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 § 102/103
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.
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:
Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, and 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as anticipated by or, in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Shanghai Huafon CN 217167057. Shanghai Huafon teaches at Example 5, a 6000 series AA core, a 1000 series AA intermediate layer, and a AA 4045 filler alloy layer in this order, wherein the AA 4045 filler alloy layer is further coated with “nickel oxide”/”cobalt oxide” layer by ion beam deposition at 18 nm followed by nickel metal layer deposition. The intermediate layer thickness is 5 % of the total thickness, and the combined thickness of the filler alloy layer and oxide/metal layer is 2 % of the total thickness.
Regarding Claim 1, Shanghai Huafon does not teach that the intermediate layer serves as diffusion buffer or that the AA4045 layer is meltable as claimed. However, it would be expected that these layers in Shanghai Huafon have these inherent characteristics or substantially have these inherent characteristics because applicant has identified 1000-series AA alloys as suitable diffusion buffer materials and aluminum-silicon alloys as suitable meltable metallic layer materials and AA4045 is an aluminum-silicon alloy (Ex. 5: “Si is main alloy element”).
Regarding Claim 6, Shanghai Huafon teaches that there is oxide/metal layer which is present to promote fluxless brazing (page 1) which can be considered as a brazing promoting layer. It would be expected that the presence of the nickel can enhance eutectic formation with suitably chosen brazing material for which nickel can form eutectic.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
Claim(s) 3, 5, 8, and 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shanghai Huafon CN 217167057. Shanghai Huafon is relied upon as set forth above in the section 102/103 rejection over Shanghai Huafon. Regarding Claims 3/8 and 5/10, Shanghai Huafon teaches formation by rolling (Ex. 5: section (1)). Regarding Claims 3/8 and 5/10, Shanghai Huafon may not teach the claimed thickness, but teaches the overall thickness can be in the range of 0.4 to 6.0 mm (top of page 3). In view of the thickness percentage of the respective intermediate layer which is identified with the claimed diffusion buffer layer being 5 % of the total thickness and of the AA4045 layer which is identified with the claimed meltable metallic layer being less than 2 % of the total thickness, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the time of filing to prepare composites with any of the suggested thicknesses. Thus, for example were the total thickness to be 0.4 mm, the intermediate layer (Claims 3/8) in Shanghai Huafon would necessarily be less than 1 mm thickness and the AA4045 layer (at less than 2%) (Claims 5/10) would necessarily be less than 0.3 mm since 2% of 0.4 mm is much less than 0.3 mm.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 11-13 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.
Regarding Claims 11-13, the reviewed prior art does not teach or suggest the subject matter of these claims. Particularly, the reviewed prior art does not teach or suggest a brazing promotion layer formed of alloy of Ni, Cu, and Zn, in the claimed context. For example, Shanghai Huafon CN 217167057, as discussed above, refers to metal layer of Ni (Ex. 5 and elsewhere), but does not teach or suggest alloy layer of Ni, Cu, and Zn. See Shanghai Huafon (entire document). Wittebrood USPA 2002/0086179, for example, which arguably could be used to substitute for the plating layer in Shanghai Huafon, teaches Zn layer/Ni layer laminate to facilitate brazing (paragraphs 10 and 18), which omits necessary Cu and does not constitute an alloy layer. See Wittebrood (entire document).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL E. LA VILLA whose telephone number is (571)272-1539. The examiner can normally be reached Mon. through Fri. from 9:00 a.m. ET to 5:30 p.m. ET.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Humera N. Sheikh, can be reached at (571) 272-0604. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MICHAEL E. LA VILLA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1784
12 December 2025