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 pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-6 are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Negishi et al. (US 2016/0311048 A1) in view of Koji (JP 11277169 A).
Regarding Claim 1 Negishi teaches a welding-wire-straightening apparatus comprising: two sets of roller groups (13a, b) each of which includes multiple straightening rollers (12) , wherein a welding wire (w) that bends is straightened by causing the welding wire (w) to pass through the two sets of roller groups (13a, b), wherein the multiple straightening rollers (12) that are included in the two sets of roller groups (13a, b) are arranged at a predetermined arrangement interval L in a direction in which the welding wire (w) passes through such that a straightening path through which the welding wire (w) passes is interposed therebetween (Fig 1-5), wherein the two sets of roller groups (13a, b) are arranged such that directions in which the straightening path is interposed differ from each other, wherein, in each of the two sets of roller groups (13a, b), the multiple straightening rollers (12) include a first roller (12a), a second roller (12b), ···, an nth roller in this order in the direction in which the welding wire (w) passes through (Fig 2), and the n rollers (n is an integer of 4 or more which in this case N=5) bend the welding wire (w) alternately in opposite directions and straighten a curl of the welding wire (Fig 2-5), wherein diameters 2r of the multiple straightening rollers (12) are 20 mm or less, and wherein the arrangement interval L of the multiple straightening rollers is 11.5 mm or more (see par.0007).
Negishi is silent regarding wherein the n rollers of the multiple straightening rollers are arranged such that an entrance wire deformation amount εin that is calculated by using a numerical formula of εin = {2t(δin + t) / Lin2} × 100 ranges from 0.6 to 1.0 (%), and an exit wire deformation amount εout that is calculated by using a numerical formula of εout = 2t(δout + t) / Lout2} × 100 ranges from 0.0 to 0.3 (%), where t (mm) is a diameter of the welding wire, εin (%) is the entrance wire deformation amount due to the first roller, the second roller, and a third roller, δin (mm) is an entrance roller engaging amount, 2Lin (mm) is a distance between axes of the first roller and the third roller, εout (%) is the exit wire deformation amount due to a (n - 2)th roller, a (n - 1)th roller, and the nth roller, δout (mm) is an exit roller engaging amount, and 2Lout (mm) is a distance between axes of the nth roller and the (n - 2)th roller.
However, Koji teaches welding-wire-straightening apparatus comprising: multiple rollers wherein n rollers of multiple straightening rollers (Fig 1-5) are arranged such that an entrance wire deformation amount εin that is calculated by using a numerical formula of εin = {2t(δin + t) / Lin2} × 100 ranges from 0.6 to 1.0 (%) (see par.0008-0009), and an exit wire deformation amount εout that is calculated by using a numerical formula of εout = 2t(δout + t) / Lout2} × 100 ranges from 0.0 to 0.3 (%) (see Par.0010), where t (mm) is a diameter of the welding wire, εin (%) is the entrance wire deformation amount due to the first roller, the second roller, and a third roller, δin (mm) is an entrance roller engaging amount, 2Lin (mm) is a distance between axes of the first roller and the third roller, εout (%) is the exit wire deformation amount due to a (n - 2)-th roller, a (n - 1)th roller, and the nth roller, δout (mm) is an exit roller engaging amount, and 2Lout (mm) is a distance between axes of the nth roller and the (n - 2) th roller (see Par.0007-0010), wherein diameters 2r of the multiple straightening rollers (12) are 20 mm or less, and wherein the arrangement interval L of the multiple straightening rollers is 11.5 mm or more. Having such arrangements allows a stable and strengthening effect (Par.0058).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have modified Negishi to include the teachings of Koji by arranging the n rollers to have numerical values disclosed in Koji for the purpose of obtaining a stable and strengthening effect.
Regarding Claim 2 Negishi teaches wherein the welding wire (w) is a flux containing wire (par.006).
Regarding Claim 3 Negishi teaches wherein the diameters 2r of the straightening rollers (12) are 10 mm or more (see par.0003 so long as 0.5< r/L< 0.7 is satisfied we can have 2r being 10mm or more).
Regarding Claim 4 Negishi teaches wherein the arrangement interval L of the multiple straightening rollers (12) is 16 mm or less (see par.0003 so long as 0.5< r/L< 0.7 is satisfied we can have L being 16mm or less).
Regarding Claim 5 Negishi teaches wherein a distance Lall between axes of the first roller and the n-th roller is 70 mm or less ( see par.0003 so long as 0.5< r/L< 0.7 is satisfied we can have Lall being 70mm or less)
Regarding Claim 6 Negishi teaches wherein n = 5 is satisfied (5 rollers see Fig 4).
Conclusion
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/ABIY TEKA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3745
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