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 with respect to claim 22 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument. See the newly discovered Koga reference applied below to teach the newly added and argued features.
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.
Claims 22-24, 30, and 34-37 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over by Cicchitti (US 2022/0339729 A1) and Koga (JP-2021081228-A).
A marked-up machine translation of Koga has been provided with this office action, all cross-references are with respect to this translation and the mark-ups are hereby incorporated by reference to further demonstrate claim mapping.
Independent Claim 22
In regards to claim 22, Ciccchitti discloses a method for inspecting defects on a non-woven material (see abstract, [0001], [0007], [0011] and cited below, while noting that the sanitary article being inspected is constructed by a composite web W formed of plural layers of non-woven material NW1, NW2} comprising:
introducing ultrasonic energy to weld the non-woven material {see welding unit 12 including anvil roller 16, welding area 16, and welding element 18 which is a sonotrode of an ultrasonic welding device, Fig. 1, [0004]-[0008], [0029]-[0037]};
transferring the non-woven material in a downstream direction {Fig. 2 illustrates a production line including a conveyor than transfers the articles in a downstream direction, [0026]-[0045};
taking an image of the non-woven material after welding the non-woven material {Fig. 2, quality control system includes a camera 72 and a processing unit 70, [0046]-[0050] after welding station 10};
processing the image by an image processing unit {Fig. 2 processor unit 70, [0051]-[0052] and cites below};
the image processing comprising:
identifying a defect on the non-woven material based on the image {see [0045]-[0064], [0067]};
classifying the defect into one of a plurality of categories {weld quality/defects are classified by processing unit 70 as per [0066]-[0092]}, [0108]};
analyzing a cause of the defect based on the respective category; and determining a component causing the defect
{see [0118]-[0128] that determines the cause, welding defect and component causing the defect, welder 18};
generating a recommended remedial action based on the cause of the defect
{see [0119]-[0120] that not only generates a warning signal indicating a malfunction of the corresponding welding station but also automatically stops the production line or adapts parameter(s) of the welding station such as the power supplied to the welding element 18. See also [0074]-[0082] including learning step 1002 which controls process parameters including varying the power supplied to the welding element and varying the gripping force/pressure between the welding element 18 and anvil 16}; and
notifying a user of the cause with a recommended remedial action associated with the component or taking a recommended remedial action associated with the component
{[0119]-[0120] a warning signal is generated notifying a user of the welding quality insufficiency indicating that the welder 18 needs remedial action. See above for generating a remedial action step which includes automatically stopping the production line or adapting parameter(s) of the welding station such as the power supplied to the welding element 18}.
Koga is an analogous reference from the same field of non-woven material defect inspection and includes a camera 30 and image processing detecting defects as per pgs. 4, 5, 7, and tracking a position of the non-woven material with an encoder driven by rotation of the anvil roll that supports the non-woven material {See Fig. 2 in which encoder 51 that measures the rotational state of the anvil roll 22, pgs. 4-5
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It 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 to have modified Ciccchitti’s non-woven material defect inspection method to include tracking a position of the non-woven material with an encoder driven by rotation of the anvil roll that supports the non-woven material as taught by Koga because doing so improves the ability of the system to track the position of the anvil roller in order to control the timing of the imaging at motivated by Koga on pg. 5, because there is a reasonable expectation of success and/or because doing so merely combines prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results.
Claim 23
In regards to claim 22, Ciccchitti discloses the ultrasonic energy is introduced by a sonotrode; the image of the non-woven material is taken by an imaging unit disposed downstream of an anvil roll that supports the non-woven material between the anvil roll and the sonotrode; and the non-woven material is transferred in the downstream direction by rotating the anvil roll {See Figs. 1, 2, [0004]-[0008], [0029]-[0037}.
Claim 24
In regards to claim 24, Ciccchitti discloses determining a position of the non-woven material before introducing the ultrasonic energy to the non-woven material {see Fig. 2, [0051] including synchronization signal SYNC}.
Claim 30
In regards to claim 24, Ciccchitti discloses wherein the image processing further comprises: determining a degree of the defect; and analyzing the cause of the defect based on the degree of the defect {the degree of weld quality/defects are classified by processing unit 70 as per [0066]-[0092]}, [0108]. See [0118]-[0128] that determines the cause, welding defect and component causing the defect, welder 18}.
Claim 34
In regards to claim 34, Ciccchitti discloses wherein the image processing unit identifies the defect by comparing the image to one or more baseline test images {see [0062]-[0064]}.
