DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Priority
2. Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Status
3. Claims 23-42 are pending in this application. Claims 1-22 were canceled by preliminary amendment and claims 23-42 are new.
Specification
4. The specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification. MPEP § 608.01.
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.
5. Claim 26 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being incomplete for omitting essential structural cooperative relationships of elements, such omission amounting to a gap between the necessary structural connections. See MPEP § 2172.01. The omitted structural cooperative relationships are: the relation of the claimed carrier plate to the claimed robotic arm. The claim recites “…wherein the carrier plate is a robot arm.” However, the instant specification recites on P7/L6-7, “The carrier plate is arranged on a robot arm.” The structural relationship of the arrangement of two discrete devices disclosed in the specification appears to be misrepresented in the claim as a conflation of the two devices into a single structure. This confusion of identity amounts to a point of indefiniteness. For purposes of examination on the merits, any robotic loading and unloading devices that otherwise conform to applicant’s requirements in parent claims 25 and 23 and comprise robotic arms and/or carrier plates will be considered as fulfilling the requirements of the claim.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
6. Claims 23-24, 27-28, 30-31, 34, and 36-37 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Wolkerstorffer, et al., WO 2010135756 (hereinafter Wolkerstorffer).
7. Regarding claim 23,
Wolkerstorffer discloses:
A transport system for transporting a material unit (3: fig. 1) in material processing,Wolkerstorffer’s “order picking device”, the subject of its invention, (see abstract) is a transport system inasmuch as it is a complex set of machines that performs a transport function.
the transport system comprising: a container (2: fig. 1) with a plurality of compartments (28,30: fig. 6);Per applicant’s instant specification P2/L11-12, the container may be in the form of a shelf. The various conveyor-belt shelf surfaces of structure 2 in fig. 1 constitute the plurality of compartments.
and at least one loading device (6: fig. 1) configured to load and/or unload the compartments, wherein the at least one loading device comprises a carrier plate (25: fig. 1) configured to transport the material unit to the container and/or from the container, and wherein each compartment has a floor (15: fig. 1) configured to receive the material unit from the carrier plate or to transfer the material unit to the carrier plate.The various conveyors of fig. 1 such as 15 constitute the “floors” from which and to material units 3 can be received or transferred.
8. Regarding claim 24,
Wolkerstorffer discloses the limitations of claim 23 and also:
wherein the carrier plate is a conveyor belt (25: fig. 1) and the floors (15: fig. 1) are further conveyor belts, wherein the conveyor belt of the at least one loading device is configured to selectively drive the further conveyor belts ([0045],[0067]),
and wherein the conveyor belt of the at least one loading device comprises a first coupling element (26: figs. 1,5-6) and each of the further conveyor belts comprises a second coupling element (unnumbered far-right roller of 15: figs. 1, 5-6), the coupling elements being configured to be coupled mechanically to one another for loading and/or unloading.Fig. 1 shows the connected conveyor belts 25 of the carrier plate and 15 of the floors. Overdrive roller 26 connected to belt 25 serves as both a coupling element and a drive element that per [0045] and [0067] selectively drives the further conveyor belts. The second coupling element is the unnumbered roller of conveyor belt 15 to which overdrive roller 26 is coupled in the figure. This arrangement can be seen in greater detail in figs. 5-6. Lever assembly 44 and actuators 45-46 in those figures serve as additional coupling elements.
9. Regarding claim 27,
Wolkerstorffer discloses the limitations of claim 23 and also:
wherein the carrier plate and/or the floor is inclined to allow sliding of the material unit by weight of the material unit during transfer.This incline can be seen in fig. 1. The conveyors of the compartment floors are disclosed to be gravity-fed in [0041].
10. Regarding claim 28,
Wolkerstorffer discloses the limitations of claim 27 and also:
wherein the carrier plate is a conveyor belt and the floors are inclined.Carrier plate 25 is a conveyor belt as seen in fig. 1. Floor conveyor 15 is inclined in fig. 1.
11. Regarding claim 30,
Wolkerstorffer discloses the limitations of claim 23 and also:
wherein the at least one loading device comprises a positioning device (23: fig. 1) configured to vertically position the carrier plate.Device 23 may be telescopically adjustable per [0067] and [0074]. As seen in fig. 1 the device must be capable of vertical movement in order to access the stacked shelf conveyors 15.
