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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, seepages 8-9, filed 03/17/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1, 4, 8under 35 USC 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Yang et al. (US 2018/0083509), herein after Yang.
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).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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, 2, 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gohla-neudecker et al. (US 2020/0171967), herein after Gohla-neudecker and He et al. (US 2020/0047591), herein after He and Yang (US 2018/0083509).
Regarding claim 1, Gohla-neudecker discloses a charging station (figure) for an electric or hybrid vehicle (paragraph [0032]), the charging station comprising: at least one battery bank (The storage apparatus 10 can have a storage unit 15, in which the energy can be buffer-stored. The storage unit 15 can be formed, for example, based on electrochemical storage cells or battery cells, paragraph [0033]);
a charging/discharging electronics system (a connection device 24 has a DC/DC converter to charge/discharge the battery, paragraph [0036], figure); at least one connection to a vehicle charging port (paragraph [0034]);
Gohla-neudecker further discloses an air conditioning device for heating and cooling said at least one battery bank (a cooling assembly for providing cooling capacity and a coolant circuit which is designed to convey thermal energy from the storage unit to the cooling assembly by a coolant, abstract), Gohla-neudecker further discloses the cooling assembly device includes a cooling channel for conducting a coolant (abstract).
However, Gohla-neudecker is silent about the further details of the air conditioning device.
He discloses an air conditioning device to keep the temperature of the battery at the optimum level (paragraph [0070]). He discloses an air conditioning device (fig. 1) include
a motor (a variable speed motor, paragraph [0058]), a refrigerant circuit for conducting a refrigerant (The cooling circuit 50 is preferably operated with a refrigerant as coolant, paragraph [0032]), and a coolant circuit for conducting a coolant (Located downstream of the cooler 20 in the flow direction of the coolant is a Y-distributor 22 having an inlet a and outlets b, c. A pump 24 for conveying the coolant is provided along the connection a-c, which supplies the coolant to power electronics 26 to be cooled, paragraph [0025]);
said refrigerant circuit (loop 12, fig. 1) including a compressor (16, fig. 1) operated by said motor for compressing the refrigerant (the compressor 16 is an electric compressor driven by a variable speed motor (not shown) and the control module 30 adjusts a speed of the motor, paragraph [0058]), a condenser (20, fig. 1) for transferring the refrigerant from a gaseous state into a liquid state (The first refrigerant-to-coolant heat exchanger 20 functions as a condenser. Within the first refrigerant-to-coolant heat exchanger, or condenser, 20, the high-pressure, high-temperature gas refrigerant discharged from the compressor 16 is cooled by giving heat to a coolant within the secondary loop 14, paragraph [0055]Note; the basic working principle of a condenser 20 is to convert gas in to liquid), an expansion valve (22, fig. 1) for expanding and decompressing the refrigerant, and an evaporator for transferring the refrigerant from a liquid state into a gaseous state (In the expansion device 22, the outlet refrigerant from the condenser 20 is expanded to become a low-pressure, low-temperature liquid and vapor refrigerant mixture, paragraph [0055]);
said coolant circuit (14, fig. 1) including a cold reservoir (The second reservoir 74 is an accumulator which serves as a cold coolant reservoir having receiving and sending ports with modulating functionality, paragraph [0069]) connected to a heat reservoir (70, fig. 1) via an overflow line (the warmed coolant is then directed by an intervening T-junction 76 to the second reservoir 74 as shown by action arrow 108. Within the second reservoir 74, the warmed coolant is combined with the warmed coolant from the first passenger compartment air-to-coolant heat exchanger 64, paragraph [0072]);
said air conditioning device including at least one first heat exchanger arranged in a space surrounding said battery bank (64, fig. 1Note the component can be a battery, paragraph [0070]),