Claim 35
In regards to claim 35, Ciccchitti discloses wherein the image processing unit identifies the defect by analyzing individual weld bonds to determine whether the individual weld bonds meet certain requirements to be non-defective {see [0066]-[0092] in which individual weld spots (bonds) WS are analyzed to determine, inter alia, weld area and missing weld spots}.
Claim 36
In regards to claim 36, Ciccchitti discloses wherein the image processing unit identifies the defect based on the image using one or more machine learning models and/or one or more rule-based algorithms {see [0074]-[0092] machine learning used by classifier to identify defects}.
Claim 37
In regards to claim 37, Ciccchitti discloses wherein taking the recommended remedial action comprises one or more of the following:
interrupting or adjusting a welding operation
{see [0119]-[0120] that not only generates a warning signal indicating a malfunction of the corresponding welding station but also automatically stops the production line or adapts parameter(s) of the welding station such as the power supplied to the welding element 18. See also [0074]-[0082] including learning step 1002 which controls process parameters including varying the power supplied to the welding element and varying the gripping force/pressure between the welding element 18 and anvil 16};
tracking the defect to a known location on the non-woven material; and/or
moving the non-woven material laterally.
Claims 27 and 28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cicchitti and Koga as applied to claim 23 above, and further in view of Alper (TR-201915682-A2). A marked-up machine translation of Alper has been provided with this office action, all cross-references are with respect to this translation and the mark-ups are hereby incorporated by reference to further demonstrate claim mapping.
Claims 27 and 28
Ciccchitti is not relied upon to disclose (claim 27) marking a location of the defect on the non-woven material based on the identification of the defect or (claim 28) wherein the location of the defect is marked on the non-woven material by a marking valve disposed downstream of the imaging unit.
Alper is an analogous reference from the same field of non-woven material defect inspection and includes a camera and flaw detection system using an image processing device 4, pgs. 3-4 Technical Problems which the Invention Aims to Solve.
Alper also teaches (claim 27) marking a location of the defect on the non-woven material based on the identification of the defect or (claim 28) wherein the location of the defect is marked on the non-woven material by a marking valve disposed downstream of the imaging unit {see label machine 6 which marks (marking 300) the locations of defective areas on the non-woven material that have been identified by the flaw detection/image processor 4 wherein the label machine is considered to include a “marking valve” within the BRI of this term consistent with the functional and broad disclosure thereof in [0035], [0047] of the published application).
It 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 to have modified Ciccchitti’s non-woven material defect inspection method to include marking a location of the defect on the non-woven material based on the identification of the defect and wherein the location of the defect is marked on the non-woven material by a marking valve disposed downstream of the imaging unit as taught by Alper because doing so increases final product quality and increases efficiency by enabling downstream precise removal of marked defects as motivated by Alper on pgs. 2, 3, and 8, because there is a reasonable expectation of success and/or because doing so merely combines prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 26, 29, and 31-33 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Although Cicchitti discloses the broader claims as noted above, the more detailed implementation recited in claims 26, 29, and 31-33 have not been disclosed or fairly suggested by the prior art of record.
Further in regards to claim 26 the prior art of record does not disclose or fairly suggest setting the length of the image to correspond to a length of one rotation of the anvil roll in combination with the limitations of claim 22 and intervening claim 23.
Further in regards to claim 29, while Cichhitti discloses classifying the defect into one of a plurality of categories the larger spectrum of defect categories recited in claim 29 in combination with the remaining elements of claim 29 and base claim 22 have not disclosed or fairly suggested by the prior art of record.
Further in regards to claim 31, the prior art of record does not disclose or fairly suggest wherein the degree of the defect is determined based on a degree of melting of the non-woven material in combination with the limitations of claim 22 and intervening claim 30.
Further in regards to claim 32, the prior art of record does not disclose or fairly suggest wherein the image processing further comprises: determining a width of the non-woven material; and analyzing the cause of the defect based on the width of the non-woven material in combination with the limitations of claim 22.
In regards to claim 33, Yoshino (JP-2015212646-A) teaches detecting a basis weight or a dimension of the non-woven material as per pgs. 3-7 but none of the prior art discloses or fairly suggests also analyzing the cause of the defect based on the detected basis weight or dimension of the non-woven material in combination with the limitations of claim 22.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Bulnes FG, Usamentiaga R, García DF, Molleda J. Vision-based sensor for early detection of periodical defects in web materials. Sensors (Basel). 2012;12(8):10788-809. doi: 10.3390/s120810788. Epub 2012 Aug 6. PMID: 23112629; PMCID: PMC3472857 teaches methods for detecting periodic and partial-periodic defects. See Section 3.
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/MICHAEL ROBERT CAMMARATA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2667