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 § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Note that “a short fiber” is a well understood term in the art.
Claim 1 recites “ultra-fined” and “high-temperature” which are relative terms making its scope unclear. How fine is ultra-fined? What temperatures are high? The Examiner suggests deleting these relative terms in claim 1.
Claim 6 recites “high-temperature” which is a relative term making its scope unclear. What temperatures are high? The Examiner suggests deleting the relative term in claim 6.
Claim 10 recites “the transfer direction” and “the hot air spray nozzles” lack antecedent basis. The Examiner suggests the following amendments: “a transfer direction” and “
Claim 2 is replete with antecedent basis clarity issues. The Examiner suggests the following amendments:
2. (Currently amended) The device for manufacturing the PET melt blown fiber web of claim 1,
wherein the porous pressure belt is provided as a belt in the form of a mesh net, and the porous pressure belt is circulated and rotatably provided on carrier rollers rotatably provided between a pair of belt frames and a drive roller of a belt drive motor, wherein the porous pressure belt passing through a lower end of one of the belt frames is provided to horizontally pass through the carrier rollers provided on both sides of the lower end of the one belt frame lower than the lower end of the one belt frame to transfer the PET melt blown fiber web to a winder side together with the porous circulation belt while pressing the surface of the PET melt blown fiber web to the porous circulation belt.
Claim 3 recites “the lower portion” which lacks antecedent basis. The Examiner suggests the following amendments: “a lower portion”.
Claim 4 recites “at least one height control means” which lacks antecedent basis clarity because it is not clear if it refers to the previously mentioned height control means or to a new one. Claim 4 recites “the upper side” and “the upper surface” which lack antecedent basis. The Examiner suggests the following amendments: “the height control means”, “an upper side” and “an upper surface”.
Claim 5 recites “the lower end” and “the belt frame” lack antecedent basis. The Examiner suggests the following amendments: “a lower end” and “one of the belt frames”.
Claims not listed above are rejected as being dependent upon a rejected claim.
For further examination purposes, the scope of the claims are read in light of the suggested Examiner amendments.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1, 6 and 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al. (US 2016/0136924) in view of Hauser (US 4,118,531), Governale (US 5,167,745), CN 114717745 and Krueger et al. (US 4,795,668).
(Claims 1, 6) Lee et al. (US 2016/0136924) disclose a device and method (fig. 2) for manufacturing a melt blown fiber web comprising:
an extruder that melts and extrudes a resin [0040]; a die 3 that receives a molten resin extruded from the extruder to spin an ultra-fined melt blown fiber 6 in a self-weight direction (fig. 2; ; [0030]); a forming table 13 that is provided to be spaced below the die 3 to collect and aggregate the melt blown fiber 6 and to form a melt blown fiber web; a winder 14 that winds the melt blown fiber web; and a blending nozzle 10 for blending a PET short (staple) fiber 5 [0059] to the melt blown fiber spun toward the forming table 13.
However, Lee et al. (US 2016/0136924) does not disclose the web being a PET melt blown fiber web, or a heat treatment machine, as recited by claim 1.
Hauser (US 4,118,531) discloses a device and method (fig. 1) for manufacturing a PET melt blown fiber web comprising a die 10 that receives a molten PET resin to spin an ultra-fined PET melt blown fiber (col. 2, lines 8-11) in a self-weight direction (fig. 1); a forming table 14 that is provided to be spaced below the die 10 to collect and aggregate the PET melt blown fiber and to form a PET melt blown fiber web 22 (fig. 1); and a blending nozzle 20 for blending a PET short fiber to the PET melt blown fiber spun toward the forming table 14 (fig. 1; col. 4, lines 9-60; Examples 1-4, PET meltblown microfibers and PET staple (short) fibers).
Governale (US 5,167,745) disclose a heat treatment machine (fig. 3) that presses and heat-treats a nonwoven fiber web 2 on a forming table 1, comprising:
a porous pressure belt 12 that presses the PET melt blown fiber web toward the forming table 1 (col. 2, lines 3-6, web is consolidated (pressed); col. 4, lines 14-19) and transfers the nonwoven fiber web to a downstream side together with a porous circulation belt 1 (col. 2, lines 24-28) of the forming table;
a hot air supply chamber 21’, 25 that supplies high-temperature hot air to the nonwoven fiber web to weld the fibers of the fiber web by local melting and softening (col. 3, lines 56-57), the web being pressed and transferred by the porous pressure belt 12 (fig. 3).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time the invention was made, to modify the melt blown fiber web of Lee et al. (US 2016/0136924) with a PET melt blown fiber web, as disclosed by Hauser (US 4,118,531), because such a modification is known in the art and would provide an alternative configuration capable of producing a PET melt blown fiber web (in view of the combination, it would be further obvious that a PET resin would be used in the extruder and the die); to further modify the device and method for manufacturing a PET melt blown fiber web (nonwoven web) with a heat treatment machine, as disclosed by Governale (US 5,167,745), because such a modification is known in the nonwoven making art and would provide an alternative configuration enabling pressing and heat treating the PET melt blown fiber web (nonwoven web).
