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 .
This communication is responsive to application filed on 03/24/2023.
Claims 1-3 have been withdrawn.
Claims 4-13 are presented for examination.
Election/Restrictions
Claims 1-3 have withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 08/18/2025.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 03/24/2023 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 4-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.
Step 1 (Does this claim fall within at least one statutory category?):
Claims 4-13 are directed to a method.
Therefore, claims 4-13 fall into at least one of the four statutory categories.
Step 2A, Prong 1: ((a) identify the specific limitation(s) in the claim that recites an abstract idea: and (b) determine whether the identified limitation(s) falls within at least one of the groups of abstract ideas enumerates in MPEP 2106.04(a)(2)):
Claim 4:
A method for designing a caliper for a disk brake system using computer aided optimization (CAO), the method comprising: a simulation of mechanical properties and a simulation of thermal properties [“mental process i.e. concepts performed in the human mind or with pen and paper (including an observation, evaluation judgement, opinion) and/or mathematical concepts], wherein
the mechanical properties and thermal properties are determined for a first model of the caliper, having an initial package volume [“mental process i.e. concepts performed in the human mind or with pen and paper (including an observation, evaluation judgement, opinion) and/or mathematical concepts],
a set of constraints is determined for the mechanical properties [“mental process i.e. concepts performed in the human mind or with pen and paper (including an observation, evaluation judgement, opinion) and/or mathematical concepts],
the mechanical properties and thermal properties are determined for further models of the caliper [“mental process i.e. concepts performed in the human mind or with pen and paper (including an observation, evaluation judgement, opinion) and/or mathematical concepts], the further models having cooling features in predetermined sections of the caliper [“mental process i.e. concepts performed in the human mind or with pen and paper (including an observation, evaluation judgement, opinion) and/or mathematical concepts], the cooling features including at least one protrusion and/or at least one recess [“mental process i.e. concepts performed in the human mind or with pen and paper (including an observation, evaluation judgement, opinion) and/or mathematical concepts],
wherein a final design is selected among the further models, based on the conditions:
(a) the model of the final design meets the constraints for the mechanical properties [“mental process i.e. concepts performed in the human mind or with pen and paper (including an observation, evaluation judgement, opinion) and/or mathematical concepts] and
(b) the model of the final design shows highest heat transfer to the environment among the further models and/or shows the lowest peak-temperature in a preselected region of the caliper [“mental process i.e. concepts performed in the human mind or with pen and paper (including an observation, evaluation judgement, opinion) and/or mathematical concepts].
Step 2A, Prong 2 (1. Identifying whether there are any additional elements recited in the claim beyond the judicial exception; and 2. Evaluating those additional elements individually and in combination to determine whether the claim as a whole integrates the exception into a practical application): The claim is directed to the judicial exception. Claim 1 has no additional limitations that integrate the abstract idea into a practical application.
Step 2B: (Does the claim recite additional elements that amount to significantly more than the judicial exception? No): Claim 1 has no additional limitations that integrate the abstract idea into an inventive concept.
As per claims 5-13, the claims fall into “mental process i.e. concepts performed in the human mind or with pen and paper (including an observation, evaluation judgement, opinion) and/or mathematical concepts and/or a generic computer element for performing generic computer functions”.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 4-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Belhocine et al (A. Belhocine, and M. Bouchetara, “Simulation of fully coupled thermomechanical brake discs”, pgs. 921-935, 2011) in view of PEVEC et al (M. PEVEC, I. POTRC, G. BOMBEK and D. VRANESEVIC, “PREDICTION OF THE COOLING FACTORS OF A VEHICLE BRAKE DISC AND ITS INFLUENCE ON THE RESULTS OF A THERMAL NUMERICAL SIMULATION”, pgs. 725-733, 2012).
