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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 9/18/2024 has been entered.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the fluid is guided “by a wall of the housing” must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered. The same wall of the housing that encloses the components does not guide the fluid. The housing that encloses the components is the case housing whereas the housing wall that guides the fluid is the wall of housing 502 of baffling system 503. The claims equate the two housing as the same but the disclosure depicts them as different components.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Claims 1 and 14 recite “a housing enclosing an electric motor/stator and a drive gear” and that the fluid is guided “by a wall of the housing”, which is not clearly described in the original disclosure. The same wall of the housing that does the “enclosing” does not guide the fluid. The housing that encloses the components is the case housing whereas the housing wall that guides the fluid is the wall of housing 502 of baffling system 503. The housing 502 does not enclose the electric motor/stator and the drive gear. The claims equate the two housing as the same but the disclosure depicts them as different components. Fig. 5 shows the fluid would be guided the baffle system 502/503 upward to the upper sump 304. The general flow path in fig. 6A is mere exemplary and does not clearly show the fluid being guided by the housing of the case up towards the upper sump. Par [0047] describes the fluid path 602 is moved through “a baffling system”.
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) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shioiri et al. (US Pub 2011/0192245 A1) in view of Hamer et al. (US Pub 2013/0264034 A1). Shioiri discloses:
Re claim 1, a drive unit lubrication and cooling system (fig. 1) comprising: a housing (2) enclosing an electric motor/stator (20) and a drive gear (7) for a drive train (3-7) of an electric vehicle (fig. 1); coolant/lubricant fluid within the housing in contact with the drive gear (par [0069]); a lower sump (9) disposed at a bottom of the housing, the lower sump configured to accumulate a portion of the coolant/lubricant fluid that has passed through windings of the electric motor/stator (par [0068]), the lower sump underlying a lowest peripheral portion of the drive gears (fig. 1); an upper sump (8 and 14d shown in fig. 15) disposed above the electric motor/stator and drive gear (right fig. 1: 8 is above a majority portion of 20 and drive gear), the upper sump accumulating coolant/lubricant fluid moved from the lower sump to the upper sump by rotation of the drive gear (par [0069]) and guided from a space (passages 13 and 14 up to 14d; fig. 1 shows the space defined by the flow path of the fluid being splashed upward from the lower sump to the upper sump) between the drive gear and the housing into the upper sump by a wall of the housing (bottom wall of housing forms a beginning of a space that guides fluid into 13 shown at 13a).
Re claims 2, 12, wherein the space between the wall of the housing and the drive gear extends between the lower sump and the upper sump (fig. 1).
Re claims 3, 13, further comprising: a one-way check valve (fig. 15: 26) within the upper sump at an inlet (14d) to the upper sump from the space between the wall of the housing and the drive gear (fig. 15), the one-way check valve configured to admit the coolant/lubricant fluid from the space between the wall of the housing and the drive gear into the upper sump and to inhibit return of the coolant/lubricant fluid from the upper sump into the space between the wall of the housing and the drive gear (fig. 15 shows 26 would allow for fluid to travel upward and prevent fluid from traveling back down).
Re claims 7, 17, wherein the space between the wall of the housing and the drive gear forms part of a baffling system (12) for movement of the coolant/lubricant fluid from the lower sump towards the upper sump.
Re claims 8, 18, further comprising: a heat exchanger (the structural housing portion of 2 adjacent to 8 would inherently absorb heat and disperse heat from the hot fluid) fitted to the upper sump and configured to disperse heat from the coolant/lubricant fluid accumulated in the upper sump.
Re claims 9, 19, wherein the drive unit lubrication and cooling system is configured such that movement of the coolant/lubricant fluid through the space between the wall of the housing and the drive gear lubricates multiple gears of the drive train including the drive gear (par [0068]; oil sticks to the gearwheel of 7 as it rotates and the oil is then transferred to other gearwheel along the gear train).
Re claims 10, 20, wherein no pump is required to move the coolant/lubricant fluid from the lower sump to the upper sump (fig. 1 shows oil is transferred via the rotation of 7, not by any electric fluid motor).
