DETAILED ACTION
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 03/03/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 03/03/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues that “the disclosure of Chen is entirely unrelated to the aim of the claimed invention” (Page 7 of applicant’s filed remarks 03/03/2026). In response to applicant's arguments against the references individually, one cannot show nonobviousness by attacking references individually where the rejections are based on combinations of references. See In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 208 USPQ 871 (CCPA 1981); In re Merck & Co., 800 F.2d 1091, 231 USPQ 375 (Fed. Cir. 1986). In this case, Chen teaches an autofocus control system. Mori teaches of utilizing plasma light intensity to detect and correct differences in focal length. Thus, one of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to have used the autofocus control method of Chen as the control method to correct the focal length of Mori. This would have been done to quickly and accurately focus the laser beam on the surface of the workpiece (Mori Column 6 Lines 51-61).
Applicant further argues that “Chen fails to disclose or suggest that, during the laser welding, it is assumed whether the focal position of the laser light is appropriate state or not in the characteristic data of the plume light intensity according to the focal position, and the height of the welding head is adjusted based on this characteristic data during the laser welding, as required by the above-noted features of claim 1” (Page 7 of applicant’s remarks filed 03/03/2026). Once again, in response to applicant's arguments against the references individually, one cannot show nonobviousness by attacking references individually where the rejections are based on combinations of references. See In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 208 USPQ 871 (CCPA 1981); In re Merck & Co., 800 F.2d 1091, 231 USPQ 375 (Fed. Cir. 1986). Column 2 Lines 35-65 of Mori teaches that signal information in the form of the DC component and AC component of the plasma light emission intensity indicates their characteristic behaviors to the variations in the welding parameters including the focal point position defined as focal length. Thus, Mori teaches assuming whether the focal position of the laser light is in an appropriate state or not in the characteristic data of the plume light intensity according to the focal position. Column 8 Lines 36-47 of Mori further teaches correcting said focal position when the result of a detection indicates that it is out of range. Lin teaches that this height can be adjusted through controlling the height of the welding head. Thus, Mori as modified teaches that the focal length, by means of the welding head, is adjusted based on this characteristic data.
Applicant further argues that “it is noted that Chen discloses using an image from a CCD device 5 to determine the position where the focus value C of this image peaks as the focal position” and “instead of determining the focal position, assuming whether the focal position of the laser light is appropriate state or not during laser welding using intensity of the plume light corresponding to the focal position of the laser light that has already been stored in the memory” (Pages 7-8 of applicant’s remarks filed 03/03/2026). Mori teaches using signal information in the form of the DC component and AC component of the plasma light emission intensity to indicate their characteristic behaviors to the variations in the welding parameters including the focal point position defined as focal length. Figures 4A-4B of Mori teach that the position of the focal point peaks at the minimum light emission of the plasma emission intensity. Thus, Mori teaches assuming whether the focal position of the laser light is in an appropriate state or not in the characteristic data of the plume light intensity according to the focal position. Mazumder teaches storing plume light information. Thus, would have thus been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Mori with Mazumder and have the controller include a memory which stores data of the plume light and controls the feedback to the welding system based on comparing it with previous benchmarks. This would have been done to determine whether the current welding process will produce a weld which is within determined quality limits and to facilitate welding material with multiple materials or elements present (Mazumder Paragraphs 11-12).
