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 .
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.
Election/Restrictions
Claims 4-13 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention and/or species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 02/28/2024.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 18 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 18 recites the limitation "the toner" in the 2nd and 3rd lines. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. It is unclear with of the previously recited toners this limitation attempts to recite. It is also unclear how “the toner” (a singular same toner) can be suppressed at either of the first nip portion or the second nip portion, as could be interpreted from the claim language.
Claim(s) 1, 15-17 and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 10,120,323 to Shimizu et al. in view of US 2018/0181051 to Yoshida et al. and US 2015/0037054 to Nagata et al.
Regarding claim 1, Shimizu teaches an image forming apparatus (Fig.5) for forming an image on a recording material, the image forming apparatus comprising: a first cartridge Sy detachably mountable to the image forming apparatus, the first cartridge comprising a first photosensitive drum 1y; a first charging roller 2y configured to charge a surface of the first photosensitive drum; and a first developing roller (within 4y) configured to contact the surface of the first photosensitive drum and form a first toner image by developing a first electrostatic latent image with first toner; a second cartridge Sm detachably mountable to the image forming apparatus, the second cartridge comprising a second photosensitive drum 1m; a second charging roller 2m configured to charge a surface of the second photosensitive drum; and a second developing roller (within 4m) configured to contact the surface of the second photosensitive drum and form a second toner image by developing a second electrostatic latent image with second toner (image forming units Sy-Sk are construed as exchangeable cartridges, i.e., process cartridges; Fig.5, col. 3 line 57- col. 4 line 14);
an exposing device 3y, 3m configured to form the first electrostatic latent image on the surface of the first photosensitive drum and to form the second electrostatic latent image on the surface of the second photosensitive drum;
an intermediary transfer belt 6 onto which the first toner image and the second toner image are respectively transferred at a first nip portion which is a contact portion with the first photosensitive drum, and at a second nip portion which is a contact portion with the second photosensitive drum;
a first transfer member 105y contacting an inner circumferential surface of the intermediary transfer belt at a position downstream of the first nip portion in a rotational direction of the intermediary transfer belt;
a second transfer member 105m contacting the inner circumferential surface of the intermediary transfer belt at a position downstream of the second nip portion in the rotational direction of the intermediary transfer belt;
a voltage power source 50 configured to apply a transfer voltage to the first transfer member and the second transfer member; and
a controller (inherent) configured to control a first potential difference between the transfer voltage applied by the voltage power source to the first transfer member and a first potential formed by the exposing device on the surface of the first photosensitive drum, and a second potential difference between the transfer voltage applied by the voltage power source in
wherein, by applying the transfer voltage to the, first transfer member and the second transfer member from the voltage power source, current supplied from the first transfer member flows in the rotational direction of the intermediary transfer belt to the first nip portion, and current supplied from the second transfer member flows in the rotational direction of the intermediary transfer belt to the second nip portion, so that the controller controls transfer of the first toner image and the second toner image from the first photosensitive drum and the second photosensitive drum, respectively, to the intermediary transfer belt (col. 6 lines 8-15, col. 8 line 61- col.9 line 11).
Shimizu does not disclose the intermediate transfer belt comprising a first layer and a second layer; the belt of Shimizu is comprised of an ionic conductive layer.
