10-13
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 Amendments
Claims 1-4, 10-13, 15, 16, and 19-25 are presented for examination. Priority date: 11 January 2023. Assignee: Machinery Monitoring Systems, LLC
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 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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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.
Claims 1-3, 5-7, 11-13, 15, 16, and 19 are rejected under 35 USC 103 as being unpatentable over Kuzbari et al., U.S. 2019/0302231 (see IDS) in view of Katan Baf Nezhad et al., U.S. 2021/0377859 (hereinafter 859) and Gross et al. al, U.S. 2018/0154494.
On claim 1, Kuzbari cites except as underlined:
A monitoring system for monitoring the assets in an plant environment, the system comprising:
at least one sensor package configured to couple to the asset, wherein the asset comprises one or more rotating and/or reciprocating component,
[0167] The tag 40 may include any or all of the following sensors: humidity, temperature, light, an external GPIO (general purpose input output) component.
each of the sensor packages comprising:
an antenna configured to receive radio frequency (RF) energy,
figure 3, integrated antenna 220
rectifier circuitry configured to convert a portion of the RF energy to electrical energy,
[0144] FIG. 2 shows a schematic diagram of an individual tag 40 in further detail. The control unit 70 is shown connected to the RF transceiver (or transmitter) 60 and mechanical to electrical converter 50, which provides DC or AC power (e.g. using a DC/DC or AC/DC converter) to the control unit 70. Additional peripherals or sensors 110 may be attached to the control unit 70. The cited AC/DC converter, by definition, is the same as a rectifier.
at least one sensor powered by the electrical energy, wherein the at least one sensor comprises at least one accelerometer,
[0083] Optionally, the one or more sensors measure may be any one or more of: humidity, vibration, movement, motion, acceleration (an accelerometer
), gyroscope, GPS, temperature, light or sound. Other sensors or peripherals may be included. Any one or more of the sensors may be formed from MEMS.
[0167] The tag 40 may include any or all of the following sensors: humidity, temperature, light, an external GPIO (general purpose input output) component.
control circuitry powered by the electrical energy
[0146] FIG. 3 shows a tag 40 and further illustrates schematically two ways in which energy may be generated and used to power the control unit 70 and electrical components within the tag 40. In particular, the piezo vibration sensor 210 is shown connected to an AC to DC convertor. An RF source 230 (e.g. from the tag reader 20) produces RF energy received by an integrated antenna 220, which is connected to a DC to DC convertor in order to condition the signal for use as power within the tag 40. Additionally, energy storage may be included within the tag for storing harvested energy either from a mechanical to electrical converter and/or from the RF source 230.
and configured to:
process vibrational data from the at least one accelerometer to determine a condition of the rotating or reciprocating component, determine an indicium of the health of the asset based on the condition, and transmission circuitry powered by the electrical energy and configured to cause the antenna to transmit one or more signals comprising data indicative of the indicium of health determined by the control using backscatter.
[0167] The tag 40 may include any or all of the following sensors: humidity, temperature, light, an external GPIO (general purpose input output) component.
[0083] Optionally, the one or more sensors measure may be any one or more of: humidity, vibration, movement, motion, acceleration (an accelerometer), gyroscope, GPS, temperature, light or sound. Other sensors or peripherals may be included. Any one or more of the sensors may be formed from MEMS.
On the excepted: at least one sensor package configured to couple to the asset, wherein the asset comprises one or more rotating and/or reciprocating component, Kuzbari cites:
[0167] The tag 40 may include any or all of the following sensors: humidity, temperature, light, an external GPIO (general purpose input output) component.
Kuzbari doesn’t disclose monitoring of rotating and/or reciprocating equipment.