1. (Withdrawn)
2. (Withdrawn)
3. (Withdrawn)
4. Belhocine et al discloses a method for designing a caliper for a disk brake system using computer aided optimization (CAO), the method comprising a simulation of mechanical properties and a simulation of thermal properties (See: Title, Simulation of fully coupled thermomechanical analysis of automotive brake discs; pg. 931, right side column, “8. Coupled thermomechanical analysis”, A commercial front disc brake system consists of a rotor that rotates about the axis of a wheel, a caliper–piston assembly where the piston slides inside the caliper, which is mounted to the vehicle suspension system, and a pair of brake pads), wherein the mechanical properties and thermal properties are determined for a first model of the caliper (See: pg. 922 left side column, second paragraph, present a numerical modeling in three dimensions to analyze the thermomechanical behavior of the full and ventilated disc brake. The strategy calculation based on the FE method will be carried out using code ANSYS 11. The transient thermal and structural analysis of the rotor disc of the disk brake is aimed at evaluating the performance of the disc brake rotor of a car under severe braking conditions and thereby assisting in disc rotor design and analysis; Table 2, material properties and thermal properties), having an initial package volume, a set of constraints is determined for the mechanical properties, the mechanical properties and thermal properties are determined for further models of the caliper (See: Table 2 Thermoelastic properties used in simulation),.
Belhocine et al does not specify but PEVEC et al discloses the further models having cooling features in predetermined sections of the caliper, the cooling features including at least one protrusion and/or at least one recess (See: pg. 726, left side column, The geometry of cooling channels was optimized to promote brake cooling…. The presented methodology will take the calculated cooling factors for known geometries into consideration and provide more accurate results for the thermal course during a standard sequential braking test. The results of the temperature distribution from the numerical analysis that considers cooling will be compared with the same analysis without cooling…., the cooling factors for brake discs will be calculated for two different brake disc regions. The factors will then be organized in such a way that they can be used as a boundary condition in a thermal analysis. In the second part, the thermal analysis of 10 sequent brakings will be made. First, the analysis will be conducted without consideration of cooling. The second identical analysis will take the previously calculated cooling factors into consideration. The results of the two analyses will then be compared to investigate the accuracy of the method that considers cooling; pg. 726, right side column, “3. NUMERICAL CALCULATION OF HEAT TRANSFER COEFFICIENTS” Averaged heat transfer coefficients for the two separate regions had to be calculated for all rotation speeds and temperatures), wherein a final design is selected among the further models, based on the conditions:(a) the model of the final design meets the constraints for the mechanical properties (See: pg. 731, left side column, The microcracks form on the friction surface below the brake pads where the temperature is the highest. With the addition of high stresses as a consequence of high loads during the brake operation (Yildiz and Duzgun, 2010), the combination of both can lead to a failure. Therefore, it is essential to construct a brake disc in such a way that the temperatures reached are as low as possible) and (b) the model of the final design shows highest heat transfer to the environment among the further models and/or shows the lowest peak-temperature in a preselected region of the caliper (See: pg. 731, left side column, 5.2. Analysis of the Results Considering Cooling The second analysis was identical to the first one, but the cooling was considered. The temperature- and speeddependent surface film condition with values obtained in the previous air flow analysis was applied. If we examine figure 12, it is evident that the maximal temperature is lower than the maximal temperature in the previous analysis (figure 11). At higher disc temperatures, the cooling gets more intense, and the temperature drop at the end of the braking phase is higher. The temperature course is not linear as in the previous analysis, but it has a curved shape as a result of cooling. If we were to continue the brake cycles, such as is performed in a thermal capacity procedure, which comprises 25 brakings (Cimos Developlent Group, 2009) the braking temperature would eventually stabilize at a certain value. The disc maximal temperature is 610o C, which is below the 700o C boundary value. Therefore, the brake disc design meets the requirements. It was later found that the same brake disc had a maximal temperature of just below 600o C during the physical vehicle test (Cimos Developlent Group, 2009). This result proves the accuracy of this numerical simulation method).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date to combine prediction of the cooling factors of a vehicle brake disc as taught by PEVEC et al to thermomechanical analysis of automotive brake discs of Belhocine et al would be to produce more accurate numerical results and enables the development engineer to develop suitable brake disc geometry in the early pretesting phase (PEVEC et al, Abstract).