Yoshida discloses an image forming apparatus for forming an image on a recording material, the image forming apparatus comprising: a first cartridge a comprising a first photosensitive drum 1a, a first charging roller 2a, and a first developing roller 42a; a second cartridge b comprising a second photosensitive drum 1b; a second charging roller 2b, and a second developing roller 42b; an exposing device 3a-3d;
an intermediary transfer belt 10 comprising a first layer ionic conductive layer 10a having conductivity and a second layer 10b having conductivity and a lower resistance value than that of the first layer, the second layer being provided on a side opposite to a side on which the first nip portion and the second nip portion are formed [0050];
a voltage power source 15 configured to apply a transfer voltage to the first nip portion and the second nip portion [0037]; and
a controller 13 configured to control a first potential difference between the transfer voltage applied by the voltage power source in the first nip portion and a first potential formed by the exposing device on the surface of the first photosensitive drum, and a second potential difference between the transfer voltage applied by the voltage power source in the second nip portion and a second potential formed by the exposing device on the surface of the second photosensitive drum[0036];
wherein, by applying the transfer voltage to the intermediary transfer belt from the voltage power source, the controller transfers the first toner image and the second toner image from the first photosensitive drum and the second photosensitive drum, respectively, to the intermediary transfer belt by flowing a current in a circumferential direction of the intermediary transfer belt (Fig.4, [0036, 0052]).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the multilayer belt disclosed by Yoshida in the apparatus of Shimizu such that
the intermediary transfer belt comprises a first layer having conductivity and a second layer having conductivity and a lower resistance value than that of the first layer, the second layer being provided on a side opposite to a side on which the first nip portion and the second nip portion are formed;
wherein, by applying the transfer voltage from the voltage power source, current flows through the second layer in the rotational direction of the intermediary transfer belt to the first nip portion, and current flows through the second layer in the rotational direction of the intermediary transfer belt to the second nip portion,
for at least the purpose of suppressing variation in the primary transfer voltage caused by variation in the electric resistance of the ionically-conductive base layer, thus it is possible to suppress occurrence of the image defect (Yoshida: [0053]).
Shimizu nor Yoshida explicitly teach controlling the first potential difference and the second potential difference based on information related to a usage state of the toner.
Nagata discloses a toner charging amount (Q/M) decreases over time according to a number of printed sheets (Fig.3) causing an optimal value for the primary transfer current at the later time to shift toward the smaller absolute value side compared to that at the initial time, making it desirable to make adjustments to the applied primary transfer bias in accordance with the degree of deterioration of the developer [0064]. Nagata further states transferability (i.e. transfer rate) increases with applied bias and the toner charge amount (Q/M) on the photoconductor as a result-effective variables affecting the transfer rate and therefor image density/quality [0106-0107].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to configure the apparatus of Shimizu such that the controller controls the first potential difference and the second potential difference based on information related to a usage state of the toner, for at least the purpose of ensure good transferability according to changes in toner charging amount over time.
The resulting image forming apparatus according to the modifications above further renders obvious:
(claim 17) An image forming apparatus according to Claim 1, wherein the first transfer member is positioned downstream of a first line perpendicular to the intermediary transfer belt from a center of the first photosensitive drum, and the second transfer member is positioned downstream of a second line perpendicular to the intermediary transfer belt from a center of the second photosensitive drum (Shimizu: Fig.5).
Regarding claims 19, 15, and 16, Nagata further discloses setting an initial optimal transfer bias at the start of the use and executing primary transfer correction at intervals thereafter (Fig.2 & 8, [0062, 0091, 0094, 0110]). Nagata discloses correction (decrease) to the primary transfer current is performed at a constant (i.e., steady, linear) execution time interval (e.g., 200 sheets) from the start of use until a number-of-sheets threshold value is reached (Fig.8, [0121-0123]).
It would have been further obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to configure an image forming apparatus according to Claim 1 such that
(claim 19) the information related to the usage state of the toner is a number of printed sheets of the recording material, and wherein the controller controls the transfer voltage so that the transfer voltage becomes lower as the number of printed sheets increases;
(claim 15) wherein the controller controls so that the transfer voltage becomes linearly lower from an initial value of the transfer voltage at a time when the number of printed sheets is zero as the number of printed sheets increases until the number of printed sheets becomes a predetermined number, and so as to maintain the transfer voltage at a constant value after the number of printed sheets reaches the predetermined cumulative number.
Regarding claim 16, in a case of replacing any of the cartridges in the apparatus, in light of Nagata’s teachings, an initial (higher) optimal transfer bias would be set and adjusted thereafter. Since in the apparatus of Shimizu, a same primary transfer voltage is set for all image forming units (i.e., cartridges), the features wherein when the first cartridge or the second cartridge is exchanged, the controller restores the transfer voltage to the initial value regardless of the number of printed sheets, and controls the transfer voltage based on the number of printed sheets after restoring the number of printed sheets, is also anticipated.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 18 is not currently subject to a prior art rejection, but allowable subject matter cannot be determined due to the impact that possible amendments relating to rejections under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) may have on the claim meaning and scope.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ARLENE HEREDIA whose telephone number is (571)272-8393. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 9:30-5:30.
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/Arlene Heredia Ocasio/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2852
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