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 .
Status
This Non-Final Office Action is in response to the application papers filed on 13 December 2022 and 17 June 2026.
Claim(s) 1-20 is/are pending.
Applicant’s election without traverse of group I invention in the reply filed on 17 June 2026 is acknowledged.
Claim(s) 20 is/are withdrawn from consideration.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement(s) (IDS) submitted on 13 December 2022 is/are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the IDS has/have been considered.
Claim Objections
Claim(s) 1 is/are objected to because of the following informality(ies):
(A) At line 9: “its extended position” is suggested to be: the extended position. Appropriate correction is required.
(B) At last line: “a retracted to an extended position” is suggested to be: the retracted position to the extended position. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim(s) 16 is/are objected to because of the following informality(ies):
(A) At line 1: “claim 15 comprising” is suggested to be: claim 15, comprising. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim(s) 19 is/are objected to because of the following informality(ies):
At line 3: “communicating the” is suggested to be: communicating with the. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim(s) 20 is/are objected to because of the following informality(ies):
(A) At line 1: “claim 15 being…” is suggested to be: claim 15, comprising dimensions of. Appropriate correction is required.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5, 7, 15-16, 18-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by U.S. Patent No. 8215233 to Savage et al. (hereinafter “SAVAGE”).
(A) Regarding Claim 1:
SAVAGE discloses:
A nut cracking apparatus comprising:
a frame (35, Fig. 1);
a rotatable turret (70, Fig. 2) mounted to the frame, the rotatable turret including a rotatable valve plate (200, Fig. 17) at an end thereof;
a plurality of nut cracking units (72, Fig. 4) in the rotatable turret, each nut cracking unit comprising:
a piston (306, Fig. 18) movable from a retracted position to an extended position; and
a crack die (268, Fig. 17) aligned with the piston against which the piston secures a nut in its extended position; and
an air supply (including 119, 121, 123, 125, 127, Fig. 5) communicated with the rotatable valve plate, the rotatable turret defining a feed air passage (154, Fig. 17) associated with each nut cracking unit therethrough from the rotatable valve plate to a rear end of a piston cylinder in which the piston is housed through which air passes to urge the piston from a retracted to an extended position.
(B) Regarding Claim 2:
SAVAGE further discloses:
a stationary valve (140, Fig. 17) positioned adjacent the rotatable valve plate, the stationary valve defining a feed air opening therethrough communicated with the air supply (feed opening 154 Fig. 17), the rotatable valve plate having a feed air opening (242, Fig. 22) associated with each nut cracking unit, feed air being sequentially supplied from the feed air opening in the stationary valve to the feed air openings in the rotatable valve plate into the feed air passages as the rotatable turret rotates (Fig. 5).
(C) Regarding Claim 3:
SAVAGE further discloses:
each nut cracking unit further comprising a shuttle cylinder (212, Fig. 15) having a shuttle disposed (246, Fig. 18) therein movable in the cylinder from a rear end toward a forward end to impact the crack die.
(D) Regarding Claim 5:
SAVAGE further discloses:
the rotatable turret defining a release air passage (348, Fig. 5) therethrough associated with each nut cracking unit from the rotatable valve plate (Figs. 5, 18, 22) to a forward end of the piston cylinder (318, Fig. 18) through which release air is communicated to urge the piston from an extended to a retracted position.
(E) Regarding Claim 7:
SAVAGE further discloses:
a piston cylinder body (304, Figs. 5, 15) defining a plurality of piston cylinders;
a shuttle cylinder housing (including 226, 212, Fig. 15) defining a plurality of shuttle cylinders (212); and
a shuttle (246, Fig. 18) in each shuttle cylinder movable from a rear end of the shuttle cylinder to a forward end to impact the crack die of the nut cracking unit, the piston cylinder body and shuttle cylinder body defining air passages therethrough that form at least a portion of the feed air passages associated with each nut cracking unit (154, Fig. 17).
(F) Regarding Claim 15:
SAVAGE further discloses:
A nut cracking apparatus comprising:
a frame (35 Fig. 1);
a rotatable turret (70, Fig. 2) mounted to the frame;
a turret sprocket (298, Fig. 4) connected to the rotatable turret;
a drive sprocket (370, Fig. 4) connected to and rotated by a motor;
a chain (100, Fig. 4) engaging the drive sprocket and turret sprocket, the turret sprocket rotated by the motor, the rotating turret comprising:
a plurality of pistons (306, Fig. 18) movable in piston cylinders (304, Fig. 15) from a retracted position to an extended nut holding position;
a plurality of shuttles (246, Fig. 18) movable in shuttle cylinders from a rear end to a forward end thereof; and
a plurality of crack dies (268, Fig. 17) positioned at the forward end of the shuttle cylinders;
a rotatable valve plate (200, Fig. 17) positioned adjacent the rear end of the shuttle cylinders;
an air supply (including 119, 121, 123, 125, 127, Fig. 5) communicated with a stationary valve (140, Fig. 17) positioned adjacent the rotatable valve plate; and
the turret defining air passages (238, Fig. 17) for providing air communicated through the rotatable valve plate to the piston cylinders and shuttle cylinders to move the pistons and shuttles in their respective cylinders, the air passages being completely contained within the rotating turret (Figs. 5, 17).
