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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being taught by Knecht et al (PBPUB 2018/0215579).
With respect to claim 1, Knecht teaches an elevator safety device for monitoring a landing door of an elevator system, the elevator system comprising a landing door sensor arranged to detect a state of the landing door, the elevator safety device comprising:
a power source (fig. 1, 14) arranged to power the landing door sensor (fig. 1, 11a) independently of a power supply (fig. 1, 12) of the elevator system (fig. 1, 3); and
a memory (fig. 2a, 151/152) arranged to record a state of the landing door (fig. 1, 30a) detected by the landing door sensor when the landing door sensor is powered by the power source (fig. 1, 14).
With respect to claim 2, Knecht teaches arranged to power the landing door sensor using the power source (fig. 1, 14) when the power supply (fig. 1, 12) of the elevator system is interrupted and to disconnect (paragraph 0082; 13 changes position) the landing door sensor from the power source when the power supply of the elevator system is active.
With respect to claim 3, Knecht teaches wherein the power source comprises a battery (fig. 1, 14), a capacitor or a supercapacitor.
With respect to claim 4, Knecht teaches arranged to report (paragraph 0017) the recorded state of the landing door to an elevator controller (fig. 1, 1000) of the elevator system following an interruption to the power supply of the elevator system.
With respect to claim 5, Knecht teaches comprising a microcontroller (fig. 1, 150) arranged to act as an interface between (paragraph 0090) the memory and the elevator controller (fig. 1, 1000).
With respect to claim 6, Knecht teaches wherein the memory (fig. 2a, 151/152) is arranged to record a single data point that indicates if (paragraph 0094) the landing door has opened at any point since the memory was last reset (paragraph 0052).
With respect to claim 7, Knecht teaches wherein the memory comprises a non-volatile memory (152 RAM inherent).
With respect to claim 8, Knecht teaches wherein the power source is arranged to be connected in series with the landing door sensor (fig. 1, 14 with 11a).
With respect to claim 9, Knecht teaches wherein the memory is arranged to be connected in series with the landing door sensor (fig. 2a, 11a with 152).
With respect to claim 10, Knecht teaches an elevator system comprising:
a landing door (fig. 1, 30a);
a landing door sensor (fig. 1, 11a) arranged to detect a state of the landing door;
a power supply (fig. 1, 12) arranged to power said elevator system (3);
an elevator controller (fig. 1, 1000) arranged to control the elevator system; and
the elevator safety device (fig. 1, 10a) as claimed in claim 1, arranged to monitor said landing door (10).
With respect to claim 11, Knecht teaches wherein the elevator controller (1000) is arranged to control the elevator system according to the state of the landing door recorded (paragraph 0017) by the memory.
With respect to claim 12, Knecht teaches wherein the elevator controller is arranged to initiate an inspection mode (paragraph 0053) if the memory indicates that landing door has been opened (paragraph 0081; door open for maintenance) and
to initiate a normal operational mode if the memory (paragraph 0030; return to normal mode) indicates that the landing door has not been opened.
With respect to claim 13, Knecht teaches wherein the elevator controller (1000) is arranged to receive information from the landing door sensor independently of the elevator safety device (fig. 1, arrows displace signal paths independent between 2, 3/38, 10a), and to control the elevator system (3) according to information received from the landing door sensor independently of the elevator safety device.
With respect to claim 14, Knecht teaches the landing door sensor comprises a switch (fig. 1, 11a with switch) which completes an electrical connection between a first electrical terminal (fig. right of 11a/top) and a second electrical terminal (fig. 1, left of 11a/bottom) when the landing door is closed, and
which breaks said electrical connection (open 11a breaks) when the landing door is open; and the power source (14) is arranged to be connected to the first terminal of the switch; and
the memory (151/152) is arranged to be connected to the second terminal of the switch.
With respect to claim 15, Knecht teaches a plurality of landing doors (fig. 1, 30a/30b);
a plurality of landing door sensors (fig. 1, 11a/11b), each landing door sensor being arranged to detect a state of a respective landing door; and
a first elevator safety device (fig. 1, 10a) arranged to monitor a first set of the landing doors and a second elevator safety device (fig. 1, 10b) arranged to monitor a second set of the landing doors.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ERICK DAVID GLASS whose telephone number is (571)272-8395. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri_8-5pm.
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/ERICK D GLASS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2846