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, 3, and 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mori (US 6399915 B1) in view of Lin (US 20140027415 A1), Mazumder (US 20080210674 A1), and Chen (US 20080151097 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Mori (US 6399915 B1) teaches a laser welding device (Figure 1A) comprising:
a laser oscillator with which an incoming end of a fiber is connected (Column 5 Lines 19-25, laser light generated by laser oscillator 1 and is introduced into a light condensation optical system by means of an optical fiber 2);
a welding head (Figure 2, welding head in which lenses 3 and 4 are integrated in) that is connected to an outgoing end of the fiber (Figure 2, optical fiber 2 is connected to welding head) and that performs laser welding while irradiating a workpiece with laser light by guiding the laser light from the laser oscillator to the workpiece via the fiber (Column 5 Lines 19-25, laser light generated by laser oscillator 1 and is introduced into a light condensation optical system by means of an optical fiber 2 is converted into light beams by collimation lens 3 and onto a partially overlapped working material pieces);
a sensor that detects, during the laser welding (Column 2 Line 66 – Column 3 Line 5, detecting visible light during a laser welding), an intensity of plume light (Column 2 Lines 40-43, plume light otherwise called plasma light in the application) that is based on the laser welding (Column 5 Lines 19-25, laser light is focused onto the material pieces to form a weld; Column 5 Lines 32-39, photo sensors convert an intensity of a plasma light emitted from the weld) to assume that a focal position of the laser light has shifted (Column 2 Lines 35-65, signal information in the form of the DC component and AC component of the plasma light emission intensity indicated their characteristic behaviors to the variations in the welding parameters including the focal point position defined as focal length), the plume light being emitted from a welded position at which the workpiece is irradiated with the laser light (Column 5 Lines 32-39, photo sensors convert an intensity of a plasma light emitted from the weld); and
a controller that adjusts the focal point based on a detection output from the sensor, the height being a height in a direction parallel with a direction that the laser light is emitted (Column 6 Lines 51-61, collimation lens 4 of the focal point is used to adjust the focal point which is the distance from the surface of the working material piece; Column 9 Lines 9-21, quality of welding is determined as well as parameters are estimated when the quality of welding at the weld is determined; Column 8 Lines 36, if the results of detection indicate that it is out of range, a full automatic system is used to correct the parameter)
wherein when the controller (personal computer) determines, during the laser welding (Column 2 Line 66, detecting an emission intensity of a visible light emitted from the weld during a laser welding and performing analysis such as to determine whether a result of the laser welding falls in a favorable range of welding), that the detection output from the sensor is higher than or equal to a threshold value of the intensity1 of the plume light2 (Figures 4A-4B Column 7 Lines 28-41, position of focal point from the surface is parabolically related to the plasma light emission intensity; Column 8 Lines 36-39, determining if the result of detection indicate whether it is out of the control range or not) corresponding to the workpiece, the controller assumes that the focal position of the laser light has shifted with respect to the surface of the workpiece (Column 2 Lines 35-65, signal information in the form of the DC component and AC component of the plasma light emission intensity indicated their characteristic behaviors to the variations in the welding parameters including the focal point position defined as focal length) and adjusts the focus of the welding head (Column 8 Lines 40-47, automatically correcting corresponding parameters including focal length F when they are out of the control range; Column 8 Lines 36, if the results of detection indicate that it is out of range, a full automatic system is used to correct the parameter)
Mori fails to explicitly teach:
a controller that controls a height of the welding head to adjust the focal point of the laser beam
wherein the controller includes a memory that stores therein, for each of workpieces including the workpiece, characteristic data of the intensity of the plume light at a focal position of the laser light,
wherein when the controller determines, during the laser welding, that the detection output from the sensor is higher than or equal to a threshold value of the intensity of the plume light corresponding to the workpiece, the controller assumes that the focal position of the laser light has shifted upwards with respect to the surface of the workpiece and adjusts, during the laser welding, the height of the welding head in a negative direction, which is a direction approaching nearer to the workpiece than a current position, based on the detection output from the sensor and the characteristic data, and
wherein when the controller determines, during the laser welding, that the detection output from the sensor is higher than an immediately previous detection output from the sensor at least twice in a row, the controller assumes that the focal position of the laser light has shifted downwards with respect to the surface of the workpiece and adjusts, during the laser welding, the height of the welding head in a positive direction, which is a direction opposite to the negative direction, based on the detection output from the sensor and the characteristic data.
Lin (US 20140027415 A1) teaches an adaptive control laser welding system, wherein:
a controller that controls a height of the welding head to adjust the focal point of the laser beam (Figure 4 Paragraphs 25-26, control system 100 controls the laser head 78 to be closer and further from the workpiece such as to change the laser focal point)
the controller determines, during the laser welding (Paragraph 20, weld monitoring device is operable to determine a weld property in real time), and adjusts, during the laser welding, the height of the welding head (Paragraph 29, control system 100 controls the welding parameters of the laser 30 in real time; Paragraph 30, the position of the laser focal point is automatically moved relative to the surface of the workpieces such as to focus the laser beam)
It would have thus been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Mori with Lin and have the controller control the height of the welding head to adjust the focal point of the laser beam. This would have been done adjust the laser focal point (Lin Paragraph 30).