CN 114717745 discloses a device and method for manufacturing a nonwoven web (fig. 1; reference paragraphs are to the English translation attached to this Office Action; [n0050], [n0064]-[n0073]) including a forming table 14 that is provided to be spaced below a die 11 to collect and aggregate fibers to form a nonwoven fiber web; and a heat treatment machine that presses and heat-treats the nonwoven web formed on the forming table, wherein the heat treatment machine comprises a pressure roller 15 that presses the nonwoven fiber web toward the forming table 15 ([n0066], pressure roller compresses web and improves bonding strength) and is located on a downstream side of the forming table 14 to transfer the nonwoven fiber web together with a porous circulation belt 14 (fig. 1; [n0066], screen 14) of the forming table to a downstream end of the forming table (fig. 1) and a height control means that controls the height of the pressure roller for pressing the nonwoven fiber web (fig. 1; [n0023]; to control web thickness); wherein the pressure roller 15 is heated for heat treating the nonwoven web ([n0023], heated to 90-230 degrees Celsius).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time the invention was made, to further modify the heat treatment machine to be located on a downstream side of the forming table to transfer the nonwoven fiber web together with a porous circulation belt 14 of the forming table to a downstream end of the forming table, as disclosed by CN 114717745, because such a modification is known in the art and would provide an alternative configuration capable of transferring the PET melt blown fiber web to a downstream end of the forming table of the device for manufacturing the PET melt blown fiber web. Note that the winder 14 of Lee et al. (US 2016/0136924) is downstream of the downstream end of the forming table 13. Thus, in view of the location modification above, the porous pressure belt would transfer the PET melt blown fiber web to the winder side together with the porous circulation belt of the forming table.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time the invention was made, to further modify the heat treatment machine with a height control means, as disclosed by CN 114717745, because such a modification is known in the art and would provide an alternative configuration capable of adjusting the thickness of the PET melt blown fiber web (nonwoven web). Note that it would be further obvious for the height control means to control the height of the porous pressure belt because the porous pressure belt is the element which contacts and presses the web. As mentioned above, the pressure roller 15 presses (contacts) the web which enables web thickness control.
Krueger et al. (US 4,795,668) disclose a device and method for making a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) melt blown fiber web (fig. 1; col. 2, line 48, to col. 5, line 19), comprising a die 10 that receives a molten resin extruded from an extruder 13, 14 to spin an ultra-fined PET melt blown fiber (col. 3, lines 42-43), and a collector to collect the fibers and to form a melt blown fiber web (col. 3, lines 5-8). Krueger et al. (US 4,795,668) further disclose that heating PET fibers to bonding temperatures will crystallize the PET melt blown fiber web (col. 5, lines 14-19). As mentioned above, Governale (US 5,167,745) disclose the hot air welds (bonds) the fibers of the fiber web by local melting and softening (col. 3, lines 56-57). Thus, it would have been further obvious that hot air for welding (bonding) the fibers would also crystallize the PET melt blown fiber web.
As to claim 8, Hauser (US 4,118,531) further discloses the method wherein a PET short fiber has a diameter of 15 to 40 µm is blended with the spun PET melt blown fiber (Examples 1-4, 13 decitex PET staple fibers; col. 8, line 62, 13 decitex (34 micrometer)), wherein the PET short fiber is blended with the PET melt blown fiber in a 3:7 ratio (Examples 1-4; col. 2, lines 8-16, the bulking fibers (i.e., short, staple fibers) account for at least 10 weight percent; in view of such teaching, if the bulking fibers account for 30 weight percent, then the melt blown microfibers would account for 70 weight percent; thus the PET bulking (short) fiber would be blended with the PET melt blown fiber in a 30%:70% ratio, which is a 3:7 ratio).
Claim(s) 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al. (US 2016/0136924) in view of Hauser (US 4,118,531), Governale (US 5,167,745), CN 114717745 and Krueger et al. (US 4,795,668) as applied to claims 1, 6 and 8 above, and further in view of Angadjivand et al. (US 2008/0318024).
Lee et al. (US 2016/0136924) further discloses the spun melt blown fibers having a diameter of 2 to micrometers ([0030], about 0.3 to 10 micrometers).
Krueger et al. (US 4,795,668) further discloses PET melt blown fiber is spun at a temperature of 270 to 330 degrees Celsius (col. 6, lines 43-56, PET reaches the die with a temperature of 323 degrees Celsius).
