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 .
Response to Amendment
In response to the election filed on 2/26/2026, claim 6 is withdrawn. Claims 1-6 are pending, and claims 1-5 are under examination.
Election/Restrictions
Claim 6 is withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected apparatus of a configured power supply, there being no allowable generic or linking claim to the elected method for manufacturing a stator. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 02/26/2026.
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.
Claims 1-2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Aoyama (J.P. Patent Application Publication 2019030057 A).
Regarding claim 1, Aoyama discloses a method (Title: Rotary Electric Machine) for manufacturing a stator (stator 10 in FIG. 1, ¶17), the method comprising:
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disposing a three-phase coil (stator coil 12 in FIG. 1, ¶18) in an annular stator core (stator coil winding portion 15 in FIG. 1, ¶20); and
making a three-phase alternating current (three-phase alternating current, ¶18) pass through the three-phase coil (¶18, “three-phase alternating current is used, and the stator coil 12 is provided corresponding to the w phase, the v phase, and the u phase of the three-phase alternating current”), thereby inductively heating the stator core (¶70, “Thereby, by utilizing the electromagnetic resonance / magnetic field resonance action, by providing a current having a resonance frequency in the stator coil 12 (or the rotor coil 22), the amount of induced current generated in the stator coil 12 (or the rotor coil 22) Can be increased”; Aoyama discloses supplying a current to a coil and utilizing a magnetic resonance to achieve an increased current generated. A person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date would have recognized that induced current flowing through a body produces resistive loses as it is known that as induced current increases, heat generation also increases, allowing for induced current generation),
wherein capacitors (first capacitor 17 in FIG. 2, ¶53) are respectively provided between a power supply (inverter 40 in FIG. 5, ¶55) configured to supply the three-phase alternating current to ends of the three-phase coil (¶55, “three-phase AC is supplied from the inverter 40 to the stator coil 12 of the stator 10) and each one of the ends of coils of respective phases in the three-phase coil (FIG. 5 depicts the alternating currents being supplied to the top end and bottom end of coils within stator 20 with respective phases), whereby a circuit comprising the three-phase coil serves as a resonant circuit when the three-phase alternating current is made to pass through the three-phase coil (resonance circuit 18 in FIG. 2, ¶30).
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Regarding claim 2, Aoyama further discloses the method according to Claim 1, as detailed above, wherein
the three-phase coil comprises a U-phase coil, a V-phase coil, and a W-phase coil (¶18, “stator coil 12 provided corresponding to the W phase, the V phase, and the U phase”),
the capacitors are respectively a U-phase capacitor, a V-phase capacitor, and a W-phase capacitor (¶37, “first capacitor 17 of each phase”), and
the U-phase capacitor is connected in series with the U-phase coil, the V-phase capacitor is connected in series with the V-phase coil, and the W-phase capacitor is connected in series with the W-phase coil (¶37, “by connecting the first capacitor 17 of each phase to the stator coil 12 of each phase”).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Aoyama in view of Masberg et al (K.R. Patent Application Publication 19990044295 A) hereinafter Masberg.
Regarding claim 3, Aoyama further discloses the method according to Claim 1, as detailed above, wherein a frequency of the three-phase alternating current is 1 kHz or greater (¶33, the three-phase alternating current supplied to the stator coil 12 is a low frequency of several tens Hz to several hundreds of Hz”).
However, Aoyama fails to disclose the frequency of the three-phase alternating current being equal or greater to 1 kHz.
Masberg discloses a method (Title: Starters / Generators for Internal Combustion Engines, Especially Automotive Internal Combustion Engines) wherein the frequency of the three-phase alternating current provided is 1 kHz or greater (p. 14, ll. 23-26, “Rectifier 17 supplies voltage impulses by sinusically rated pulse width modulation at very high frequencies (e.g., 10-100 kHz) to the windings of stator 8 of electrical machine 4, such contact impulses Under the action of an inductance, a three-phase alternating current in the form of a substantially sinusoidal wave can be freely preselected in amplitude, frequency and phase”).
While Aoyama discloses the method for manufacturing a stator with a three-phase coil to inductively heat the stator core, Masberg teaches that the three-phase coil frequency can be a frequency greater than 1 kHz, namely, 10-100 kHz. Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to implement the high three-phase alternating current frequency of Masberg’s disclose, and apply it to Aoyama’s method to allow for various frequencies to be applied. There, it would allow manufacturers to provide variances in energy usage of the electric machine which is required for charging the vehicle battery (p. 16, ll. 3-6). This can also be used to produce such a standard total torque in the electric machine according to model variation calculations and instantaneous average number of revolutions of the rotor (p. 16, ll. 32-38)
Claims 4-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Aoyama in view of Yoshikawa et al (U.S. Patent Application Publication 20210119520 A1) hereinafter Yoshikawa.
Regarding claim 4, Aoyama further discloses the method according to Claim 1, as detailed above,
However, Aoyama fails to disclose the method wherein the three-phase coil comprises segment coils, and each of the segment coils is disposed so that it straddles a plurality of slots of the stator core, to thereby form a distributed winding.
Yoshikawa discloses a method (Title: Apparatus and Method for Manufacturing Stator) wherein the three-phase coil (three-phase coil, ¶60) comprises segment coils (coil segments 20 in FIG. 8, ¶60), and each of the segment coils is disposed so that it straddles a plurality of slots of the stator core, to thereby form a distributed winding (FIG. 8 depicts the coil segments 20 extending across a plurality of stator slots).
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Aoyama discloses the method for manufacturing a stator with the use of a three-phase coil and three-phase alternating current to inductively heat the stator core. Yoshikawa discloses the type of coil of a stator to be a segment coil that is disposed to straddle, or extend over a plurality of stator slots. Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to utilize the segment coil and straddling formation of Yoshikawa’s disclosure and apply it to Aoyama’s disclosure to allow for end portions of the coil segments to protrude the stator core and to be properly radially aligned during manufacturing (¶68).
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Aoyama and Yoshikawa further discloses the method according to Claim 4, as detailed above, further comprising:
disposing, when the three-phase coil is disposed in the stator core, the three-phase coil and a slot paper in the slots of the stator core (Yoshikawa, FIG. 15, S120 and S130 in FIG. 27, ¶144, “the insulators 30 are formed of, for example, insulating paper instead of the curable and foamable resin. Moreover, the stator coil (i.e., the coil segments 20) is fixed in the slots 11 of the stator core 10 by impregnating an impregnation material into the slots 11”) and;
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inductively heating the stator core, thereby fixing the three-phase coil to the stator core using the slot paper (Yoshikawa, S180 in FIG. 27; ¶144, “…and heating the impregnation material to cure (or harden) in the slots 11”; ¶70 of Aoyama teaches the inductively heating). Regarding the reason to combine references, refer to the rejection of claim 4, supra, as it is applicable to the rejection of claim 5 in the manner of using coil segments and aligning components during manufacturing).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to EUGENE REY D LEGASPI whose telephone number is (571)272-2956. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8-5PM.
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/E.D.L./Examiner, Art Unit 3729 /THOMAS J HONG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3729
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