It would further have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Mori with Lin and have the controller detect and adjust the height of the welding head during the welding process. This would have been done to provide real time modification of the laser parameters (Lin Paragraph 29) such as to facilitate automated welding (Lin Paragraph 2).
Mori modified with Lin fails to teach:
wherein the controller includes a memory that stores therein, for each of workpieces including the workpiece, characteristic data of the intensity of the plume light at a focal position of the laser light,
wherein when the controller determines, during the laser welding, that the detection output from the sensor is higher than or equal to a threshold value of the intensity of the plume light corresponding to the workpiece, the controller assumes that the focal position of the laser light has shifted upwards with respect to the surface of the workpiece and adjusts the height of the welding head in a negative direction, which is a direction approaching nearer to the workpiece than a current position, based on the detection output from the sensor and the characteristic data, and
wherein when the controller determines, during the laser welding, that the detection output from the sensor is higher than an immediately previous detection output from the sensor at least twice in a row, the controller assumes that the focal position of the laser light has shifted downwards with respect to the surface of the workpiece and adjusts the height of the welding head in a positive direction, which is a direction opposite to the negative direction, based on the detection output from the sensor and the characteristic data.
Mazumder (US 20080210674 A1) teaches an optical sensor for quality monitoring of a welding process, wherein:
the controller includes a memory that stores therein, for each of workpieces including the workpiece (Paragraph 12, monitoring system monitors the materials present in the plasma plume; Paragraph 11, multiple materials are present), characteristic data of the intensity of the plume light at a focal position of the laser light (Paragraph 12, monitoring system determines whether the weld will meet certain specifications and then compare the current measured values against previously recorded benchmarks to determine whether the current welding process will produce a weld within the quality limits based on the plasma plume), and controls the parameters based on the detection output from the sensor and the characteristic data (Paragraph 12, monitoring system 120 can also can be used to provide feedback to welding system to alter one or more welding parameters).
It would have thus been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Mori with Mazumder and have the controller include a memory which stores data of the plume light and controls the feedback to the welding system based on comparing it with previous benchmarks. This would have been done to determine whether the current welding process will produce a weld which is within determined quality limits and to facilitate welding material with multiple materials or elements present (Mazumder Paragraphs 11-12).
While Mori modified with Mazumder fails to explicitly teach “wherein when the controller determines, during the laser welding, that the detection output from the sensor is higher than or equal to a threshold value of the intensity of the plume light corresponding to the workpiece, the controller assumes that the focal position of the laser light has shifted upwards with respect to the surface of the workpiece and adjusts the height of the welding head in a negative direction, which is a direction approaching nearer to the workpiece than a current position, based on the detection output from the sensor and the characteristic data, and
wherein when the controller determines, during the laser welding, that the detection output from the sensor is higher than an immediately previous detection output from the sensor at least twice in a row, the controller assumes that the focal position of the laser light has shifted downwards with respect to the surface of the workpiece and adjusts the height of the welding head in a positive direction, which is a direction opposite to the negative direction, based on the detection output from the sensor and the characteristic data”, Chen (US 20080151097 A1) teaches an autofocus search mode wherein the intensity value from images are used to determine the focus values (Chen Figure 5 Paragraph 24), wherein a plurality of focus values C are recorded (Chen Figures 6 Paragraph 25), and wherein when the peak searching algorithm determines that the focus has been missed based on two consecutive focus values C having lower focus values than a previous focus value C, the focus searching direction is changed such as to move in the opposite direction (Chen Figures 6 Paragraph 25).
Since Column 8 Lines 27-39 of Mori teaches automatically correcting corresponding parameters, including focal length F (Column 8 Lines 40-47), when they are out of the control range, it would have thus been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Mori with Chen and used the autofocus search mode to determine the desired zero focus point position. This would have been done to quickly and accurately focus the laser beam on the surface of the workpiece (Mori Column 6 Lines 51-61) as it is well known in the art to be of paramount importance in laser welding to control the size and shape of the spot at which a laser beam impinges upon a workpiece as evidenced by Column 1 Lines 13-15 of Sirat (US 6667458 B1). Since Figures 4A-4B Column 7 Lines 28-41 of Mori teaches that the zero focal point position (focal length) for the laser is a local minimum for the plasma emission intensity, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have used the plasma light emission intensity graph shown in Figures 4a and 4b to determine the focal point position of the laser based on the plasma light and use it to adjust the position to the peak position wherein the laser beam is directed at the surface of the workpiece.