In the same art of monitored equipment, Gross cites:
[0025] The disclosed embodiments provide a new prognostic-surveillance technique, which operates by applying a FWHM metric to a spectral distribution of vibration sensor readings in the frequency domain. By using this metric, the new technique decouples prognostic surveillance from dependence on the amplitude of vibrations in the asset under surveillance. As a result, the new technique provides high sensitivity annunciation for subtle degradation modes at the earliest incipience of the degradation, and has equally high sensitivity when the rotating machinery is operating during peak load conditions, or more importantly, when the machinery is operating at “normal” or lower load conditions, where conventional prognostic-surveillance techniques are quite insensitive. This new technique is also “self calibrating,” which means that it can be trained on a new asset, or on an asset for which there presently does not exist any known mechanical degradation modes. This new prognostic-surveillance technique can be used to monitor any type of rotating machinery, which is equipped with vibration sensors, such as motors, generators, pumps, fans, and blowers. Hence, this new prognostic-surveillance technique can be broadly applied to rotating machinery in various industries, such as utilities, transportation, manufacturing, oil and gas, and enterprise computing.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include into Kuzbari the added feature of monitoring rotating equipment disclosed in Gross such that the claimed invention is realized. Gross discloses known embodiment of rotating equipment that are subject to monitoring by sensors and one of ordinary skill would have included the rotating equipment as another known class of machines to be monitored
Regard the above excepted “backscatter,” Kuzbari, as previously stated, included an embodiment in which sensors are used to monitor different parameters wherein the monitored results are processed by a control unit. However, Kuzbari is silent regarding the use of backscatter transmissions.
In the same art of radio communications processing of sensor data, 859 discloses:
[0043] In at least one example, controller circuit 74 may be coupled to a sensor S. Sensor S may provide data relative to a device to which backscatter node 20 is coupled. For example, continuing with the example shown in FIG. 1, sensor S may be a temperature sensor, a pressure sensor, or other data sensor which provides information about the tea kettle 26, the cookpot 28, or the knife 30. As discussed below, backscatter node 20 may send a backscatter transmission that comprises this sensor data.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention wherein Kuzbari’s parameter monitoring and transmission embodiment is replaced with 859’s backscatter parameter monitoring system. 859 discloses a known way of using backscatter communications for sensor data retrieval. One of ordinary skill, apprised of this known alternative would have substituted one know embodiment for another and the results would have provided an embodiment meeting the claimed invention.
On claim 2, Kuzbari cites:
The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor package further comprises a power storage and circuitry configured to charge the power storage using the electrical energy.
[0073] Advantageously, the tag may further comprise an energy storage device configured to store electrical energy provided by the mechanical to electrical energy converter and to supply the stored electrical energy for use by the controller and RF communication circuit (e.g. transmitter or transceiver).
On claim 3, Kuzbari cite:
The system of claim 2, wherein the power storage is a battery, a supercapacitor, or a capacitor.
[0164] 5. A capacitor or battery may be used to store the generated energy (from either or both sources) and provide regulated power to the tag 40.
On claim 4, Kuzbari and Gross cites:
The system of claim 1, wherein the asset is a pump, engine, motor, compressor, or fan. See the rejection of claim 1 citing Gross:
[0025] This new prognostic-surveillance technique can be used to monitor any type of rotating machinery, which is equipped with vibration sensors, such as motors, generators, pumps, fans, and blowers. Hence, this new prognostic-surveillance technique can be broadly applied to rotating machinery in various industries, such as utilities, transportation, manufacturing, oil and gas, and enterprise computing.
On claim 11, Kuzbari cites:
The system of claim 1, wherein the transmission circuitry is configured to associate an identifier indicative of the sensor with the transmitted one or more signals.
[0058] The signal from the reader may be used to provide power to the tag and/or may be absent of any data (or may not in itself cause any response, for example). For example, the signal or response may be the tag's unique identifier or may include other data that is received and processed by the reader. The tag is powered by a mechanical energy harvester, which generates at least sufficient energy to send the data to the reader (and to receive any interrogating signal where used or in range). This energy may be optionally stored, for instance, using a battery, storage unit, capacitor, super capacitor or solid state device. A plurality of tags may operate in this way. Advantageously, the tags may have a timer or operate intermittently (e.g. on for one minute and then sleep for one hour or longer or other periods) to converse energy or to allow enough energy to be harvested for a brief operation. The tags may form an energy harvesting wireless sensor network (EHWSN).
