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 .
Status of Claims
Claim 1 is amended. Claims 1-13, as filed 2 December 2025, are examined herein.
Response to Arguments
Regarding the rejection under 35 USC 102, Applicant argues that that cited reference, Hiraiwa, does not teach or suggest the newly amended limitations of claim 1 – “the recess having a substantially uniform thickness across a length thereof, the substantially uniform thickness being less than a thickness of the first current collector at portions other than the recess,” and “the protrusion having a substantially uniform thickness across a length thereof, the substantially uniform thickness being greater than a thickness of the second current collector at portions other than the protrusion.” This is moot in view of a newly cited reference, Hayashi.
Claim Interpretation
Claims 7 uses the term “constitutes”. There is no special definition of this term in the specification. For the purpose of examination, the broadest reasonable interpretation is determined to be “comprises”. This is considered to be “open” claim language, e.g. the limitations do not exclude additional components.
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) 1, 8, and 10-13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being obvious over Hiraiwa (US 20190036131 A1) in view of Hayashi (US 20110171554 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Hiraiwa teaches an electrochemical cell device (abstract) comprising:
a cell (abstract) having a first main surface and a second main surface opposite to the first main surface; (as shown FIG. 1)
a first current collector having a third main surface facing the first main surface and a second current collector having a fourth main surface facing the second main surface (current collectors 5, 12 as shown FIG. 3 and [0039-0040];
wherein the cell is warped to protrude from the second main surface toward the first main surface, (as shown FIG. 3)
the third main surface is provided with a recess at a position facing a central portion of the first main surface, the fourth main surface includes a protrusion at a position facing a central portion of the second main surface, (FIG. 3 showing current collectors 5, 12 have a recess and protrusion, respectively.)
each of the first current collector and the second current collector is constituted of one or more metal porous body sheets each composed of a metal porous body having a framework with a three-dimensional network structure ([0006] “a porous metal body having a three-dimensional mesh-like skeleton”)
Regarding the limitation “the central portion of the first main surface includes a portion of the first main surface with a longest distance from a flat reference surface when the cell is placed on the reference surface such that the second main surface faces the reference surface, and the central portion of the second main surface includes a portion of the second main surface with a longest distance from the reference surface when the cell is disposed on the reference surface such that the second main surface faces the reference surface,” this limitation is met by a cell that is concave, as shown in Hiraiwa FIG. 3.
Hiraiwa FIG. 3 teaches a curved protrusion and recess, and therefore does not explicitly teach the limitations “the recess having a substantially uniform thickness across a length thereof, the substantially uniform thickness being less than a thickness of the first current collector at portions other than the recess” and “the protrusion having a substantially uniform thickness across a length thereof, the substantially uniform thickness being greater than a thickness of the second current collector at portions other than the protrusion.”
Hayashi, in the field of (abstract) solid oxide fuel cells, discloses (FIG. 3) a fuel cell having a current collector with protrusion (FIG. 3 current collector 48, interconnector 41) and a recess (46, 49). At [0007-009] and [0029] Hayashi contemplates the use of an electricity nongenerating laminate (FIG. 7 laminate 70) with the current collector and interconnector structure of Hayashi allows the fuel cell to maintain contact in the event of warpage, resulting in improved performance.
A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated, as of before the effective filing date of the instant invention, to replace the curved protrusion and recess of Hiraiwa with the flat protrusion and recess or Hayashi, along with the laminate 70 of Hayashi, for the purpose of maintaining contact in the event of warpage, with a reasonable expectation of successfully improving fuel cell performance.
Regarding claim 8, Hiraiwa in view of Hayashi teaches all of the limitations as set forth above. Hiraiwa further teaches Harada teaches all of the limitations as set forth above. Regarding the limitation wherein the first current collector is a cathode side current collector, and the second current collector is an anode side current collector, this essentially requires the protruding current collector to be the anode side current collector, and the recessed current collector to be the cathode current collector. FIG. 3 of Hiraiwa shows the protruding current collector 12, and the recessed current collector 5. At [0038-0039] these are labeled anode current collector and cathode current collector, respectively.
Regarding claim 10, Hiraiwa in view of Hayashi teaches all of the limitations as set forth above. Regarding the limitation wherein the framework of each of the one or more metal porous body sheets of the second current collector contains nickel, Hiraiwa discloses [0029] that the porous metal body contains an alloy of nickel and tin.