a first regulatable valve, and a second regulatable valve; said heat reservoir being connectable to said at least one first heat exchanger via said first regulatable valve and said cold reservoir being connectable to said at least one first heat exchanger via said second regulatable valve (the secondary loop 134 further includes a plurality of four-way valves to control a first flow of coolant through at least one of the plurality of air-to-coolant heat exchangers 148, 150, 152, and a second flow of coolant through at least one other of the plurality of air-to-coolant heat exchangers dependent upon the mode of operation, paragraph [0089]Note: the upper 156 valve are connected to hot reservoir and the heat exchanger 150, fig. 1 and 7 and the lower set of 156 valve is connected to the cold reservoir and the heat exchanger 152, figs. 1 and 7); and,
said air conditioning device having a control unit (30, fig. 1) configured to establish a thermal short circuit of said coolant circuit between said heat reservoir and said cold reservoir and to operate said motor of the compressor for as long as it takes for waste heat of said motor connected to a space surrounding the battery bank to effectuate a temperature increase in the space to or above a predefined value, wherein the space is filled with at least one of a fluidic connection and a convection based connection (paragraph [0008], [0056], [0058], [0059]).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skills in the art, before the effective filing date of claimed invention to modify Gohla-neudecker’s cooling system to include a refrigerant circuit with a compressor and a motor as taught by He, in order to provides superior, rapid cooling for extreme heat, enabling higher power, faster charging and discharging of the battery, better performance, and longer battery life.
He further discloses that the compressor is an electric compressor driven by a variable speed motor (not shown) and the control module adjusts a speed of the motor (paragraph [0058]). However, He does not explicitly disclose the motor heating mode which causes the thermal short circuit and in said motor heating mode, said motor is operated primarily for generating waste heat and not for transferring heat between a cold side and a hot side of the refrigerant circuit.
Yang discloses electric motor waste heat mode (abstract) cause the thermal short circuit in said motor heating mode, said motor is operated primarily for generating waste heat and not for transferring heat between a cold side and a hot side of the refrigerant circuit (paragraph [0010], [0034], figs. 2, 3, 7;).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skills in the art, before the effective filing date of claimed invention to modify Gohla-neudecker’s cooling system in view of He to operate the motor in the heating mode where the waste heat of the motor is utilized to heat up the battery at the optimal temperature as taught by Yang, in order to have the significant energy savings and reduced system complexity.
Regarding claim 2, Gohla-neudecker in view of He discloses the charging station of claim1. He further discloses wherein said coolant circuit includes at least one pump (73, fig. 1); and, said control unit is configured to activate said first regulatable valve, said second regulatable valve, and said at least one pump arranged in the coolant circuit such that the coolant located in said coolant circuit is simultaneously conveyed out of said cold reservoir and said heat reservoir to said at least one first heat exchanger to establish the thermal short circuit between said heat reservoir and said cold reservoir (control module 30 is electrically connected to the second reservoir 74 opening one receiving port to receive the warmed coolant from the second air-to-coolant heat exchanger 64, as shown by action arrow 96, and to direct the coolant back to the evaporator 26 via pump 73, as shown by action arrow 98. In the evaporator 26, the combined warmed coolant is again cooled by giving its heat to the refrigerant in the primary loop 12, and cycled through the secondary loop 14, paragraph [0072] 156 valve is activated in this whole process, fig. 7).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skills in the art, before the effective filing date of claimed invention to modify Gohla-neudecker’s cooling system to include pumps and regulatable valve as taught by He, in order to maintaining optimal, consistent temperatures (not too hot, not too cold) by precisely controlling coolant flow, which boosts battery health, longevity, fast-charging capability, performance, and safety.
