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 § 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.
Claim(s) 1-6 and 17-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Uckelmann et al. (US20130108726A1).
Regarding Claims 1 and 6, Ucklemann teaches a powder additive manufacturing apparatus comprising:
a plurality of molding stages (substrate plate stacks 112a-c, [0196] each including a main surface over which powder can be placed, the powder being an object to be processed; (Fig 2)
a stage conveyance mechanism (conveying belt 120) configured to convey the plurality of molding stages in a process proceeding direction 131 in a processing area including a plurality of processing sections in which the plurality of molding stages is arranged along the process proceeding direction; (See Figure 2)
and a plurality of elevation control mechanisms configured to control heights of the plurality of molding stages, respectively, in the processing area (See Figure 2); and the stages are connected in such a way that the platform can be changed in a vertical direction
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Regarding Claims 2-3 and 5, the conveyance mechanism comprises a conveyance part formed in a loop and configured to circulate and convey the molding stages (interlocked with the belt) in the loop where a drive unit is considered to be present configured to drive the conveyance part and the part circulates along a vertical plane (See Figure 2)
Regarding Claim 4, in Fig 11, the conveyance part is taught to be higher upstream and lower downstream.
Regarding Claim 17-18, the plate stacks have several coating devices (plurality of recoaters) configured to spread powder across the molding stages[0235] where the recoaters are parallel to each other (See 630a-c of Figure 7) where the recoaters move in a reciprocal (up and down) to different height layers in a direction perpendicular to the direction of process processing [0235]
Regarding Claims 19-20, the method steps are taught by the prior art of:
Conveying the plate stacks, lowering each molding stage, spreading and coating powder, applying laser to cure each laser and repeating a number of times until the objects are built [0216-0220] (see previous rejections for additional limitations)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-16 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The closest prior art is Ucklemann et al. as used above, however the prior art does not teach or suggest a joint part configured to fold as required by claim 7; or the horizontal guide limitations of claim 8; or the side plate and partition plate limitations of claim 12.
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/RICARDO D MORALES/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1738
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