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 .
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Goh et al (US 2017/0022636) in further view of Oura et al (JPH08157565 with citations from the machine translation provided by the Office) and in further view of Kim et al (“Enhanced and Eco-Friendly Recycling of Carbon-Fiber-Reinforced plastics Using Water at Ambient Pressure”, ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. (2020), 8, 2433-2440 published on December 30, 2019).
Claim 1 is directed to a method of producing recycled reinforcing fibers, the method comprising: treating a fiber-reinforced resin material comprising a resin and reinforcing fibers with an acidic solution comprising an acid; and treating the fiber-reinforced resin material with a treatment solution comprising an oxidizing agent to dissolve at least part of the resin of the fiber-reinforced resin material in the treatment solution, wherein the resin comprises a resin component having a chemical structure with basic properties.
Goh discloses a method for separating filler material from a carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) comprising depolymerization of the cured thermosetting resin material comprising:
pretreatment of the cured thermosetting resin to increase the reaction surface area (see [0047]) and where the pretreatment comprises an acid composition (see [0171]);
depolymerization with a compound represented by the formula XOmYn wherein X is hydrogen, alkali metal, or alkaline earth metal, Y is a halogen and 1≤m≤8, 1≤n≤6 (see [0029]);
Recovering carbon fibers (see [0188-0189] and Examples 8-9).
Goh further discloses an example comprising pretreatment with an acetic acid, depolymerization with a sodium hypochlorite solution, and separation of carbon fiber filler (see Examples 8-9).
Therefore, Goh discloses a method comprising treating a fiber-reinforced resin material comprising a resin and reinforcing fibers with an acidic solution (swelling pretreatment of the fiber reinforced composite material with acidic material) and subsequently treating the fiber-reinforced resin material to dissolve at least part of the resin (i.e., the decomposition by depolymerization with sodium hypochlorite).
Goh does not explicitly disclose the resin component having a chemical structure with basic properties. Goh does not explicitly disclose depolymerization agent comprises an oxidizing agent.
Regarding the resin component having a chemical structure with basic properties, Goh further discloses the cured thermosetting resin comprising a curing agent comprising an amine group, acid anhydride group, imidazole group, and mercaptan group in its molecular structure (see [0068]). As admitted in the Specification as filed an amine-cured epoxy resin is a resin component having a basic structure (see [0008] and [0032]). Furthermore, Oura discloses that amine type curing accelerators have high basicity and have a high curing rate of the epoxy resin so that they are high speed (See Description of Related Art, [0002]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing of the invention for the cured thermosetting epoxy resin as disclosed by Goh to comprise the reaction product of an amine curing agent with high basicity as disclosed by Oura since it is a curing agent with high curing rate and speed.
Regarding the depolymerization agent comprising an oxidizing agent, Kim discloses a method for recycling of carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, the method comprising depolymerization with an NaOCl (i.e., sodium hypochlorite) solution where sodium hypochlorite is a strong oxidizing agent (see Page 2434, Col 1, ¶2) and depolymerization occurs by oxidative cleavage of C-N bonds (see Page 2436, Column 2, ¶2). Kim further discloses that chemical depolymerization using oxidative species is the most efficient method that consumes less energy, uses less hazardous materials, requires mild conditions and achieve fast reaction times (see Page 2434, Col 1, ¶1). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing of the invention to perform the method as disclosed by Goh where decomposition comprises depolymerization by an oxidizing agent as disclosed by Kim since chemical depolymerization with oxidizing agents is efficient, less hazardous and fast as suggested by Kim.
Regarding claim 2, Goh discloses an example where the organic catalyst is acetic acid (i.e., an acid with a pKa of 4.5).
Regarding claim 3, Goh discloses acetic acid (see Example 8-9).
Regarding claim 4, Goh discloses where pretreatment comprises 100 mL of 99% acetic acid (i.e., where the 99% acetic acid has a concentration of 17.3 mol/L) (see Example 8-9).
Regarding claim 5, Goh discloses methods comprising acids as the depolymerization agents (see Examples 10-14 and Comparative Example 3). Kim also discloses that nitric acid/H2O2 oxidatively depolymerizes epoxy resin (see Page 2434, ¶1).
Regarding claim 6, Goh discloses a method comprising nitric acid as a depolymerization agent (see Comparative example 3). Kim also discloses that nitric acid/H2O2 oxidatively depolymerizes epoxy resin (see Page 2434, ¶1). Although Goh discloses that the nitric acid is inferior to sodium hypochlorite in dissolution speed, Goh’s disclosure of using nitric acid for depolymerization agent is evidence that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing of the invention to use nitric acid for fully dissolving the resin absent evidence of new and unexpected results compared to sodium hypochlorite as an oxidizer.
Regarding claims 7-8, Goh discloses a process where the cured epoxy resin to be decomposed includes polymer resins and where the polymer resin is at least one selected from the group consisting of an acrylic resin, olefin resin, phenol resin, natural rubber synthetic rubber, aramid resin, polycarbonate, polyethylene terephthalate, polyurethane, polyamide, polyvinyl chloride, polyester, polystyrene, polyacetal, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene and styrene acrylonitrile (see [0178]). Goh also discloses a process where the composite comprises additional polymer resins (see [0064]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing of the invention to perform the method as disclosed by Goh, Oura, and Kim where the cured thermoplastic resin further comprises a polyamide polymer resin (i.e., a polymer with primary, secondary, and/or tertiary amides and where amides are N-C basic structures in the polymer backbone) as disclosed in Goh since Goh discloses that sodium hypochlorite depolymerizes cured thermosetting resins comprising polyamide polymer resins.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL FORREST whose telephone number is (571)270-5833. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday (10AM-6PM).
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Sally A Merkling can be reached at (571)272-6297. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MICHAEL FORREST/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1738
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