Regarding claim 4, Gohla-neudecker discloses a method for operating an air conditioning device of a charging station in a heating mode (paragraph [0025]), the charging station including at least one battery bank (The storage apparatus 10 can have a storage unit 15, in which the energy can be buffer-stored. The storage unit 15 can be formed, for example, based on electrochemical storage cells or battery cells, paragraph [0033]), a charging/discharging electronics system (a connection device 24 has a DC/DC converter to charge/discharge the battery, paragraph [0036], figure), at least one connection to a vehicle charging port (paragraph [0034]), an air conditioning device for heating and cooling the at least one battery bank(a cooling assembly for providing cooling capacity and a coolant circuit which is designed to convey thermal energy from the storage unit to the cooling assembly by a coolant, abstract), Gohla-neudecker further discloses the cooling assembly device includes a cooling channel for conducting a coolant (abstract);
However, Gohla-neudecker is silent about the further details of the air conditioning device.
He discloses an air conditioning device to keep the temperature of the battery at the optimum level (paragraph [0070]). He discloses an air conditioning device (fig. 1) include
a motor (a variable speed motor, paragraph [0058]), a refrigerant circuit for conducting a refrigerant (The cooling circuit 50 is preferably operated with a refrigerant as coolant, paragraph [0032]), and a coolant circuit for conducting a coolant (Located downstream of the cooler 20 in the flow direction of the coolant is a Y-distributor 22 having an inlet a and outlets b, c. A pump 24 for conveying the coolant is provided along the connection a-c, which supplies the coolant to power electronics 26 to be cooled, paragraph [0025]);
the refrigerant circuit (loop 12, fig. 1) including a compressor (16, fig. 1) operated by the motor for compressing the refrigerant (the compressor 16 is an electric compressor driven by a variable speed motor (not shown) and the control module 30 adjusts a speed of the motor, paragraph [0058]), a condenser (20, fig. 1) for transferring the refrigerant from a gaseous state into a liquid state (The first refrigerant-to-coolant heat exchanger 20 functions as a condenser. Within the first refrigerant-to-coolant heat exchanger, or condenser, 20, the high-pressure, high-temperature gas refrigerant discharged from the compressor 16 is cooled by giving heat to a coolant within the secondary loop 14, paragraph [0055]Note; the basic working principle of a condenser 20 is to convert gas in to liquid), an expansion valve (22, fig. 1) for expanding and decompressing the refrigerant, and an evaporator for transferring the refrigerant from a liquid state into a gaseous state (In the expansion device 22, the outlet refrigerant from the condenser 20 is expanded to become a low-pressure, low-temperature liquid and vapor refrigerant mixture, paragraph [0055]);
the air conditioning device including at least one first heat exchanger arranged in a space surrounding said battery bank (64, fig. 1;Note the component can be a battery, paragraph [0070]),
a first regulatable valve, and a second regulatable valve (the plurality of regulatable valve 156 connected to reservoirs, fig. 1 and fig. 7);
the heat reservoir being connectable to the at least one first heat exchanger via said first regulatable valve (In a cooling mode of operation, as shown in FIG. 8, the secondary loop 134 directs warmed coolant (as shown by action arrow 158) from the condenser 138 to the outside heat exchanger 148 via a first four-way valve 156, paragraph [0091]) and the cold reservoir being connectable to the at least one first heat exchanger via the second regulatable valve (In a heating mode of operation, as shown in FIG. 9, the secondary loop 134 directs cold coolant from the evaporator 142 to the outside heat exchanger 148 via the third and second four-way valves 156, paragraph [0097]); and,
the method comprising: establishing a thermal short circuit of the coolant circuit between the heat reservoir and the cold reservoir by activating the first and second regulatable valves and at least one pump (73, fig. 1) of the coolant circuit such that coolant from the heat reservoir and the cold reservoir of the coolant circuit simultaneously reaches the at least one first heat exchanger and returns to the cold reservoir from the at least one first heat exchanger (paragraph [0069]);
operating the motor of the compressor of the refrigerant circuit thermally connected to the cooling circuit (the compressor 16 is an electric compressor driven by a variable speed motor (not shown) and the control module 30 adjusts a speed of the motor, paragraph [0058]); and, measuring a temperature of at least one of the battery bank and the space surrounding the battery bank; and, wherein the heating mode is maintained at least for as long as it takes for the measured temperature to reach or exceed a predefined value (the temperature of the first component (can be a battery bank, see rejection above) may be monitored by a temperature monitoring device of a type known in the art (not shown) and the coolant metered in such a manner as to ensure that the first component is maintained within a desire operating temperature range, paragraph [0178]).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skills in the art, before the effective filing date of claimed invention to modify Gohla-neudecker’s cooling system to include a refrigerant circuit with a compressor and a motor as taught by He, in order to provides superior, rapid cooling for extreme heat, enabling higher power, faster charging and discharging of the battery, better performance, and longer battery life.