Re claim 11, a method of lubricating and cooling a drive unit (fig. 1), the method comprising: enclosing, by a housing (2), an electric motor/stator (20) and a drive gear (7) for a drive train (3-7) of an electric vehicle (fig. 1); providing coolant/lubricant fluid within the housing in contact with the drive gear (par [0069]); accumulating, in a lower sump (9) disposed at a bottom of the housing, a portion of the coolant/lubricant fluid that has passed through windings of the electric motor/stator (par [0068]), the lower sump underlying a lowest peripheral portion of the drive gear (fig. 1); accumulating, in an upper sump (8 and 14d shown in fig. 15) disposed above the electric motor/stator and drive gear (right fig. 1: 8 is above a majority portion of 20 and drive gear), a portion of the coolant/lubricant fluid moved from the lower sump to the upper sump by rotation of the drive gear (par [0069]) and guided from a space between the drive gear and the housing into the upper sump by a wall of the housing (bottom wall of housing forms a beginning of a space that guides fluid into 13 shown at 13a).
Shioiri does not disclose:
Re claims 1, 11, one or more electronically-controlled exit valves each positioned at an exit for the upper sump into the housing, each exit disposed over ends of the windings of the electric motor, the one or more electronically-controlled exit valves configured to selectively release the coolant/lubricant fluid accumulated in the upper sump to flow by gravity alone over the ends of the windings of the electric motor/stator into the lower sump.
Re claims 4, 14, further comprising: a drive controller configured to control the one or more electronically-controlled exit valves.
Re claims 5, 15, wherein the drive controller is configured to control the one or more electronically-controlled exit valves based on heat generation by the windings of the electric motor/stator.
Re claims 6, 16, wherein the drive controller is configured to use signals from one or more temperature sensors disposed proximate to the windings of the electric motor/stator to control the one or more electronically- controlled exit valves.
However, Hamer teaches a lubricating arrangement for an electric motor (10) comprising:
Re claims 1, 11, one or more electronically-controlled exit valves (70 is described a solenoid valve) each positioned at an exit for the upper sump (62) into the housing, each exit disposed over ends of the windings of the electric motor (fig. 1 shows the outlet 68 above the windings while fig. 7 shows the valve 70 positioned at the outlet 68), the one or more electronically-controlled exit valves configured to selectively release the coolant/lubricant fluid accumulated in the upper sump to flow by gravity alone over the ends of the windings of the electric motor/stator into the lower sump (controller 88 selectively open/close the valve to release the fluid over the windings as shown in figs. 1-2 and 7-8; Shioiri discloses a gravity-only feed system from 8 to 20).
Re claims 4, 14, further comprising: a drive controller (88) configured to control the one or more electronically-controlled exit valves.
Re claims 5, 15, wherein the drive controller is configured to control the one or more electronically-controlled exit valves based on heat generation by the windings of the electric motor/stator (par [0039]).
Re claims 6, 16, wherein the drive controller is configured to use signals from one or more temperature sensors disposed proximate to the windings of the electric motor/stator to control the one or more electronically-controlled exit valves (par [0038]).
It would have been obvious to person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to employ an electronically-controlled valve, as taught by Hamer, to better manage the oil flow rate and optimize cooling.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 9/18/2024 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant’s arguments are directed to the newly added limitations in the amended claims.
On pages 10-12 of the Remarks, Applicant argues Shioiri’s parts 11 and 12 are not part of the case 2 therefore does not read on the claims. Examiner respectfully disagrees. Shioiri discloses the “space between the drive gear and the housing” as passages 13 and 14. Fig. 1 shows a bottom wall of the case housing guides fluid into the space and a side wall of the baffle system.
On pages 12-14, Applicant argues Hamer uses a pump to circulate the coolant, not gravity alone. Shiori is concerned with insufficient circulation of gravity fed and flipped-up lubricant therefore no motivation is provided for incorporating the valve of Hamer. Examiner respectfully disagrees. Shioiri discloses a gravity-only fluid feed system from 8 to 20. The Hamer reference is used to teach the electronically-controlled valve at the exit of the upper sump, and not to each the pressurized fluid. Applicant points to examples in Shiori concerning insufficient circulation of gravity fed and flipped-up lubricant, however, these examples do not teach away from having the electronically-controlled valve at the exit. There could be other reasons to employ a valve such as when the vehicle speed is high and the high rotational speed of the gear would draw up too much fluid into the sump. Employing a valve would better regulate the amount of flow rate allowed to exit the upper sump.
On page 14, Applicant argues Shiori’s check valve is within a passage 14. Examiner respectfully disagrees. The rejection above was amended to define an upper sump to include a portion above the check valve, see Shiori fig. 15. This portion above the check valve is able to pool fluid due to the one-way check valve.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MINH D TRUONG whose telephone number is (571)270-3014. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5 pm.
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/Minh Truong/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3654
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