However, Lee et al. (US 2016/0136924), Hauser (US 4,118,531), Governale (US 5,167,745), CN 114717745 and Krueger et al. (US 4,795,668) do not disclose spinning PET melt blown fiber at 25 to 60 m3/min.
Angadjivand et al. (US 2008/0318024) discloses a method for manufacturing a melt blown fiber web including spinning melt blown fibers at a volumetric flowrate, wherein the volumetric flow rate is adjusted depending upon the desired diameter of the melt blow fibers [0087]-[0089].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time the invention was made, to further modify the method with spinning the PET melt blown fiber at 25 to 60 m3/min because such volumetric flow rate would have been found in finding operable volumetric flow rates for desired diameters of the melt blown fibers as taught by Angadjivand et al. (US 2008/0318024).
Claim(s) 9-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al. (US 2016/0136924) in view of Hauser (US 4,118,531), Governale (US 5,167,745), CN 114717745 and Krueger et al. (US 4,795,668) as applied to claims 1, 6 and 8 above, and further in view of KR 2015-0065430.
Lee et al. (US 2016/0136924) further discloses melt blown fiber webs having a weight of 100 to 700 g/m2 ([0052], 300 g/m2).
However, Lee et al. (US 2016/0136924), Hauser (US 4,118,531), Governale (US 5,167,745), CN 114717745 and Krueger et al. (US 4,795,668) do not disclose the porous circulation belt is transferred at a rate of 1 to 10 m/min.
KR 2015-0065430 discloses a method for manufacturing a melt blown fiber web wherein a porous collection device 109 is transferred at a rate of 1 to 10 m/min, and the melt blown fiber web having a weight of 100 to 700 g/m² is formed in the porous collection device ([0021], [0056], porous collection device, 1.8 m/min, 150 g/m²).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time the invention was made, to further modify the method wherein the porous circulation belt is transferred at a rate of 1 to 10 m/min, and the melt blown fiber web having a weight of 100 to 700 g/m², as disclosed by KR 2015-0065430, because such modifications are known in the art and would provide an alternative configuration for the method known to be operable in the art. As mentioned above, Lee et al. (US 2016/0136924) also discloses such web weight.
As to claim 10, Governale (US 5,167,745) further discloses that the porous circulation belt and the porous pressure belt circulate with similar peripheral speeds (col. 2, lines 1-6). Thus, if the peripheral speed of the porous circulation belt is 1.8 m/min as disclosed by KR 10-2015-0065430 above, then the peripheral speed of the porous pressure belt would be 1.8 m/min. Governale (US 5,167,745) further discloses the hot air supply chamber 21, 21’ sprays hot air at a rate (inherent) through a hot air spray nozzle 17, 17’ (figs. 1-4; col. 2, lines 38-41). As mentioned above, Governale (US 5,167,745) discloses the hot air is used to weld (bond) the fibers by local melting and softening. Thus, it would have been further obvious to further modify the hot air supply chamber to spray high-temperature hot air of 80 to 200°C at a rate of 1 to 10 m³/min through the hot air spray nozzle, because such temperatures and rates would have been found in finding operable temperatures and rates which enable welding (bonding) of the fibers in view of the teachings of Governale (US 5,167,745) with a reasonable expectation of success. In view of the teaching of a hot air spray nozzle above, it would have been well within an artisan or ordinary skill to provide a plurality of the hot air spray nozzle in order to provide a greater amount of hot air if needed to make the fibers weld (bond) as desired.
As to claim 11, Hauser (US 4,118,531) further discloses a web thickness of between about 4 and 1000 mm (col. 7, lines 19-23). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time the invention was made, to further modify the porous pressure belt to be spaced apart from the porous circulation belt at an interval of 1 to 150 mm because such interval would define the thickness of the web and because such web thicknesses are known in the art, as disclosed by Hauser (US 4,118,531).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-5 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include 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 prior art of record does not teach or reasonably suggest the device, as recited by claims 2-5, particularly wherein the porous pressure belt is provided as a belt in the form of a mesh net, and the porous pressure belt is circulated and rotatably provided on carrier rollers rotatably provided between a pair of belt frames and a drive roller of a belt drive motor, wherein the porous pressure belt passing through a lower end of one of the belt frames is provided to horizontally pass through the carrier rollers provided on both sides of the lower end of the one belt frame lower than the lower end of the one belt frame to transfer the PET melt blown fiber web to a winder side together with the porous circulation belt while pressing the surface of the PET melt blown fiber web to the porous circulation belt.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOSEPH S LEYSON whose telephone number is (571)272-5061. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8am-4:30pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Sam Xiao Zhao can be reached at 5712705343. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/J.S.L/Examiner, Art Unit 1744
/XIAO S ZHAO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1744