He further discloses that the compressor is an electric compressor driven by a variable speed motor (not shown) and the control module adjusts a speed of the motor (paragraph [0058]). However, He does not explicitly disclose the motor heating mode in which establishing thermal short circuit, in a motor heating mode, the motor being thermally connected to the cooling circuit, and during said motor heating mode, said motor is operated primarily for generating waste heat and not for transferring heat between a cold side and a hot side of the refrigerant circuit.
Yang discloses electric motor waste heat mode (abstract) in which establishing thermal short circuit, in a motor heating mode, the motor being thermally connected to the cooling circuit (the motor 102 is connected to the cooling circuit and establish thermal short circuit, paragraph [0034]), said motor is operated primarily for generating waste heat and not for transferring heat between a cold side and a hot side of the refrigerant circuit (paragraph [0010], [0034], figs. 2, 3, 7;).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skills in the art, before the effective filing date of claimed invention to modify Gohla-neudecker’s cooling system in view of He to operate the motor in the heating mode where the waste heat of the motor is utilized to heat up the battery at the optimal temperature as taught by Yang, in order to have the significant energy savings and reduced system complexity.
Claim(s) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gohla-neudecker (US 2020/0171967), He (US 2020/0047591), and Yang (US 2018/0083509) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Li et al. (US 2021/0387548), herein after Li.
Regarding claim 3, Gohla-neudecker in view of He and Yang discloses the charging station of claim 1. However, they are silent about the method further comprising a cooling fan arranged in the space surrounding the battery bank; and, said cooling fan being configured to effectuate an air flow in a direction of the motor, where air absorbs heat of said motor and conveys the heat of said motor into the space surrounding said battery bank.
Li discloses a cooling fan arranged in the space surrounding the battery bank (fig. 3 shows the thermal management system with plurality of fans to heat and cool the battery e.g. 31, 47, and 43, fig. 3 ); and, said cooling fan being configured to effectuate an air flow in a direction of the motor, where air absorbs heat of said motor and conveys the heat of said motor into the space surrounding said battery bank (the excess heat of the electric motor 34 and/or the electric control device 33 is recycled to heat the battery pack, thereby improving an energy recycling rate, paragraph [0045] where the speed of the fan is adjusted to transfer the heat efficiently , paragraph [0094]).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skills in the art, before the effective filing date of claimed invention to modify Gohla-neudecker’s in view of He and Yang cooling system to include fans to transfer the motor excess heat to the battery to warm it up as taught by Li, in order to Utilizing the motor waste heat allows for quick battery warm-up, enabling full performance and fast charging capabilities.
Claim(s) 5, 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gohla-neudecker (US 2020/0171967), He (US 2020/0047591), and Yang (US 2018/0083509), and further in view of Soto et al. (US 2021/0408618), herein after Soto.
Regarding claim 5, Gohla-neudecker in view of He and Yang discloses the method of claim 4. However, Gohla-neudecker, He and Yang do not explicitly disclose a cooling fan arranged in the space surrounding the battery bank in order to generate an air flow in the space.