Regarding “a coating weight of each of the one or more metal porous body sheets of the second current collector is 1000 g/m2 or less”, Hiraiwa [0103] the mass of the porous metal body per unit area is preferable 400 g/m2 or more, which overlaps the claimed range. At [0101] Hiraiwa discloses “The thickness and the mass per unit area of the porous metal body may be appropriately set…. the thickness and the mass per unit area are preferably adjusted in such a manner that the porous metal body has a porosity of 30% or more. This is because the use of the porous metal body having a porosity of less than 30% increases the pressure drop when water flows through the porous metal body.” A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated, as of before the effective filing date of the instant invention, to optimize the mass per unit area of the porous body sheet of Hiraiwa, in order to avoid a pressure drop when water flows through the cell, with a reasonable expectation of successfully selecting a value in the overlapping part of the range.
Regarding claim 11, Hiraiwa in view of Hayashi teaches all of the limitations as set forth above. Hiraiwa teaches ([0018]) that the cell may have a slight warpage of a few mm over a diameter of 10 cm. Assuming that “a few mm” is 2-3 mm, this creates a warpage of about 2/1000 to 3/1000, which falls within the claimed range of “1/1000 or more”.
Regarding claim 12, Hiraiwa in view of Hayashi teaches all of the limitations as set forth above. Harada further teaches wherein the electrochemical cell device is a solid oxide fuel cell. (abstract)
Regarding claim 13, Hiraiwa in view of Hayashi teaches all of the limitations as set forth above. Hiraiwa further teaches wherein the electrochemical cell device is a solid oxide electrolysis cell. ([0089] “can also be appropriately used for the production of hydrogen by water electrolysis.”)
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hiraiwa (US 20190036131 A1) in view of Hayashi (US 20110171554 A1) as set forth in claim 1, and in further view of Okuno (US 20180219232 A1).
Regarding claim 9, Hiraiwa in view of Hayashi teaches all of the limitations as set forth above. Hiraiwa further teaches Harada teaches all of the limitations as set forth above. Claim 9 requires that the porous metal body sheets of the first current collector contain nickel and cobalt. At [0029] Hiraiwa teaches that the porous metal body contains an alloy of nickel and tin, which meets the “contains nickel limitation.” However, Hiraiwa does not teach the porous metal body further containing cobalt.
Okuno discloses (abstract) a similar plate-like porous metal body. At [0059] Okuno discloses that cobalt may be intentionally added to the porous metal body, “without impairing the advantageous effects of the present invention.” A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated, as of before the effective filing date of the instant invention, to add cobalt to the porous metal body of Hiraiwa, because the use of a cobalt-containing nickel porous metal body was known in the art, with a reasonable expectation of creating a successful current collector.
Regarding the limitation “wherein the framework of each of the one or more metal porous body sheets has a coating weight of each of the one or more metal porous body sheets of the first current collector is 900 g/m2 or less”, Hiraiwa discloses [0103] the mass of the porous metal body per unit area is preferable 400 g/m2 or more, which overlaps the claimed range. At [0101] Hiraiwa discloses “The thickness and the mass per unit area of the porous metal body may be appropriately set…. the thickness and the mass per unit area are preferably adjusted in such a manner that the porous metal body has a porosity of 30% or more. This is because the use of the porous metal body having a porosity of less than 30% increases the pressure drop when water flows through the porous metal body.” A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated, as of before the effective filing date of the instant invention, to optimize the mass per unit area of the porous body sheet of Hiraiwa, in order to avoid a pressure drop when water flows through the cell, with a reasonable expectation of successfully selecting a value in the overlapping part of the range.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-7 are rejected under 35 USC 112a due to new matter. If that rejection is somehow overcome, these claims are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim 1, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Claim 2 requires the first current collector are a first metal porous body sheet and a second metal porous body sheet, the first metal porous body sheet and the second metal porous body sheet are disposed side by side in a plane orthogonal to a thickness direction of the first current collector, a first through hole is formed in the second metal porous body sheet at a position corresponding to the recess so as to extend through the second metal porous body sheet in a thickness direction of the second metal porous body sheet, the first metal porous body sheet is disposed in the first through hole, a thickness of the second metal porous body sheet is more than a thickness of the first metal porous body sheet, and the recess is defined by an inner peripheral surface of the first through hole and a main surface of the first metal porous body sheet.
