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 application is a 371 of PCT/JP2020/048483 12/24/2020
DETAILED ACTION
The Applicant has elected Invention |I (claims 25-30) for the further prosecution as filed in the response dated 7/27/2026. Claims 16-24 have been withdrawn as non-elected claims; Claims 25-30 remain for Examination, wherein claim 25 is an independent claim.
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.
Claim(s) 25-30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sugimuraet al (US-PG-pub 2021/0339339 A1, listed in IDS filed on 6/23/2023, updated as US 11,745,290 B2, thereafter PG’339) in view of NISHIKAWA YOSUKE et al (JP 2018-168396 A, with on-line translation, filed in IDS dated on 2/16/2024, thereafter JP’396).
Regarding claim 25, PG’339 teaches a metal member-welded structure comprising: a Cu member; an Al member; and a welded portion formed by melting and solidifying each of materials of the Cu member and the Al member (Fig.1, claims, and examples of PG’339) with laser welding (par.[0025]-[0026] and [0156] of PG’339), which reads on the claimed welded structure with laser welding including Al alloy member and a welding mate metal member as claimed in the instant claim. PG’339 specify applying Ni plating layer on Al-based member (Fig.2, Par.[0120]-[0121], and claim 8 of PG’339). PG’339 indicates including 1-10 mm thickness of Ni plating layer (par.[0112]-[0113] of PG’339). But PG’339 does not specify the roughness of the Ni plated layer as claimed in the instant claim. JP’396 specify an aluminum alloy onboard bus bar and a production method thereof that can control the increase of contact resistance (abstract of JP’396). JP’396 teaches applying a Ni plating layer on the Al alloy on board bus bar with an arithmetic average surface roughness Sa of 20 nm or more. (Abstract, claims, and par.[0024] of JP’396). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to optimize the roughness of Ni plated layer on Al substrate as demonstrated by JP’396 for the Ni-plated Al member of PG’339 since in order to increase in contact resistance and reduce the costs. (par.[0024] of JP’396).
Regarding claim 26, Fig.1 of PG’339 indicates the structure including welded and un-welded portions of members, which reads on the claimed limitation as stated in the instant claim.
Regarding claim 27, PG’339 specify that: “The metal member-welded structure is excellent in joining strength between the Cu member and the Al member. A plurality of island portions exist in an area of the welded portion in the vicinity of the surface of the Cu member. Since the island portions contain pure Al, the island portions are relatively high in ductility. This is because the ductility in the vicinity of the surface of the Cu member tends to be high. This is also because the plurality of island portions are distributed in an area of the welded portion in the vicinity of the surface of the Cu member, so that the stress acting on the area in the vicinity of the surface is readily distributed. This is also because the plurality of island portions exist in an area of the welded portion in the vicinity of the surface of the Cu member, so that cracks are less likely to linearly propagate.” Which reads on the claimed plurality of welding mating member and weld portions as claimed in the instant claim.
Regarding claim 28, PG’339 teaches a metal member-welded structure comprising: a Cu member; an Al member; and a welded portion formed by melting and solidifying each of materials of the Cu member and the Al member (Fig.1, claims, and examples of PG’339) with laser welding (par.[0025]-[0026] and [0156] of PG’339), which reads on the Cu member as claimed in the instant claim.
Regarding claim 29, PG’339 indicates that Metal member-welded structure can be suitably utilized for various types of bus bars and vehicle-mounted battery modules. (par.[0141] of PG’339).
Regarding claim 30, PG’339 indicates that any type of laser including YAG laser may be applicable as long as it can melt Al member 3 and Cu member 2 to be welded to each other. (par.[0156] of PG’339).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JIE YANG whose telephone number is (571)270-1884. The examiner can normally be reached IFP.
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/JIE YANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1734
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