Soto discloses a control system (110, fig. 1) operate a cooling fan (the control system 110 may activate or modify the performance of the fan system 120 and/or the cooling/heating system 106 due to electrical signals received from the temperature sensors, paragraph [0049]) arranged in the space surrounding the battery bank in order to generate an air flow in the space (the plurality of the fans 220 is working around the battery bank to generate air flow, fig. 2, paragraph [0050]).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skills in the art, before the effective filing date of claimed invention to modify Gohla-neudecker’s in view of He and Yang battery cooling and heating system to include the fans in the space near the battery as taught by Soto, in order to circulate warm air in cold conditions, improving performance by bringing the battery to its optimal operating temperature, which is crucial for efficiency, capacity, and longevity in both hot and cold environments.
Regarding claim 8, Gohla-neudecker discloses a computer program product for operating an air conditioning device of a charging station (a common control unit to be provided to control the cooling assembly and to control a power output of the storage unit to the charging cable, and the control unit can be formed on the basis of a microprocessor or another controller (for example a programmable logic controller—PLC), paragraph [0020]),
the charging station including a control unit (33, figure),
at least one battery bank (The storage apparatus 10 can have a storage unit 15, in which the energy can be buffer-stored. The storage unit 15 can be formed, for example, based on electrochemical storage cells or battery cells, paragraph [0033]), a charging/discharging electronics system(a connection device 24 has a DC/DC converter to charge/discharge the battery, paragraph [0036], figure),
at least one connection to a vehicle charging port(paragraph [0034]), and
Gohla-neudecker further discloses an air conditioning device for heating and cooling said at least one battery bank (a cooling assembly for providing cooling capacity and a coolant circuit which is designed to convey thermal energy from the storage unit to the cooling assembly by a coolant, abstract), Gohla-neudecker further discloses the cooling assembly device includes a cooling channel for conducting a coolant (abstract).
However, Gohla-neudecker is silent about the further details of the air conditioning device.
He discloses an air conditioning device to keep the temperature of the battery at the optimum level (paragraph [0070]). He discloses an air conditioning device (fig. 1) include
a motor (a variable speed motor, paragraph [0058]), a refrigerant circuit for conducting a refrigerant (The cooling circuit 50 is preferably operated with a refrigerant as coolant, paragraph [0032]), and a coolant circuit for conducting a coolant (Located downstream of the cooler 20 in the flow direction of the coolant is a Y-distributor 22 having an inlet a and outlets b, c. A pump 24 for conveying the coolant is provided along the connection a-c, which supplies the coolant to power electronics 26 to be cooled, paragraph [0025]);
the refrigerant circuit (loop 12, fig. 1) including a compressor (16, fig. 1) operated by the motor for compressing the refrigerant (the compressor 16 is an electric compressor driven by a variable speed motor (not shown) and the control module 30 adjusts a speed of the motor, paragraph [0058]), a condenser (20, fig. 1) for transferring the refrigerant from a gaseous state into a liquid state (The first refrigerant-to-coolant heat exchanger 20 functions as a condenser. Within the first refrigerant-to-coolant heat exchanger, or condenser, 20, the high-pressure, high-temperature gas refrigerant discharged from the compressor 16 is cooled by giving heat to a coolant within the secondary loop 14, paragraph [0055]Note; the basic working principle of a condenser 20 is to convert gas in to liquid), an expansion valve (22, fig. 1) for expanding and decompressing the refrigerant, and an evaporator for transferring the refrigerant from a liquid state into a gaseous state (In the expansion device 22, the outlet refrigerant from the condenser 20 is expanded to become a low-pressure, low-temperature liquid and vapor refrigerant mixture, paragraph [0055]);
the coolant circuit (14, fig. 1) including a cold reservoir (The second reservoir 74 is an accumulator which serves as a cold coolant reservoir having receiving and sending ports with modulating functionality, paragraph [0069]) connected to a heat reservoir (70, fig. 1) via an overflow line (the warmed coolant is then directed by an intervening T-junction 76 to the second reservoir 74 as shown by action arrow 108. Within the second reservoir 74, the warmed coolant is combined with the warmed coolant from the first passenger compartment air-to-coolant heat exchanger 64, paragraph [0072]);