5. Belhocine et al discloses the method according to claim 4, wherein the further models have a reduced volume with respect to the first model, wherein the cooling features are designed by omitting material in the predetermined sections of the caliper (See: pg. 930, right side column, The more the number of repetitions of braking increases, the more the maximum temperatures increases. The initial state of the disc changes after each cycle; the downtimes allow only one partial cooling. After each cooling phase, the disc begins to warm again).
6. Belhocine et al discloses the method according claim 4, wherein the simulation of thermal properties comprises a simulation of conduction and/or convection and/or radiation (See: pg. 924, “3.2. Form differential”, heat transfer by convection, heat transfer by radiation; equation 3, convection and radiation).
7. Belhocine et al discloses the method according to claim 4, wherein the simulation of thermal properties comprises a simulation of heat transfer to an environment (See: pg. 924, “3.4. Boundary conditions”, a heat transfer by convection on all the free sur-faces of the disc of which the exchange coefficient h depends on time, because the rotational speed of the disc varies with time).
8. Belhocine et al discloses the method according to claim 4, wherein the simulation of mechanical properties includes a simulation of stiffness, in particular a deflection calculation, and/or a simulation of strength, in particular a stress and/or strain calculation (See: Abstract, The numerical simulation for the coupled transient thermal field and stress field is carried out sequentially with the thermal-structural coupled method, based on ANSYS software, to evaluate the stress fields of deformations, which are established in the disc with the pressure of the pads and in the conditions of tightening of the disc), and/or a simulation of dynamic behaviour, in particular an eigenfrequency calculation, and/or a simulation of durability, in particular a fatigue value calculation (See: Abstract, The vehicle braking system is considered to be one of the most fundamental safety-critical systems in modern vehicles, as its main purpose is to stop or decelerate the vehicle. The frictional heat generated during braking application can cause numerous negative effects on the brake assembly, such as brake fade, premature wear, thermal cracks and disc thickness variation. In the past, surface roughness and wear at the pad interface have rarely been considered in studies of the thermal analysis of a disc brake assembly using the finite element method; pg. 921, I. Introduction, analyzed the transient temperature field and thermal fatigue fracture of the solid brake disc by a 3D thermal-mechanical coupling model), and/or a simulation of weight, in particular a mass and/or volume calculation.
9. Belhocine et al discloses the method according to claim 4, wherein the caliper comprises a housing portion with a cavity for holding a piston, the piston being configured for engaging with a first brake pad, a counter portion configured for holding a second brake pad, and a bridge portion connecting the housing portion and the counter portion, wherein the predetermined sections (See: pg. 931, right side column, “8. Coupled thermomechanical analysis”, A commercial front disc brake system consists of a rotor that rotates about the axis of a wheel, a caliper–piston assembly where the piston slides inside the caliper, which is mounted to the vehicle suspension system, and a pair of brake pads. When hydraulic pressure is applied, the piston is pushed forward to press the inner pad against the disc and simultaneously the outer pad is pressed by the caliper against the disc.2).