Furthermore, since Figures 4A-4B Column 7 Lines 28-41 of Mori teaches that the zero focal point position for the laser is a local minimum for the plasma emission intensity, one of ordinary skill in the art would readily recognize that detection output of the sensor would decrease the focus of the laser becomes closer to the surface of the workpiece and would increase as the focus of the laser goes further from the surface. This means that the plurality of focus values surrounding the peak in Figure 6 of Chen would instead surround a valley similar to Figures 4A and 4B of Mori, wherein the peak searching algorithm would determine that the focus has been missed based on two consecutive focus values C having higher focus values than a previous focus value instead of lower focus values.
The Office further notes that Paragraph 30 of Lin teaches of moving the welding head to facilitate adjusting the focus of the laser in laser welding. Thus, adjusting the height of the welding head such as to move the welding head closer and then further from the workpiece based on the determined focus values would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art attempting to focus the laser beam.
Regarding claim 3, Mori as modified teaches the laser welding device according to Claim 1, wherein
the sensor is disposed near the welding head (Figure 2 Column 5 Lines 26-39, photo sensors 6a and 6b are located adjacent to the welding head).
Regarding claim 6, Mori as modified teaches a laser welding method comprising:
performing laser welding while irradiating a workpiece with laser light by causing a welding head to guide the laser light emitted from a laser oscillator with which an incoming end of a fiber (Column 5 Lines 19-25, laser light generated by laser oscillator 1 and is introduced into a light condensation optical system by means of an optical fiber 2) is connected, to the workpiece, the laser light being emitted via an outgoing end of the fiber (Column 5 Lines 19-25, laser light generated by laser oscillator 1 and is introduced into a light condensation optical system by means of an optical fiber 2 is converted into light beams by collimation lens 3 and onto a partially overlapped working material pieces);
detecting, using a sensor during the laser welding (Column 3 Lines 1-5, detecting an emission intensity of a visible light during a laser welding), an intensity of plume light (Column 2 Lines 40-43, plume light otherwise called plasma light in the application) that is based on the laser welding (Column 2 Line 66 – Column 3 Line 5, detecting visible light during a laser welding) to assume that a focal position of the laser light has shifted (Column 2 Lines 35-65, signal information in the form of the DC component and AC component of the plasma light emission intensity indicated their characteristic behaviors to the variations in the welding parameters including the focal point position defined as focal length), the plume light being emitted from a welded position at which the workpiece is irradiated with the laser light (Column 5 Lines 32-39, photo sensors convert an intensity of a plasma light emitted from the weld); and
a step of controlling, a focal point of the welding head (Figure 2, welding head in which lenses 3 and 4 are integrated in) based on a detection output from the sensor, the height being a height in a direction parallel with a direction that the laser light is emitted (Column 6 Lines 51-61, collimation lens 4 of the focal point is used to adjust the focal point which is the distance from the surface of the working material piece; Column 9 Lines 9-21, quality of welding is determined as well as parameters are estimated when the quality of welding at the weld is determined ;Column 8 Lines 36, if the results of detection indicate that it is out of range, a full automatic system is used to correct the parameter)
wherein the controller (personal computer) is configured such, during the laser welding (Column 2 Line 66, detecting an emission intensity of a visible light emitted from the weld during a laser welding and performing analysis such as to determine whether a result of the laser welding falls in a favorable range of welding), that when the detection output from the sensor is higher than or equal to a threshold value of the intensity3 of the plume light4 (Figures 4A-4B Column 7 Lines 28-41, position of focal point from the surface is parabolically related to the plasma light emission intensity) corresponding to the workpiece, the controller assumes that the focal position of the laser light has shifted with respect to the surface of the workpiece (Column 2 Lines 35-65, signal information in the form of the DC component and AC component of the plasma light emission intensity indicated their characteristic behaviors to the variations in the welding parameters including the focal point position defined as focal length) and adjusts the focus of the welding head (Column 8 Lines 40-47, automatically correcting corresponding parameters including focal length F when they are out of the control range; Column 8 Lines 36, if the results of detection indicate that it is out of range, a full automatic system is used to correct the parameter)
Mori fails to explicitly teach:
a step of controlling, using a controller, a height of the welding head
wherein the controller includes a memory that stores therein, for each of workpieces including the workpiece, characteristic data of the intensity of the plume light at a focal position of the laser light,
wherein the controller is configured such, during the laser welding, that when the detection output from the sensor is higher than or equal to a threshold value of the intensity of the plume light corresponding to the workpiece, the controller assumes that the focal position of the laser light has shifted upwards with respect to the surface of the workpiece and adjusts, during the laser welding, the height of the welding head in a negative direction, which is a direction approaching nearer to the workpiece than a current position, based on the detection output from the sensor and the characteristic data of the intensity of the plume light at a focal position of the laser light, and
wherein the controller is configured such that, during the laser welding, when the detection output from the sensor is higher than an immediately previous detection output from the sensor at least twice in a row, the controller assumes that the focal position of the laser light has shifted downwards with respect to the surface of the workpiece and adjusts, during the laser welding, the height of the welding head in a positive direction, which is a direction opposite to the negative direction, based on the detection output from the sensor and the characteristic data.