the air conditioning device including at least one first heat exchanger arranged in a space surrounding said battery bank (64, fig. 1;Note the component can be a battery and 64 surround it, paragraph [0070]), a first regulatable valve, and a second regulatable valve (plurality of valves 156, figs. 7); the heat reservoir being connectable to the at least one first heat exchanger via the first regulatable valve and the cold reservoir being connectable to the at least one first heat exchanger via the second regulatable valve(the secondary loop 134 further includes a plurality of four-way valves to control a first flow of coolant through at least one of the plurality of air-to-coolant heat exchangers 148, 150, 152, and a second flow of coolant through at least one other of the plurality of air-to-coolant heat exchangers dependent upon the mode of operation, paragraph [0089]Note: the upper 156 valve are connected to hot reservoir and the heat exchanger 150, fig. 1 and 7 and the lower set of 156 valve is connected to the cold reservoir and the heat exchanger 152, figs. 1 and 7);
the computer program comprising:
computer program code configured, when executed by a processor of the control unit, to: activate the first and second regulatable valves and at least one pump of the coolant circuit such that coolant from the at least one heat reservoir and the cold reservoir of the coolant circuit simultaneously reaches the first heat exchanger and returns to the cold reservoir from the at least one first heat exchanger (control module 30 is electrically connected to the second reservoir 74 opening one receiving port to receive the warmed coolant from the second air-to-coolant heat exchanger 64, as shown by action arrow 96, and to direct the coolant back to the evaporator 26 via pump 73, as shown by action arrow 98. In the evaporator 26, the combined warmed coolant is again cooled by giving its heat to the refrigerant in the primary loop 12, and cycled through the secondary loop 14, paragraph [0072] 156 valve is activated in this whole process, fig. 7);
operate the motor of the compressor of the refrigerant circuit thermally connected to the cooling circuit (paragraph [0058]); measure a temperature of at least one of the battery bank and the space surrounding the battery bank; wherein the heating mode is maintained at least for as long as it takes for the measured temperature to reach or exceed a predefined value(the temperature of the first component (can be a battery bank, see rejection above) may be monitored by a temperature monitoring device of a type known in the art (not shown) and the coolant metered in such a manner as to ensure that the first component is maintained within a desire operating temperature range, paragraph [0178]);
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skills in the art, before the effective filing date of claimed invention to modify Gohla-neudecker’s cooling system to include a refrigerant circuit with a compressor and a motor as taught by He, in order to provides superior, rapid cooling for extreme heat, enabling higher power, faster charging and discharging of the battery, better performance, and longer battery life.
He further discloses that the compressor is an electric compressor driven by a variable speed motor (not shown) and the control module adjusts a speed of the motor (paragraph [0058]). However, He does not explicitly disclose the motor heating mode in which establishing thermal short circuit, in a motor heating mode, the motor being thermally connected to the cooling circuit, and during said motor heating mode, said motor is operated primarily for generating waste heat and not for transferring heat between a cold side and a hot side of the refrigerant circuit.
Yang discloses electric motor waste heat mode (abstract) in which establishing thermal short circuit, in a motor heating mode, the motor being thermally connected to the cooling circuit (the motor 102 is connected to the cooling circuit and establish thermal short circuit, paragraph [0034]), said motor is operated primarily for generating waste heat and not for transferring heat between a cold side and a hot side of the refrigerant circuit (paragraph [0010], [0034], figs. 2, 3, 7;).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skills in the art, before the effective filing date of claimed invention to modify Gohla-neudecker’s cooling system in view of He to operate the motor in the heating mode where the waste heat of the motor is utilized to heat up the battery at the optimal temperature as taught by Yang, in order to have the significant energy savings and reduced system complexity.
However, Gohla-neudecker, He and Yang do not explicitly disclose a cooling fan arranged in the space surrounding the battery bank in order to generate an air flow in the space.