12. Regarding claim 31,
Wolkerstorffer discloses the limitations of claim 23 and also:
wherein the at least one loading device comprises a shifting device configured to shift an end of the carrier plate towards and from the container.Figs. 5-8 disclose several means of shifting of carrier plate 25 and its roller 26 to engage with the container shelf conveyor plane 21. Structures 44-46 in fig. 6 engage and align the carrier plate and the container shelf. The difference of the positions of the shifted of ends is seen between figs. 7 and 8.
13. Regarding claim 34,
Wolkerstorffer discloses the limitations of claim 23 and also:
A facility for the [sic] material processing, the facility comprising: one or more transport systems (1: fig. 1) according to claim 23.Wolkerstorffer discloses at least one transport system in the form of order picking device 1 which comprises at least one place of operation, order picking storing station 9. We hold that a facility is inherent in the idea of the picking device and the station, which must be situated in some material-handling facility such as the rack warehouse Wolkerstorffer discloses in [0004]. As the facility is only claimed to comprise a transport system, no other reference need be cited in rejection.
14. Regarding claim 36,
Wolkerstorffer discloses the limitations of claim 23 and also:
A method for transporting the material unit (3: fig. 1) in the [sic] material processing, the method comprising: providing the transport system according to claim 23; arranging a support plate (16, 42: fig. 5) of the loading device at a floor of one of the compartments;Wolkerstorffer discloses arranging a support plate as support member 16 and bottom of support member 42 at the floor 15 of a compartment in fig. 5,
and transferring the material unit between the at least one loading device (6: fig. 1) and the container (2: fig. 1).Wolkerstorffer discloses the transfer in [0012] and [0046], but this process is also plain from fig. 1.
15. Regarding claim 37,
Wolkerstorffer discloses the limitations of claim 36 and also:
wherein the carrier plate is a conveyor belt (25: fig. 1) and the floors (15: fig. 1) are further conveyor belts, wherein the conveyor belt of the loading device has a first coupling element (26: figs. 1,5-6) and each of the further conveyor belts has a second coupling element (unnumbered far-right roller of 15: figs. 1, 5-6),
wherein the coupling elements are configured to be coupled mechanically to one another for loading and/or unloading, wherein the first coupling element is coupled with the second coupling element of one of the further conveyor belts, and wherein the conveyor belt of the loading device selectively drives the one of the further conveyor belts for transferring the material unit between the loading device and the container ([0045],[0067]).Fig. 1 shows the connected conveyor belts 25 of the carrier plate and 15 of the floors. Overdrive roller 26 connected to belt 25 serves as both a coupling element and a drive element that per [0045] and [0067] selectively drives the further conveyor belts. The second coupling element is the unnumbered roller of conveyor belt 15 to which overdrive roller 26 is coupled in the figure. This arrangement can be seen in greater detail in figs. 5-6. Lever assembly 44 and actuators 45-46 in those figures serve as additional coupling elements.
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.
16. Claims 25-26, 32. 38-39, and 42 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wolkerstorffer in view of Battles, et al., US 2017/0043953 (hereinafter Battles).
17. Regarding claims 25 and 38,
Wolkerstorffer teaches the limitations of claims 23 and 36, but not all aspects of:
(claim 25) wherein the at least one loading device comprises a loading device configured to load the compartments at a dispensing station and an unloading device configured to unload the compartments at a receiving station, and wherein the transport system is configured such that the container is transported from the dispensing station to the receiving station after loading.
(claim 38) wherein the transport system comprises a loading device for loading the compartments[AltContent: rect]at a dispensing station and an unloading device for unloading the compartments at a receiving station, and wherein the method further comprises transporting the container from the dispensing station to the receiving station after loading.While Wolkerstorffer discloses the claimed devices, it only explicitly discloses a receiving station. While it could be argued that loading device 6 is necessarily associated with a dispensing station because it must receive an input of material units from such a station, we will rely on another reference to teach the dispensing station explicitly.
Battles, an invention in the field of material handling, teaches the missing aspects of the limitations:
(claim 25) wherein the at least one loading device comprises a loading device (Wolkerstorffer, 6: fig. 1) configured to load the compartments at a dispensing station and an unloading device (Wolkerstorffer, 8: fig. 1) configured to unload the compartments at a receiving station (Wolkerstorffer, 9: fig.1), and wherein the transport system is configured such that the container is transported from the dispensing station (Battles, unnumbered) to the receiving station after loading.