And
[0018] Optionally, the location of the one or more tag readers may be determined from one or more sensors within the one or more tag readers. This allows the position of the tag reader to be taken into consideration when calculating or calibrating the locations of the tag or tags (or items attached to the tags).
On claim 12, Kuzbari cites: The system of claim 1, wherein the RF energy has a frequency of 902 to 928 MHz.
[0156] Any one or more of these bands or protocols may also be used to send data back to the central server 80. More generally, two frequency bands may be used, e.g.: 820 MHz to 960 MHz and 2.40 GHz to 2.45 GHz.
On claim 13, Kuzbari cites:
The system of claim 1, wherein the RF energy has a frequency of 2.4-2.5 GHZ.
[0156] Any one or more of these bands or protocols may also be used to send data back to the central server 80. More generally, two frequency bands may be used, e.g.: 820 MHz to 960 MHz and 2.40 GHz to 2.45 GHz.
On claim 15, Kuzbari cites:
The system of claim 1, further comprising one or more remote antennas configured to broadcast the RF energy throughout at least a portion of the environment.
[0141] FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a tracking system 10. Several items are enclosed in a dashed box 15 and these may be in close proximity to each other (several millimetres up to several tens of metres from each other). For example, all of the items within the dashed box 15 may be within a particular item (e.g. vehicle, aircraft, ship, train, automobile, truck, power module plant, solar module plants, etc.). A tag reader or interrogator 20 has an antenna 30 for wirelessly communicating with individual tags 40. In this figure, three tags 40 are shown but a number from one upwards may be used. Each tag may contain a mechanical to electrical energy convertor 50, an RF communication circuit or circuits (e.g. transmitter, transceiver or separate receiver and transmitter) 60 and a controller 70. The RF communication circuit 60 may provide at least two functions. These may be to communicate with the tag 40 (e.g. using WiFi) and also to provide RF power to the tag 40. At a remote site, there may be a server 80 that has an associated database 90. The server 80 is in communication with the tag reader 20 over a wide area network 100 that may be the internet, a cellular network, a satellite system, or other wireless (or in part wired) communications network. The server 80 (which may be physical or cloud-based) may monitor a plurality of different tag readers 20 although only one is shown in this figure for simplicity. More than one tag reader 20 may be used in each locality or vehicle, for example.
In this teaching, each tag reader includes at least each tag reader includes its own antenna controlled by the cited server 80. Accordingly, this qualifies each tag reader as a “remote antenna.”
On claim 16, Kuzbari cites:
The system of claim 15, wherein the one or more transponders are configured to receive the one or more signals.
[0141] FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a tracking system 10. Several items are enclosed in a dashed box 15 and these may be in close proximity to each other (several millimetres up to several tens of metres from each other). For example, all of the items within the dashed box 15 may be within a particular item (e.g. vehicle, aircraft, ship, train, automobile, truck, power module plant, solar module plants, etc.). A tag reader or interrogator 20 has an antenna 30 for wirelessly communicating with individual tags 40.
Claims 19, 20, and 22-25 are rejected under 35 USC 103 as being unpatentable over Kuzbari et al., U.S. 2019/0302231 in view of Katan Baf Nezhad et al., U.S. 2021/0377859 (hereinafter 859) and Gross et al. al, U.S. 2019/0154494 and Bizub, U.S. 2016/0377506.
On claim 19, Kazbari cites except as underlined:
The system of claim 1, wherein the control circuitry is configured to be triggered to synch the vibration data based on one or more signals received from one or more second sensors.
