been obvious for the same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding claim 7, Shimizu as modified teaches a repair welding control method using a device including a processor (Figure 1), the processor performing the repair welding control method (Paragraph 29, CPU is designed to perform predetermined controls based on programs stored in memory) comprising:
acquiring information (Paragraph 32, welding defect is photographed by camera 8) indicating a range of at least one defective portion in a main welding of a workpiece (Paragraph 32, data of the location of the welding defect is remembered when it is determined that a welding defect has occurred; Figure 12 Paragraph 44, welding failure extending from 26 to 27 is within the main welding trajectory);
determining a repair welding start point indicating a start point of repair welding and a repair welding end point indicating an end point of the repair welding (Paragraph 47, determining two teaching points that encompass the range of the welding failure extending from 26 to 27) such that a repair welding range includes all the range of the defective portion and a range wider than the range of the defective portion (Figure 15 Paragraph 47, welding torch 4 is moved between two teaching points 23 and 25 that include the welding defect occurrence position 26 and the welding defect termination position 27 and designating the entire area between the two teaching points 23 and 25 within that range as the corrective welding range 29);
editing of a repair welding program for executing the repair welding based on the determined repair welding start point and the determined repair welding end point (Paragraph 36, robot control device 6 extracts and determines data related to the location of welding defects and stores a range where correcting welding is necessary; Paragraph 42, robot control device 6 controls the welding robot 3 based on the position data of the welding robot related to the location of the welding defect determined in step 120; Paragraph 56, location of welding defects is stored within the teaching program used to perform corrective welding); and
issuing a control signal to a repair welding robot that causes the repair welding robot to perform the repair welding based on the edited repair welding program (Paragraph 29, the jig control device 5 and the robot control device 6 correspond to the welding defect determination means, corrective welding control means, and welding defect location identification; Paragraph 29, the jig control device 5, the robot control device 6, and the welding outline inspection device 9 each include a central processing unit (CPU) and memory; Paragraph 29, the CPU is designed to perform predetermined controls based on programs stored in memory; Paragraph 42, robot control device 6 controls the welding robot 3 based on the position data of the welding robot related to the location of the welding defect determined in step 120).
Shimizu fails to explicitly teach:
the repair welding start point being a welding teaching point not used during the main welding
OKUI (WO 2018122929 A1) teaches a weld repair method and container, wherein:
the repair welding start point being a welding teaching point not used during the main welding (Paragraph 18, length L1 of the repair weld bead differs from piece to piece based on the weld defects in the welded join 3 which occur due to random causes; thus the welding start point does not need to be a start point of the welding teaching point but instead depends on the size and shape of the specific defect; Figure 5 Paragraph 23, first and second buildup bead portions 9A and 9B are also parts of the repair welding which together with the repair weld bead portion 6 would reasonably include a repair welding start point and repair welding end point which is not used in the main welding when the start point is on one of the build-up beam portions 9A or 9B)
It would have thus been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Shimizu with OKUI and have the repair welding start point be a welding teaching point not used during main welding. This would be done to adjust the repair weld bead length based on the size and shape of the defect (OKUI Paragraph 18) and/or to facilitate forming build-up beam portions which help distribute stress (OKUI Paragraph 25).
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shimizu (JP 2010253538 A) and OKUI (WO 2018122929 A1) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Doyle (US 20130048619 A1).
Regarding claim 8, Shimizu as modified teaches the repair welding control device according to claim 1.
While Shimizu as modified does not explicitly state that “the repair welding start point is located within an idle-running section during the main welding of the workpiece”, Shimizu does teach that the teaching points and correction welding range should exist along a welding trajectory of the main welding (Shimizu Figure 15 Paragraph 25). Paragraph 17 of OKUI teaches that the length L1 of the repair weld bead is longer than the length of the repaired weld defect, wherein the length differs from piece to piece based on the random causes of the weld defect in the welded joint 3 (OKUI Paragraphs 17-18). Figure 15 of Shimizu also teaches that the modified welding range should extend longer than the welding defect area. Thus, in a situation wherein a welding defect occurs at the start of a welding trajectory, one of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to have had the start point of the repair weld bead be positioned at a point outside of the welding start point of the main welding and in an idle-running section during the main welding of the workpiece. Thus, one of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious wherein “the repair welding start point is located within an idle-running section during the main welding of the workpiece” such as to ensure that the length of the repaired weld bead 6 is longer than the length of the repaired weld defect.
Furthermore, Doyle (US 20130048619 A1) teaches an arc welding method wherein a weld head 38 comprises a welding torch and a laser sensor (Doyle Paragraph 25) wherein the entire weld joint is scanned by the laser during a main welding process (Doyle Paragraph 24). During this time, the welding torch is not active and thus can reasonable be considered an “idle-running section” of the main welding process. It would have thus been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Shimizu with Doyle and have the entire welding seam be scanned by a laser scanner attached to the welding head before welding it with a welding torch. This would have been done to store measurements for making adjustments to the working operation (Doyle Paragraph 24). Thus, the entire weld seam can reasonable be considered an “idle-running section” as the welding head travels over the welding trajectory without performing welding. As such, having the repair welding start point be located on the welding trajectory, such as seen in Figure 15 of Shimizu, would satisfy the limitation of “the repair welding start point is located within an idle-running section during the main welding of the workpiece”.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 6 is objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. The prior art does not properly disclose a processor with instructions of all three specified modes configured to determine a repair welding start point and a repair welding end point.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FRANKLIN JEFFERSON WANG whose telephone number is (571)272-7782. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10AM-6PM (E.S.T).
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/F.J.W./Examiner, Art Unit 3761
/WOODY A LEE JR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3761
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