(claim 38) wherein the transport system comprises a loading device (Wolkerstorffer, 6: fig.1) for loading the compartments[AltContent: rect]at a dispensing station and an unloading device (Wolkerstorffer, 8: fig. 1) for unloading the compartments at a receiving station (Wolkerstorffer, 9: fig.1), and wherein the method further comprises transporting the container from the dispensing station to the receiving station (Battles, unnumbered) after loading.Regarding both limitations, Battles teaches transport between several types of stations including an “induction station”, “pre-sorting station”, “a receive station”, and a “pick/stow station” in [0040]-[0042]. As applicant does not disclose definitions for their “dispensing” and “receiving” stations, we consider any source station from which materials are transported to be a dispensing station and any destination station to which they are transported to be a receiving station. Battles teaches robotic arms in [0039] which are known in the art to be usable for both loading and unloading operations. In this combination, any of Battles’ dispensing stations could be connected to Wolkerstorffer’s loading device 6.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to configure the system of Wolkerstorffer such that (i) wherein the at least one loading device comprises a loading device configured to load the compartments at a dispensing station and an unloading device configured to unload the compartments at a receiving station, and wherein the transport system is configured such that the container is transported from the dispensing station to the receiving station after loading and (ii) wherein the transport system comprises a loading device for loading the compartments[AltContent: rect]at a dispensing station and an unloading device for unloading the compartments at a receiving station, and wherein the method further comprises transporting the container from the dispensing station to the receiving station after loading, as taught by Battles, because loading and unloading stations of various kinds are commonplace in material handling facilities and any system that can transport materials in a material handling facility should be able to transport materials to and from such stations. Moreover, the process of loading and unloading materials to and from such stations plainly requires loading and unloading devices such as Battles’ robotic arms.
18. Regarding claim 26,
Wolkerstorffer in view of Battles teaches the limitations of claim 25 and also:
wherein each of the loading device and the unloading device are robots, and wherein the carrier plate is a robot arm.See rejection of claim 26 under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) above; per applicant’s disclosure, the carrier plate is not in fact a robot arm. Battles teaches the use of robot arms and AGVs (a type of mobile robot often used in loading and unloading operations) in [0038]-[0039]. Any device that comprises a robot arm must itself be a robot. [0038] teaches picking by the AGV, i.e. loading, and [0041] teaches the unloading of items transported by the AGV by a robot arm during sorting onto pallets,
19. Regarding claim 32,
Wolkerstorffer teaches the limitations of claims 23, but not:
wherein each of the compartments has at least one electronically readable marking in which information about the material unit located in an associated compartment is determinable from the readable marking.Wolkerstorffer does not disclose the marking.
Battles, an invention in the field of material handling, teaches the limitations:
wherein each of the compartments has at least one electronically readable marking in which information about the material unit located in an associated compartment is determinable from the readable marking.Battles teaches an electronically readable marking (RFID tag) in [0098] used to label its compartments, providing at least item and/or tote identification information, which corresponds to the claimed material unit information.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to configure the system of Wolkerstorffer wherein each of the compartments has at least one electronically readable marking in which information about the material unit located in an associated compartment is determinable from the readable marking, as taught by Battles, because electronically marking containers and compartments facilitates the identification of the container or compartment and its contents, and because barcodes and RFID tags are widely known in the art and have been used for many years for the claimed purpose.
20. Regarding claims 33 and 35,
Wolkerstorffer teaches the limitations of claims 23, but not:
(claim 33) further comprising a control device configured to control a weight of the material unit.
(claim 35) wherein the one or more transport system is arranged at an interface to a dispensing station designed as a weighing device or at an interface to a receiving station designed as a mixing device.Wolkerstorffer does not disclose a control device for controlling material unit weight or indeed any sort of weighing device.
Battles, an invention in the field of material handling, teaches the limitations:
(claim 33) further comprising a control device (607: fig. 6) configured to control a weight of the material unit.Battles teaches an automated check-weight station in [0090].