Soto discloses a control system (110, fig. 1) operate a cooling fan (the control system 110 may activate or modify the performance of the fan system 120 and/or the cooling/heating system 106 due to electrical signals received from the temperature sensors, paragraph [0049]) arranged in the space surrounding the battery bank in order to generate an air flow in the space (the plurality of the fans 220 is working around the battery bank to generate air flow, fig. 2, paragraph [0050]).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skills in the art, before the effective filing date of claimed invention to modify Gohla-neudecker’s in view of He and Yang battery cooling and heating system to include the fans in the space near the battery as taught by Soto, in order to circulate warm air in cold conditions, improving performance by bringing the battery to its optimal operating temperature, which is crucial for efficiency, capacity, and longevity in both hot and cold environments.
Claim(s) 6, 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gohla-neudecker (US 2020/0171967), He (US 2020/0047591), and Yang (US 2018/0083509) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Masias (US 2017/0054311).
Regarding claim 6, Gohla-neudecker in view of He and Yang discloses the method of the claim 4. However, they are silent about the method further comprising generating a signal routed to the charging or discharging electronics system, the signal representing the measured temperature or attainment or exceedance of the predefined temperature value.
Masias discloses a controller to monitor charging and discharging of a battery a signal sending to the charging or discharging electronics system, the signal representing the measured temperature or attainment or exceedance of the predefined temperature value (paragraph [0003], [0007]).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skills in the art, before the effective filing date of claimed invention to modify Gohla-neudecker’s in view of He and Yang battery cooling and heating system to include the instruction about charging and discharging of the battery with respect to temperature as taught by Masias, in or der to charge an discharge the battery in optimal temperature for safety, maximizing lifespan, and maintaining performance of the battery.
Regarding claim 7, Gohla-neudecker in view of He and Yang discloses the method of the claim 6. However, they are silent about the method further comprising generating a signal routed to the charging or discharging electronics system, the signal representing the measured temperature or attainment or exceedance of the predefined temperature value.
Masias discloses a controller to monitor charging and discharging of a battery a signal sending to the charging or discharging electronics system, the signal representing the measured temperature or attainment or exceedance of the predefined temperature value (paragraph [0003], [0007]).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skills in the art, before the effective filing date of claimed invention to modify Gohla-neudecker’s in view of He and Yang battery cooling and heating system to include the instruction about charging and discharging of the battery with respect to temperature as taught by Masias, in or der to charge an discharge the battery in optimal temperature for safety, maximizing lifespan, and maintaining performance of the battery.
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gohla-neudecker (US 2020/0171967), He (US 2020/0047591), Yang (US 2018/0083509) and Soto (US 2021/0408618) as applied to claim 8 above, and further in view of Masias (US 2017/0054311).
Regarding claim 9, Gohla-neudecker in view of He, Yang and Soto discloses a computer program of claim 8. However, they are silent about wherein the computer program code is further configured, when executed by the processor, to generate a signal routed to the charging or discharging electronics system, the signal representing the measured temperature or attainment or exceedance of the predefined temperature value.
Masias discloses a controller to monitor charging and discharging of a battery a signal sending to the charging or discharging electronics system, the signal representing the measured temperature or attainment or exceedance of the predefined temperature value (paragraph [0003], [0007]).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skills in the art, before the effective filing date of claimed invention to modify Gohla-neudecker’s in view of He and Yang battery cooling and heating system to include the instruction about charging and discharging of the battery with respect to temperature as taught by Masias, in order to charge an discharge the battery in optimal temperature for safety, maximizing lifespan, and maintaining performance of the battery.
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 SADIA KOUSAR whose telephone number is (571)272-3386. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th 7:30am-5:30pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Julian Huffman can be reached at (571) 272-2147. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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SADIA . KOUSAR
Examiner
Art Unit 2859
/JULIAN D HUFFMAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2859