DETAILED ACTION
Drawings
The replacement drawings were received on 18 February 2026. These drawings are accepted.
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 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Doushita (US Pat.Pub.2011/0050025) in view of Natsuhara et al. (US 6,737,779).
Regarding claim 1, Doushita teaches a direct-current motor comprising a rotating shaft that is rotatably supported;
an armature core 56 rotatable together with the rotating shaft 55;
a plurality of coils 57 formed of electrically conductive windings (not numbered) each of which is wound in an annular shape around immediately adjacent tooth portions 56b of the armature core, the plurality of coils 57 being arranged in a rotation circumferential direction;
a commutator 59 rotatable together with the rotating shaft, the commutator being connected with the windings forming the plurality of coils 57; and
a pair of brushes 61, 62 in contact with the commutator 59 so as to slide on the commutator rotating together with the rotating shaft and thereby switch energization of each of the plurality of coils (Fig.7), wherein:
the plurality of (ten) coils 57 include three or more coil pairs (i.e., 57(1) & 57(6), 57(2) & 57(7), etc.), each of the three or more coil pairs consisting of a pair of coils configured to be point-symmetrical with each other with respect to a rotation center axis of the motor (Fig.6);
one of the three or more coil pairs 57(5) & 57(10), which constitutes a pair of number of turns adjustment coils, has a number of turns larger than a number of turns of any of the remainder of the three or more coil pairs (i.e., coils 57(5) & 57(10) have eleven turns, more than all other pairs, as seen in Fig.6)…;
and the pair of number of turns adjustment coils 57(5) & 57(10) are located radially outermost in the plurality of coils (Figs.6-7).
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Doushita does not teach the numbers of turns of all of the three or more coil pairs other than the pair of number-of-turns adjustment coils 57(5) & 57(10) are equal to each other.
But, Natsuhara teaches a motor comprising an armature core 10 with an inner coil 70 comprising a plurality of coils including three or more coil pairs A-F, each of the three or more coil pairs consisting of a pair of coils configured to be point-symmetrical with each other with respect to a rotation center axis of the motor (c.3:60-62; c.3:66-c.4:2; c.4:9-11); and an outer coil 80 comprising a pair of number-of-turns adjustment coils A’ located radially outside the plurality of coils A-F (Fig.3B); the number of turns of the pair of number-of-turns adjustment coils A’ is larger than the number of turns of any of the remainder of the three or more coil pairs A-F (i.e., coil pair A’ has seventy-two turns between slots compared with eight turns for coil pairs A-F; c.4:11-13; c.4:41-42); and the numbers of turns of all of the three or more coil pairs A-F other than the pair of number-of-turns adjustment coils A’ are equal to each other (each coil pair A-F has a total of eight turns; c.4:11-13). Since the total number of turns of the coil wire is equal in each of the coil pairs A to F, the inner coil 70 operates from a DC power source of 24.5 A, while the outer coil operates from an AC power source of 3.3A, thereby providing a commutator motor that can operate from either AC or DC power (c.1:5-10; c.4:20-24; c.4:67-c.5:5).
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Thus, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date to provide an equal number of turns of all of the three or more coil pairs other than the pair of number-of-turns adjustment coils of Doushita since Natsuhara teaches this would have enabled operation from either AC or DC power.
Conclusion
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/BURTON S MULLINS/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2834
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