Lin (US 20140027415 A1) teaches an adaptive control laser welding system, wherein:
a step of controlling, using a controller, a height of the welding head (Figure 4 Paragraphs 25-26, control system 100 controls the laser head 78 to be closer and further from the workpiece such as to change the laser focal point)
the controller assumes, during the laser welding (Paragraph 20, weld monitoring device is operable to determine a weld property in real time), and adjusts, during the laser welding, the height of the welding head (Paragraph 29, control system 100 controls the welding parameters of the laser 30 in real time; Paragraph 30, the position of the laser focal point is automatically moved relative to the surface of the workpieces such as to focus the laser beam)
It would have thus been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Mori with Lin and have the controller control the height of a welding head to adjust the focal point of the laser beam. This would have been done adjust the laser focal point (Lin Paragraph 30).
It would further have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Mori with Lin and have the controller detect and adjust the height of the welding head during the welding process. This would have been done to provide real time modification of the laser parameters (Lin Paragraph 29) such as to facilitate automated welding (Lin Paragraph 2).
Mori modified with Lin fails to teach:
wherein the controller includes a memory that stores therein, for each of workpieces including the workpiece, characteristic data of the intensity of the plume light at a focal position of the laser light,
wherein the controller is configured such, during the laser welding, that when the detection output from the sensor is higher than or equal to a threshold value of the intensity of the plume light corresponding to the workpiece, the controller assumes that the focal position of the laser light has shifted upwards with respect to the surface of the workpiece and adjusts the height of the welding head in a negative direction, which is a direction approaching nearer to the workpiece than a current position, based on the detection output from the sensor and the characteristic data of the intensity of the plume light at a focal position of the laser light, and
wherein the controller is configured such that, during the laser welding, when the detection output from the sensor is higher than an immediately previous detection output from the sensor at least twice in a row, the controller assumes that the focal position of the laser light has shifted downwards with respect to the surface of the workpiece and adjusts the height of the welding head in a positive direction, which is a direction opposite to the negative direction, based on the detection output from the sensor and the characteristic data.
Mazumder (US 20080210674 A1) teaches an optical sensor for quality monitoring of a welding process, wherein:
the controller includes a memory that stores therein, for each of workpieces including the workpiece (Paragraph 12, monitoring system monitors the materials present in the plasma plume; Paragraph 11, multiple materials are present), characteristic data of the intensity of the plume light at a focal position of the laser light (Paragraph 12, monitoring system determines whether the weld will meet certain specifications and then compare the current measured values against previously recorded benchmarks to determine whether the current welding process will produce a weld within the quality limits based on the plasma plume), and controls the parameters based on the detection output from the sensor and the characteristic data (Paragraph 12, monitoring system 120 can also can be used to provide feedback to welding system to alter one or more welding parameters).
It would have thus been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Mori with Mazumder and have the controller include a memory which stores data of the plume light and controls the feedback to the welding system based on comparing it with previous benchmarks. This would have been done to determine whether the current welding process will produce a weld which is within determined quality limits and to facilitate welding material with multiple materials or elements present (Mazumder Paragraphs 11-12).
