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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Species I, Figs. 1A-2C, claims 1-4 and 6-15, in the reply filed on 1/22/2026 is acknowledged.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities:
Page 8 line 12 recites “rotates to swivelling out” should be “rotates to swivel out”. Page 9 line 29 has the same problem.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Objections
Claim 4 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 4 does not have the degree symbol next to 10.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-2, 8-12, and 14-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Saito (JP 2000328601).
Regarding claim 1, Saito teaches of (fig. 1) a stair system (ladder 6) for a working machine having an upper carriage and a lower carriage pivotable against each other (stair system is on an excavator working machine that has an upper and lower carriage pivotable against each other) comprising:
a foldable ladder (fig. 3, ladder 6 overlays over itself such that it is a foldable ladder) movable between an upper end position and a lower end position (seen in fig. 3A, 3B),
wherein in the upper end position the ladder (6) is arrangeable at the working machine in a way that moving and pivoting of the working machine is not disturbed (fig. 3B, in the upper end position, it is out of the way such that the stair system 6 does not disturb the working machine when it moves and pivots) and wherein in the lower end position the ladder is able to provide access to the upper carriage of the working machine (seen in fig. 3A); and
a control system comprising at least one alignment sensor indicating alignment of the upper and lower carriage (sensor 7 detects a distance from a ladder 6 to the ground face or an obstacle in the vicinity of a position where a rise and fall type ladder 6 or a ladder of a revolving body 3 is attached; if the upper and lower carriages are not aligned, the sensor will sense an obstacle, such as a track chain);
a controller which is able to block or enable a movement of the foldable ladder based on an output of the alignment sensor (¶0005-0006, the sensor is for detecting the distance from the ladder to the ground or the obstacle. The driver's cab has a display on whether or not the ladder can be lowered by the distance detected by the sensor).
Regarding claim 2, Saito teaches of claim 1, and wherein the upper end position is between the upper and lower carriage (position seen in figs. 3A-3B of the ladder 6 is between the upper and lower carriage).
Regarding claim 8, Saito teaches of claim 1, and wherein the foldable ladder is arranged and constructed to be moved manually (a user can manually move the ladder from the two positions by using force).
Regarding claim 9, Saito teaches of claim 1, and further comprising at least one movement sensor detecting a moving state of the working machine and/or at least one position sensor detecting a position of the foldable ladder and/or at least one surveillance sensor for space surveillance of a range of motion of the foldable ladder (fig. 2, ¶0006-0011, of the options, sensor 7 on ladder 6 detects a distance from the ladder 6 to the ground or an obstacle and determines whether the ladder can be lowered),
wherein the controller is further able to block or enable a movement of the foldable ladder and/or the working machine based on an output of the movement sensor and/or the at least one position sensor and/or the at least one surveillance sensor (¶0006-0012, ladder 6 is automatically locked when the ladder 6 is lowered or pulled up based on if it is safe to lower ladder from the sensor 7).
Regarding claim 10, Saito teaches of claim 1, and wherein the stair system is an automatic stair system with a ladder drive system comprising at least one electrical or hydraulic, linearly extending, actuator and a coupling rod driving the foldable ladder (¶0005-0012, the sensor 7 detects electronically if it is safe to lower the ladder and the ladder is automatically locked or pulled up when it is safe to move the ladder).
Regarding claim 11, Saito teaches of claim 10, and (fig. 2) wherein the control system comprises at least two control elements to activate the ladder drive system, of which a first control element is arranged at a cabin of the working machine (¶0006-0009, sensor 7 connects to the driver’s cab 4 with a display means 8 to display whether the ladder can be lowered or not) and a second control element is arranged to be reachable from the ground (fig. 3A-3B, ¶00010, sensor 7 is reachable from the bottom of the ladder which is reachable from the ground).
Regarding claim 12, Saito teaches of claim 1, and (fig. 2) wherein the control system comprises a warning unit, which is able to output a warning signal to an operator if a movement of the foldable ladder and/or the working machine is blocked or enabled by the control system (¶0008, the driver's cab 4 is provided with display means 8 for displaying whether or not the distance from the ladder 6 detected by the sensor 7 to the ground or an obstacle can lower the ladder 6), wherein the warning signal differs depending on the sensor output leading to the block of the respective movement (differs on if there is an obstacle or not and if the ladder can be lowered).
Regarding claim 14, Saito teaches of a working machine having an upper and a lower carriage pivotable against each other (fig. 1, ¶0015, the working machine has an upper and lower carriage with a revolving structure 3 that is pivotable against the upper and lower carriage) with a stair system according claim 1 (claim 1 rejection above).