(G) Regarding Claim 16:
SAVAGE further discloses:
a plurality of nut cracking units (72, Fig. 4), each nut cracking unit comprising one of the plurality of pistons (306, Fig. 18), one of the plurality of crack dies (268, Fig. 18) and one of the plurality of shuttles (246, Fig. 18), the valve plate (200, Fig. 17) defining a plurality of air ports (238) communicable with each nut cracking unit to move the pistons and shuttles in the piston cylinders and shuttle cylinders (Fig. 18).
(H) Regarding Claim 18:
SAVAGE further discloses:
a piston cylinder body (304, Figs. 5, 15) defining the piston cylinders, the piston cylinder body defining a feed air passage (316, Fig. 18) for communicating feed air to a rear end of each piston cylinder; and a shuttle cylinder housing (212, 226, Fig. 15) defining the shuttle cylinders, the shuttle cylinder housing defining a feed air passage (end of 214) for communicating air to the feed air passage in the piston cylinder body (Fig. 18).
(I) Regarding Claim 19:
SAVAGE further discloses:
a center hub (330, Fig. 16) positioned between the piston cylinder body and the shuttle cylinder housing (Figs. 16, 18), the center hub having feed air passages communicating the feed air passages (332, Fig. 16) in the shuttle cylinder housing with the feed air passages in the piston cylinder body (Figs. 5, 16).
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over SAVAGE, as applied to claim 15 above, and further in view an engineering expedient.
(A) Regarding Claim 20:
SAVAGE teaches:
The nut cracking apparatus (Fig. 1).
However, the difference between SAVAGE and the claimed invention is that SAVAGE does not explicitly teach the claimed dimensions.
SAVAGE further teaches:
A more compact nut cracking apparatus over the prior art (col. 11, ll. 7-8, 20-23).
The Applicant has not disclosed any unexpected results to suggest that the claimed dimensions provide an advantage, solves a stated problem, or is used for a particular purpose beyond the fact that the nut cracking apparatus takes up the least amount of space possible. Furthermore, it appears that the nut cracking apparatus of SAVAGE would perform equally well with the claimed dimensions because the state advantages include a compact size. Therefore, it would have been an obvious matter of design choice to modify the width, height and length of the nut cracking apparatus to obtain a compact unit and thereby achieve the predictable result of reducing the footprint of the unit.
Cited Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US 6205915 to Quantz teaches the shuttle moves into the crack die during rotation.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 4, 6, 8, 17 is/are allowed.
Claim(s) 9-14 is/are allowed due to dependence from claim 8.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
(A) Regarding Claim(s) 4:
Claim(s) 4 is/are deemed novel and nonobvious over the cited art due to the inclusion of the limitation “second crack openings communicated with the air supply” which, in combination with the other requirements of the claim(s), is neither taught nor suggested by the cited prior art as a whole, either alone or in combination. Specifically, the cited art teaches first crack opening in one direction (US 8215233 Savage) and multiple crack air sources along opposing directions (US 4467710 Verma). Thus, the cited art fails to disclose, teach or suggest the stationary plate with first and second crack opening in single direction.
(6) Regarding Claim(s) 6:
Claim(s) 6 is/are deemed novel and nonobvious over the cited art due to the inclusion of the limitation “the shuttle is movable into the crack die a second time during the same rotation of the turret” which, in combination with the other requirements of the claim(s), is neither taught nor suggested by the cited prior art as a whole, either alone or in combination. Specifically, the cited art teaches a single movement in one direction (US 8215233 Savage and US 6205915 Quantz).
(B) Regarding Claim(s) 8:
Claim(s) 8 is/are deemed novel and nonobvious over the cited art due to the inclusion of the limitation “air supply provides air to move the shuttle twice during a single rotation” which, in combination with the other requirements of the claim(s), is neither taught nor suggested by the cited prior art as a whole, either alone or in combination. Specifically, the cited art teaches a single movement in one direction (US 8215233 Savage and US 6205915 Quantz).
(C) Regarding Claim(s) 17:
Claim(s) 17 is/are deemed novel and nonobvious over the cited art due to the inclusion of the limitation “second crack openings communicated with the air supply” which, in combination with the other requirements of the claim(s), is neither taught nor suggested by the cited prior art as a whole, either alone or in combination. Specifically, the cited art teaches first crack opening in one direction (US 8215233 Savage) and multiple crack air sources along opposing directions (US 4467710 Verma). Thus, the cited art fails to disclose, teach or suggest the stationary plate with first and second crack opening in single direction.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KAYLA M MCCAFFREY whose telephone number is (571)272-3438. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday (excluding Wednesday) 10AM - 2 PM EST.
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KAYLA M. MCCAFFREY
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3745
/Kayla McCaffrey/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3745
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