While Mori modified with Mazumder fails to explicitly teach “wherein the controller is configured such, during the laser welding, that when the detection output from the sensor is higher than or equal to a threshold value of the intensity of the plume light corresponding to the workpiece, the controller assumes that the focal position of the laser light has shifted upwards with respect to the surface of the workpiece and adjusts the height of the welding head in a negative direction, which is a direction approaching nearer to the workpiece than a current position, based on the detection output from the sensor and the characteristic data of the intensity of the plume light at a focal position of the laser light, and
wherein the controller is configured such that, during the laser welding, when the detection output from the sensor is higher than an immediately previous detection output from the sensor at least twice in a row, the controller assumes that the focal position of the laser light has shifted downwards with respect to the surface of the workpiece and adjusts the height of the welding head in a positive direction, which is a direction opposite to the negative direction, based on the detection output from the sensor and the characteristic data”, Chen (US 20080151097 A1) teaches an autofocus search mode wherein the intensity value from images are used to determine the focus values (Chen Figure 5 Paragraph 24), wherein a plurality of focus values C are recorded (Chen Figures 6 Paragraph 25) and wherein when the peak searching algorithm determines that the focus has been missed based on two consecutive focus values C having lower focus values than a previous focus value C, the focus searching direction is changed such as to move in the opposite direction (Chen Figures 6 Paragraph 25).
Since Column 8 Lines 27-39 of Mori teaches automatically correcting corresponding parameters, including focal length F (Column 8 Lines 40-47), when they are out of the control range, it would have thus been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Mori with Chen and used the autofocus search mode to determine the desired zero focus point position. This would have been done to quickly and accurately focus the laser beam on the surface of the workpiece (Mori Column 6 Lines 51-61) as it is well known in the art to be of paramount importance in laser welding to control the size and shape of the spot at which a laser beam impinges upon a workpiece as evidenced by Column 1 Lines 13-15 of Sirat (US 6667458 B1). Since Figures 4A-4B Column 7 Lines 28-41 of Mori teaches that the zero focal point position (focal length) for the laser is a local minimum for the plasma emission intensity, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have used the plasma light emission intensity graph shown in Figures 4a and 4b to determine the focal point position of the laser based on the plasma light and use it to adjust the position to the peak position wherein the laser beam is directed at the surface of the workpiece.
Furthermore, since Figures 4A-4B Column 7 Lines 28-41 of Mori teaches that the zero focal point position for the laser is a local minimum for the plasma emission intensity, one of ordinary skill in the art would readily recognize that detection output of the sensor would decrease the focus of the laser becomes closer to the surface of the workpiece and would increase as the focus of the laser goes further from the surface. This means that the plurality of focus values surrounding the peak in Figure 6 of Chen would instead surround a valley similar to Figures 4A and 4B of Mori, wherein the peak searching algorithm would determine that the focus has been missed based on two consecutive focus values C having higher focus values than a previous focus value instead of lower focus values.
The Office further notes that Paragraph 30 of Lin teaches of moving the welding head to facilitate adjusting the focus of the laser in laser welding. Thus, adjusting the height of the welding head such as to move the welding head closer and then further from the workpiece based on the determined focus values would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art attempting to focus the laser beam.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FRANKLIN JEFFERSON WANG whose telephone number is (571)272-7782. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10AM-6PM (E.S.T).
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ibrahime Abraham can be reached at (571) 270-5569. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/F.J.W./Examiner, Art Unit 3761
/WOODY A LEE JR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3761
1 The Office notes that under BRI, being outside a range includes both being above a predetermined value and below a different predetermined value.
2 The Office further notes that comparing the intensity of plasma formations with predetermined thresholds to determine errors/defects is well known in the art of laser welding as evidenced by Column 23 Lines 18-24 of Martinsen (US 11179807 B2) as well as Paragraph 17 of Esmiller (US 20040032597 A1).
3 The Office notes that under BRI, being outside a range includes both being above a predetermined value and below a different predetermined value.
4 The Office further notes that comparing intensity of plasma formations with predetermined signal thresholds to determine errors is well known in the art of laser welding as evidenced by Column 23 Lines 18-24 of Martinsen (US 11179807 B2) as well as Paragraph 17 of Esmiller (US 20040032597 A1).
Prosecution Insights