(claim 35) wherein the one or more transport system (603: fig. 6) is arranged at an interface to a dispensing station designed as a weighing device (607: fig. 6) or at an interface to a receiving station designed as a mixing device.Battles teaches an automated check-weight station in [0090]. In fig. 6 this station 607 is seen to be interfaced with a transport system, conveyor 603.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to configure the system of Wolkerstorffer (claim 33) further comprising a control device configured to control a weight of the material unit, and (claim 35) wherein the one or more transport system is arranged at an interface to a dispensing station designed as a weighing device or at an interface to a receiving station designed as a mixing device, as taught by Battles, because controlling the weight of materials in a material handling facility is a commonplace and widespread requirement in such facilities and because instruments capable of measuring, confirming, and controlling the weight of materials are well-known in the art and have been widely used for many years. Moreover, since materials in such a facility must be transported as part of their handling, it is commonplace in the art to weigh them during transport.
21. Regarding claim 39,
Wolkerstorffer in view of Battles teaches the limitations of claim 38 and also:
wherein the floors (15: figs. 5-6) have an inclination, and wherein the support plate (42: fig. 5; 44: fig. 6) is inclined for transferWolkerstorffer’s floor 15 is seen to have an inclination in figs. 5-6 along with support member 16 and bottom of support member 42 in fig. 5. Structure 44 in fig. 6 also functions as an inclined support plate.
22. Regarding claim 42,
Wolkerstorffer discloses:
A transport system for transporting a material unit (3: fig. 1) in material processing,
the transport system comprising: a container (2: figs. 1) with a plurality of compartments (28,30: fig. 6); Per the instant specification P2/L11-12, the container may be in the form of a shelf. The various conveyor-belt shelf surfaces of structure 2 in fig. 1 constitute the plurality of compartments.
wherein each of the compartments has a floor (15: fig. 1) configured to receive the material unit from the carrier plate (25: fig. 1) or to transfer the material unit to the carrier plate, wherein the carrier plate is a conveyor belt and the floors are further conveyor belts, wherein the conveyor belt of the loading device are configured to selectively drive the further conveyor belts, wherein the conveyor belt of the loading device has a first coupling element (26: fig. 1) and each of the further conveyor belts has a second coupling element (unnumbered far-right roller of 15: fig. 1), the coupling elements being configured to be mechanically coupled to one another for loading and/or unloading, Fig. 1 shows the connected conveyor belts 25 of the carrier plate and 15 of the container. Overdrive roller 26 connected to belt 25 serves as both a coupling element and a drive element that per the claim selectively drives the further conveyor belts. The second coupling element is the unnumbered roller of conveyor belt 15 to which overdrive roller 26 is coupled in the figure. This arrangement can be seen in greater detail in figs. 5-6. Lever assembly 44 and actuators 45-46 in those figures serve as additional coupling elements.
wherein each of the loading device (6: fig 1) and the unloading device (7: fig. 1) has a carrier plate (16,25: fig. 1) configured to transport the material unit to the container and/or from the container,
However, Wolkerstorffer does not disclose all aspects of:
and at least one loading device (6: fig 1) configured to load the compartments at a dispensing station and at least one unloading device (8: fig. 1) configured to unload the compartments at a receiving station (9: fig. 1),Wolkerstorffer only explicitly discloses a receiving station. While it could be argued that loading device 6 is necessarily associated with a dispensing station because it must receive an input of material units from such a station, we will rely on another reference to teach the dispensing station explicitly.
and wherein the transport system is configured such that the container is transported from the dispensing station to the receiving station after loading.Again Wolkerstorffer does not explicitly disclose a dispensing station, only a receiving station.
