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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 13-17, filed 12/10/2025, with respect to drawings, objections to the specification (abstract), claim objections, rejections under 35 USC 112(a), and rejections under 35 USC 112(b) have been fully considered and are persuasive. The objections of the drawings, specification and claims as well as the rejections under 35 USC 112 have been withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim 1 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 10/16/2025 and 11/5/2025 are being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings were received on 12/10/2025. These drawings are acceptable.
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 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ANDRIAMALALA (US 20210194301; previously cited).
Regarding claim 1, ANDRIAMALALA discloses a rotor (11) of a rotary electrical machine (10), comprising: a cylindrical shaft (12); a rotor core (33) configured by stacking a plurality of annular electromagnetic steel sheets (see para [0040]) including an inner hole (32) into which the shaft (12) is inserted (see para [0040]), in a direction of a central axis (X) of the shaft (12) (see para [0035]), each steel sheet including a first magnet hole and a second magnet hole (see annotated Fig. 2, below) a part of the first magnet hole and a part of the second magnet hole being open to a cylindrical outer circumferential surface; and
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a first permanent magnet (37) inserted into the first magnet hole and a second permanent magnet (37) inserted into the second magnet hole, constituting a magnetic pole (50) in the rotor core (33),
wherein an axis passing through a central axis (X) of the shaft (12) and a center of the magnetic pole (50) in a circumferential direction is referred to as a d-axis, a straight line passing through a first corner closest to the d-axis of the first permanent magnet (37) and a second corner closest to the d-axis of the second permanent magnet (37) is referred to as a first straight line (L1), a straight line passing through the first corner and the central axis (X) is referred to as a second straight line (L2), a straight line passing through the second corner and the central axis (X) is referred to as a third straight line (L3), a point on an inner wall of the first magnet hole that lies between the second straight line (L2) and the third straight line (L3) and is tangent to an arc with the smallest radius centered at the center axis (X) is referred to as a first point (P1), a point on an inner wall of the second magnet hole that lies between the second straight line (L2) and the third straight line (L3) and is tangent to an arc with the smallest radius centered at the center axis (X) is referred to as a second point (P2), and a straight line passing through the first point (P1) and the second point (P2) is referred to as a fourth straight line (L4), a bridge that is a thick portion of the rotor core (33)(see annotated Fig. 23, below) existing in a region surrounded by the first straight line (L1), the second straight line (L2), the third straight line (L3), and the fourth straight line (L4),
wherein a straight line equidistant from the first straight line (L1) and the fourth straight line (L4) is referred to as a fifth straight line (L5), a point on the fifth straight line (L5) among the points on the inner wall of the first magnet hole is referred to as a third point (P3), a point on the fifth straight line (L5) among the points on the inner wall of the second magnet hole is referred to as a fourth point (P4), a point on the fifth straight line (L5) equidistant from the third point (P3) and the fourth point (P4) is referred to as a middle point (MP, unlabeled), a straight line passing through the middle point (MP) and the central axis (X) is referred to as a bridge center line, a line segment connecting the first point (P1) and the second point (P2) on the fourth straight line (L4) is referred to as a bridge inner circumferential edge (see annotated Fig. 2, below),
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a hole or a notch existing in a first region surrounded by the bridge inner circumferential edge, the bridge center line, a circumscribed circle of the rotor core (33), and an inner wall of the first magnet hole, of the rotor core (33), are referred to as Km, (see annotated Fig. 2, below)
an area of a region surrounded by a circumference line of the hole Km and an area of a region surrounded by a ridge line of the notch Km and the circumscribed circle of the rotor core (33) are referred to as Skm, a center of gravity of the hole Km or the notch Km in a case where electromagnetic steels exist in the region surrounded by the circumference line of the hole Km and the region surrounded by the ridge line of the notch Km and the circumscribed circle of the rotor core (33) is referred to as Kgm, a distance from the central axis (X) to the center of gravity Kgm is referred to as rm, a distance from an intersection of the bridge center line and the fourth straight line (L4) to the center of gravity Kgm is referred to as rbm, a straight line passing through the central axis (X) and the center of gravity Kgm is referred to as a sixth straight line (L6), an angle formed by the sixth straight line (L6) and the bridge center line is referred to as θkm, a straight line passing through the intersection and the center of gravity Kgm is referred to as a seventh straight line (L7), an angle formed by the seventh straight line (L7) and the bridge center line is referred to as θbkm (where each m mentioned above is a natural number), a hole or a notch existing in a second region surrounded by the bridge inner circumferential edge, the bridge center line, the circumscribed circle of the rotor core (33), and an inner wall of the second magnet hole, of the rotor core (33), are referred to as Jn, an area of a region surrounded by a circumference line of the hole (29) Jn and an area of a region surrounded by a ridge line of the notch Jn and the circumscribed circle of the rotor core (33) are referred to as Sjn, a geometric center of the hole Jn or the notch Jn in a case where electromagnetic steels exist in the region surrounded by the circumference line of the hole (29) Jn and the region surrounded by the ridge line of the notch Jn and the circumscribed circle of the rotor core (33) is referred to as Jgn, a distance from the central axis (X) to the geometric center Jgn is referred to as Rn, a distance from the intersection to the geometric center Jgn is referred to as Rbn, a straight line passing through the central axis (X) and the geometric center Jgn is referred to as an eighth straight line (L8), an angle formed by the eighth straight line (L8) and the bridge center line is referred to as θjn, a straight line passing through the intersection and the geometric center Jgn is referred to as a ninth straight line (L9), and an angle formed by the ninth straight line (L9) and the bridge center line is referred to as θbjn (where each n mentioned above is a natural number)
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,
the first region and the second region being asymmetric with respect to the d-axis and the rotor core (33) (see para [0054])
However, ANDRIAMALALA does not disclose having a structure satisfying the following equation. ∑Skmrmrbmsin(θbkm-θkm)=∑SjnRnRbnsin(θbjn-θjn)
ANDRIAMALALA teaches that arrangements of different polar radii and angles can be used in a rotor (see para [0057-0059]), making the radii and angles result effective variables, in order to improve noise reduction (see para [0058]).
Thus, it 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 to arrange the radii and angles according to the claimed equation, such that ∑Skmrmrbmsin(θbkm-θkm)=∑SjnRnRbnsin(θbjn-θjn).
A person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains would have been motivated to make such modification in order to improve the electromagnetic noise, as taught by ANDRIAMALALA (see para [0058]), and since it has been held that discovering an optimum value of a result effective variable involves only routine skill in the art See In re Boesch, 617 F.2d 272, 205 USPQ 215 (CCPA 1980)
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US-20190036398-A1 LIANG discloses asymmetrical notches to reduce vibrations induced by centrifugal forces; US-20220014059-A1 Nakata discloses asymmetrical holes and notches to reduce vibrations induced by centrifugal forces.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/JUSTIN STEFANON/Examiner, Art Unit 2834
/OLUSEYE IWARERE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2834