Said differently, claim 2 requires the first current collector to be made from 2 pieces (imagine a donut hole resting inside a donut) where the central piece is shorter, creating the recess. Hiraiwa discloses (current collectors 5, 12 as shown FIG. 3 and [0039-0040]) a current collector with recess, as set forth in claim 1. Hiraiwa’s shape is the same as the shape of the two pieces of claim 2. However, Hiraiwa discloses the use of a singular porous body to form the current collector of FIG. 3 using compression ([0024]), Hiraiwa does not teach or suggest that the current collector can be assembled from multiple pieces.
Kanda (US 20080176125 A1) discloses a fuel cell where [0044] the current collector 16 is formed by laminating two metal foam sheet members 19 together, which can be stacking or can be side by side in a plane orthogonal to the sheet direction. The process of stacking then compression is used to create a density gradient as shown in FIG. 13. Kanda does not contemplate using stacking or side-by-side joining to create any protrusion, depression, or contoured shape.
While the joined porous current collector pieces of Kanda could be used to create a current collector having the protrusion and recess of the instant claim 1, there is no motivation to use Kanda to modify Hiraiwa or to use Hiraiwa to modify Kanda in order to read on the claim limitations taken as a whole.
Claim 4 requires wherein the one or more metal porous body sheets of the first current collector are a first metal porous body sheet and a second metal porous body sheet, the first metal porous body sheet and the second metal porous body sheet are disposed to be stacked on each other such that the second metal porous body sheet is located on the third main surface side in a thickness direction of the first current collector, and a first through hole is formed in the second metal porous body sheet at a position corresponding to the recess so as to extend through the second metal porous body sheet in a thickness direction of the second metal porous body sheet.
Claim 5 requires wherein the one or more metal porous body sheets of the second current collector are a third metal porous body sheet and a fourth metal porous body sheet, the third metal porous body sheet and the fourth metal porous body sheet are disposed side by side in a plane orthogonal to a thickness direction of the second current collector, a second through hole is formed in the fourth metal porous body sheet at a position corresponding to the protrusion so as to extend through the fourth metal porous body sheet in a thickness direction of the fourth metal porous body sheet, the third metal porous body sheet is disposed in the second through hole, and a thickness of the third metal porous body sheet is more than a thickness of the fourth metal porous body sheet.
Claim 7 requires wherein the one or more metal porous body sheets of the second current collector are a third metal porous body sheet and a fourth metal porous body sheet, the third metal porous body sheet and the fourth metal porous body sheet are disposed to be stacked on each other such that the fourth metal porous body sheet is located on the fourth main surface side in a thickness direction of the second current collector, and the fourth metal porous body sheet constitutes the protrusion.
Similar to claim 2 above, claims 4, 5, and 7 require the current collector to be assembled from 2 or more pieces to create a protrusion or a recess. Hiraiwa discloses (current collectors 5, 12 as shown FIG. 3 and [0039-0040]) a current collector with recess and a current collector with a protrusion, as set forth in claim 1. Hiraiwa’s shape is the same as the shape of the claimed assembled pieces. However, Hiraiwa discloses the use of a singular porous body to form the current collector of FIG. 3 using compression ([0024]), and Hiraiwa does not teach or suggest that the current collector can be assembled from multiple pieces.
Kanda discloses a fuel cell where [0044] the current collector 16 is formed by laminating two metal foam sheet members 19 together, which can be stacked vertically or can be side by side in a plane orthogonal to the sheet direction. The process of stacking then compression is used to create a density gradient as shown in FIG. 13. Kanda does not contemplate using stacking or side-by-side joining to create any protrusion, depression, or contoured shape.
While the joined porous current collector pieces of Kanda could be used to create a current collector having the claimed shape of the assembled current collector body of claims 4, 5, or 7, there is no motivation to use Kanda to modify Hiraiwa or to use Hiraiwa to modify Kanda in order to read on the claim limitations taken as a whole.
Claims 3 and 6 stand objected to due to dependency from objected to claims.
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 CLAIRE A RUTISER whose telephone number is (571)272-1969. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM M-F.
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CLAIRE A. RUTISER
Examiner
Art Unit 1751
/C.A.R./Examiner, Art Unit 1751
/Haroon S. Sheikh/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1751