Battles, an invention in the field of material handling, teaches the limitations:
and at least one loading device (Wolkerstorffer, 6: fig. 1) configured to load the compartments at a dispensing station (Battles, unnumbered) and at least one unloading device Wolkerstorffer, 8: fig. 1) configured to unload the compartments at a receiving station (Wolkerstorffer, 9: fig.1),
and wherein the transport system is configured such that the container is transported from the dispensing station (Battles, unnumbered) to the receiving station (Wolkerstorffer, 9: fig.1) after loading.Regarding both the above limitations, Battles teaches transport between several types of stations including an “induction station”, “pre-sorting station”, “a receive station”, and a “pick/stow station” in [0040]-[0042]. As applicant does not disclose definitions for their “dispensing” and “receiving” station, we consider any source station from which materials are transported to be a dispensing station and any destination station to which they are transported to be a receiving station. Battles teaches robotic arms in [0039] which are known in the art to be usable for both loading and unloading operations. In this combination, any of Battles’ dispensing stations would be connected to Wolkerstorffer’s loading device 6.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to configure the system of Wolkerstorffer, with (i) and at least one loading device configured to load the compartments at a dispensing station and at least one unloading device configured to unload the compartments at a receiving station, and (ii) and wherein the transport system is configured such that the container is transported from the dispensing station to the receiving station after loading, as taught by Battles, because loading and unloading stations of various kinds are commonplace in material handling facilities and any system that can transport materials in a material handling facility should be able to transport materials to and from such stations. Moreover, the process of loading and unloading materials to and from such stations plainly requires loading and unloading devices such as Battle’s robotic arms.
23. Claim 29 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wolkerstorffer in view of Beer, et al., US 2018/0346255 (hereinafter Beer).
Wolkerstorffer discloses the limitations of claim 23, but not:
wherein each of the compartments has a selectively openable wall on an unloading side of the container.Wolkerstorffer does not disclose openable compartment walls.
Beer, an invention in the field of material handling, teaches:
wherein each of the compartments (1: figs. 1-3) has a selectively openable wall (6a-f: figs. 1-3) on an unloading side of the container.Beer teaches this arrangement in general terms in [0015]-[0017] and in more detail in [0111]-[0113] and [0117]. Figs. 6-7 show the selectively openable walls with wall 6a open in fig. 7.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to configure the system of Wolkerstorffer, wherein each of the compartments has a selectively openable wall on an unloading side of the container, as taught by Beer because selectively openable compartment walls provide a simple and convenient means of selectively loading or unloading materials to or from a compartment, and because such walls have been well-known in the art for many years.
24. Claim 40 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wolkerstorffer in view of DE 202011107073 (hereinafter DE1).
Wolkerstorffer discloses the limitations of claim 23, but not:
wherein the carrier plate is inserted into the compartment to be loaded for transferring the material unit.Wolkerstorffer does not disclose this insertion.
DE1, an invention in the field of material handling, teaches:
wherein the carrier plate (3: fig. 3) is inserted into the compartment to be loaded for transferring the material unit (6: fig. 3).DE1 teaches the insertion of a platform (used to carry load carriers per [0006]) into a compartment in [0021]: “The opposite storage compartments allow the storage platforms to be inserted so that their first long sides face each other.”
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to configure the system of Wolkerstorffer, wherein the carrier plate is inserted into the compartment to be loaded for transferring the material unit, as taught by DE1, because compartments may be accessed by reaching into the compartments, and a wide variety of devices including plates, forks, arms, fingers, etc. are routinely used both in carrying and transferring containers (as per a fork-lift’s conventional operation, for example) and also for loading and unloading articles to and from compartments.
25. Claim 41 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wolkerstorffer in view of Battles and further in view of Cunat, et al., FR 2964957 (hereinafter Cunat).
Wolkerstorffer in view of Battles teaches the limitations of claim 36, but not:
wherein the material processing is a processing of rubber and/or silicon materialsNeither reference teaches particular material types that are handled by their system. Both are presumably capable of handling both rubber and silicon, however.
Cunat, an invention in the field of material handling, teaches the limitation:
wherein the material processing is a processing of rubber and/or silicon materialsCunat explicitly teaches handling rubber materials in paragraph 1 of the Description on page 1.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to configure the system of Wolkerstorffer and Battles, wherein the material processing is a processing of rubber and/or silicon materials, as taught by Cunat, because many industries require the handling of such materials and systems that handle these materials are well known and have been in widespread use for generations.
Conclusion
26. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US 3,743,116 and US 2005/0036871, among many other examples of prior art, teach loading and unloading stations in a material-handling facility.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LAURENCE RAPHAEL BROTHERS whose telephone number is (703)756-1828. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 0830-1700.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ernesto Suarez can be reached at (571) 270-5565. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ERNESTO A SUAREZ/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3655
LAURENCE RAPHAEL BROTHERS
Examiner
Art Unit 3655A
/L.R.B./ Examiner, Art Unit 3655