Belhocine et al does not specify but PEVEC et al discloses where the cooling features are provided, where in particular material is omitted, are a caliper wall delimiting the cavity of the housing portion and/or the bridge portion (See: Abstract, With the help of Computational Fluid Dynamics, the flow through a vehicle ventilated brake disc of known geometry was determined, and the wall heat transfer coefficients for all vehicle speeds and brake disc temperatures were calculated. The results were then imported into a thermal numerical simulation of a sequential braking vehicle test. The results showed that the consideration of cooling factors has a significant impact on temperature courses. To obtain accurate results from the numerical simulation and to simulate the vehicle test precisely, the proper wall heat transfer coefficients must be considered; pg. 726, right side column, “3.2. CFD Analysis of the Brake Disc”, The model for the calculation represents a 26,34o cakeslice-like region around the brake disc section with a height of 4x the brake disc height and a length of 3x the disc radius, as shown in Figure 3. Knowing that the most important region of the model is the area around the brake discs walls, the mesh was sized to provide good quality in this region; Figure 2. Geometry and basis dimensions of the analyzed brake disc; pg. 727, right side column, The Ansys CFX solver automatically calculates the heat transfer coefficient at the wall boundary using the following equation, where hc is a specified heat transfer coefficient, qw is the heat flux at the wall boundary, Tb is the specified boundary temperature (that is, outside the fluid domain) and Tnw is the temperature at the internal near–wall boundary element center node).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date to combine prediction of the cooling factors of a vehicle brake disc as taught by PEVEC et al to thermomechanical analysis of automotive brake discs of Belhocine et al would be to produce more accurate numerical results and enables the development engineer to develop suitable brake disc geometry in the early pretesting phase (PEVEC et al, Abstract).
10. Belhocine et al discloses the method according to claim 9, wherein the predetermined section, where the cooling features are provided, is or includes a portion of the caliper wall that is configured to face radially inward when the caliper is mounted in the disk brake system (See: pg. 934 right side column, the numerical simulation shows that radial ventilation plays a very significant role in cooling of the disc in the braking phase. The obtained results are very useful for the study of the thermomechanical behavior of the disc brake (stress, deformations, efficiency and wear); pg. 925, 5.2.8. Results of the calculation of the coefficient h. Figures 6and 7 show the variation of the heat transfer coefficient (h) of different surfaces, respectively for a full and ventilated disc in cast iron (FG 15) in the transient state. We found that after a short time all the curves of h are decreasing with time).
11. PEVEC et al discloses the method according to claim 4, comprising steps of optimizing the further models of the caliper, including topological optimization for identifying an optimal position of the cooling features, topographical optimization for identifying an optimal type of cooling features, shape optimization for identifying an optimal shape of the cooling features (See: pg. 726, left side column, The geometry of cooling channels was optimized to promote brake cooling (Palmer et al., 2009). It is reasonable to continue the work in this field, not only to investigate the optimal channel geometry for maximal cooling efficiency but also to include CFD calculations in the thermal numerical analysis. This is a new method that attempts to make numerical analysis as accurate as possible. The presented methodology will take the calculated cooling factors for known geometries into consideration and provide more accurate results for the thermal course during a standard sequential braking test. The results of the temperature distribution from the numerical analysis that considers cooling will be compared with the same analysis without cooling).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date to combine prediction of the cooling factors of a vehicle brake disc as taught by PEVEC et al to thermomechanical analysis of automotive brake discs of Belhocine et al would be to produce more accurate numerical results and enables the development engineer to develop suitable brake disc geometry in the early pretesting phase (PEVEC et al, Abstract).
12. PEVEC et al discloses the method according to claim 4, wherein the final design is selected among the further models, based on a peak temperature at a portion of the caliper wall, in particular at a portion of a surface of the caliper wall which limits the cavity for the piston (See: 732, left side column, Table 3: The results are shown in Table 3. The values represent the peak values measured during each braking and not the end values).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date to combine prediction of the cooling factors of a vehicle brake disc as taught by PEVEC et al to thermomechanical analysis of automotive brake discs of Belhocine et al would be to produce more accurate numerical results and enables the development engineer to develop suitable brake disc geometry in the early pretesting phase (PEVEC et al, Abstract).
13. PEVEC et al discloses the method according to claim 12, wherein a target temperature at the surface of the caliper wall is below 160°C (See: Table 1 disk temperatures for numerical calculation of heat transfer coefficients 25, 50, 100 below 160).
Conclusion
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KIBROM K. GEBRESILASSIE
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2189
/KIBROM K GEBRESILASSIE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2189 01/28/2026