Regarding claim 15, Saito teaches of claim 14, and wherein the working machine is an excavator, a truck crane or a harvester (fig. 1, ¶0001, the working machine is a hydraulic excavator).
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 3, 4, and 6-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over in Saito view of Ellement (US 20090065301).
Regarding claim 3, Saito teaches of claim 1, but does not appear to teach of wherein the foldable ladder is arranged in horizontal position in the upper end position.
Ellement teaches of (fig. 4) wherein the foldable ladder (ladder 20) is arranged in horizontal position in the upper end position (seen in fig. 4).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Saito to incorporate the teachings of Ellement of wherein the foldable ladder is arranged in horizontal position in the upper end position in order to store the ladder away from the under carriage and the ground such that it would less likely get caught on debris or dirt or when the working machine is pivoting.
Regarding claim 4, Saito teaches of claim 1, and wherein in the lower end position the ladder has an angle in the range of 10° to 30° to a vertical direction of the working machine (fig. 3B, in the lower end position, the ladder 6 is in the range of 10° to 30° to a vertical direction of the working machine) and/or wherein a turning radius of the ladder is not larger than a turning radius of a door of the working machine (of the options, Saito teaches the angle option).
Regarding claim 6, Saito teaches of claim 1, but does not appear to teach of wherein the foldable ladder comprises a folding construction having two centres of rotation.
Ellement teaches of (figs. 2-4) wherein the foldable ladder comprises a folding construction having two centres of rotation (figs. 2-4, ¶0044, 0055, 0058, the foldable ladder 20 provides rotation in two dimensions about a pivot 60. The pivot rotates to a vertical and horizontal position and rotates the angle of the ladder about secondary pivots 62).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Saito to incorporate the teachings of Ellement of wherein the foldable ladder comprises a folding construction having two centres of rotation in order to reduce the amount of space taken up by the ladder as motivated by Ellement in para. 0055.
Regarding claim 7, Saito as modified teaches of claim 6, but does not appear to teach of wherein the foldable ladder comprises a bearing fork which is pivotably connectable to the working machine and at which two ladder stringers are pivotably arranged, wherein the bearing fork is pivotably connectable to a main bracket of the working machine.
Ellement teaches of (fig. 7) wherein the foldable ladder (20) comprises a bearing fork (pivot 60) which is pivotably connectable to the working machine (seen in fig. 9) and at which two ladder stringers (long members 29) are pivotably arranged (secondary pivots 62), wherein the bearing fork (60) is pivotably connectable to a main bracket of the working machine (attached to the elevated platform of the working machine).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Saito to incorporate the teachings of Ellement of wherein the foldable ladder comprises a bearing fork which is pivotably connectable to the working machine and at which two ladder stringers are pivotably arranged, wherein the bearing fork is pivotably connectable to a main bracket of the working machine in order to pivot the ladder along the working machine to save space as motivated by Ellement in para. 0055.
Claim 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over in Saito view of Edelen et al. (US 20160101739), hereinafter Edelen.
Regarding claim 13, Saito teaches of claim 10, but does not appear to teach of further comprising an actuator sensor for a status of the electrical or hydraulic actuator and wherein the control system is further able to block or enable a movement of the foldable ladder based on an output of the actuator sensor.
Edelen teaches of (fig. 5) further comprising an actuator sensor for a status of the electrical or hydraulic actuator (¶0038, actuator can be an electric or hydraulic actuator) (¶0056, force sensor 80 detects the amount of force applied by actuator 36 and to determine if the actuator is operating within predetermined force parameters to move ladder section 14) and wherein the control system is further able to block or enable a movement of the foldable ladder based on an output of the actuator sensor (¶0056, the control system blocks, or stops, movement of the ladder if the actuator sensor detects that the force exceeds predetermined force parameters, and the control system allows the actuator to keep moving and applying force so long as the force applied to the opening operation does not exceed the predetermined force threshold).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Saito to incorporate the teachings of Edelen of further comprising an actuator sensor for a status of the electrical or hydraulic actuator and wherein the control system is further able to block or enable a movement of the foldable ladder based on an output of the actuator sensor in order to ensure correct operation of the actuator, and to prevent damage to the actuator and persons from injury as motivated by Edelen in para. 00056.
Conclusion
The cited references made of record in the contemporaneously filed PTO-892 form and not relied upon in the instant office action are considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure, and may have one or more of the elements in Applicant’s disclosure and at least claim 1.
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/ZOE TAM TRAN/ Examiner, Art Unit 3647