Kazbari cites:
[0144] FIG. 2 shows a schematic diagram of an individual tag 40 in further detail. The control unit 70 is shown connected to the RF transceiver (or transmitter) 60 and mechanical to electrical converter 50, which provides DC or AC power (e.g. using a DC/DC or AC/DC converter) to the control unit 70. Additional peripherals or sensors 110 may be attached to the control unit 70. The cited AC/DC converter, by definition, is the same as a rectifier.
[0167] The tag 40 may include any or all of the following sensors: humidity, temperature, light, an external GPIO (general purpose input output) component.
[0083] Optionally, the one or more sensors measure may be any one or more of: ,,, vibration,
Additionally, Gross cites:
This new technique is also “self calibrating,” which means that it can be trained on a new asset, or on an asset for which there presently does not exist any known mechanical degradation modes. This new prognostic-surveillance technique can be used to monitor any type of rotating machinery, which is equipped with vibration sensors, such as motors, generators, pumps, fans, and blowers. Hence, this new prognostic-surveillance technique can be broadly applied to rotating machinery in various industries, such as utilities, transportation, manufacturing, oil and gas, and enterprise computing.
Kazbari and Gross, while disclosing a control unit and vibration sensors, neither disclses the excepted claim limitations.
In the same art of sensor monitoring, Bizum cites:
[0016] For example, the vibration sensors may be placed at an exterior location on the engine where sonic emitted acoustics may be clearly detected for engine component (e.g., camshaft and crankshaft) movement during the angular rotation of the engine over time. The specific locations may greatly enhance the likelihood of detecting certain faults (e.g., valve faults, wrist pin faults, blade fracture faults, bearing defect faults, out of balance condition faults).
[0020] Additionally or alternatively, the load 34 may include a mechanical drive, compressor, pump, and the like. Once the available energy is translated into rotating the shaft 30, the remaining fuel 20 and/or oxidant 18 is vented and removed from the engine 12 as exhaust.
[0064] Technical effects of the invention include providing portable engine health monitoring techniques. The techniques may include using a wireless vibration sensor and transceiver that removably couples to the exterior of an engine. The transceiver may receive engine rotation timing event signals from a controller of the engine, and the transceiver may be configured to transmit vibration/sound information and/or engine rotation timing event signals in near real-time to a workstation (e.g., smartphone). A software application executed on the workstation may be configured to synchronize the vibration/sound information with the engine rotation timing event signals to generate synchronized vibration signals and to generate a GUI (e.g., pie chart) that depicts the synchronized vibration signals in relation to angular positions of components of the engine over time as the components rotate during operation (e.g., strokes of the engine cycle). If the vibration signals indicate a fault or failure, one or more alerts may be raised by the GUI.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include into Kazbari and Gross the embodiment disclosed in Bizum such that the claimed invention is realized. Bizum discloses a known embodiment wherein a processor synchronizes vibration data with at least one or more second sensors, like the cited rotational signals. One of ordinary skill would have disclosed this feature to determine a fault or failure of vibration signals as a function of the rotational speed of the engine.
On claim 20, Kuzbari, Gross, and Bizum cites:
The system of claim 19, wherein the second sensors comprise a rotation sensor.
See the rejection of claim 19 which discloses the same subject matter as claim 20 and is rejected for the same reasons.
(Bizum, [0064] Technical effects of the invention include providing portable engine health monitoring techniques. The techniques may include using a wireless vibration sensor and transceiver that removably couples to the exterior of an engine. The transceiver may receive engine rotation timing event signals from a controller of the engine,)
On claim 22, Kuzbari, Gross, and Bizum cites: The system of claim 1, wherein the indicium of health of the asset comprises a vibration mode indicative of wear and/or failure of a component of the asset.
See the rejection of claim 19 which discloses the same subject matter as claim 22 and is rejected for the same reasons.
(Bizum, [0064] discloses If the vibration signals indicate a fault or failure, one or more alerts may be raised by the GUI.)
On claim 23, Kuzbari, Gross, and Bizum cites: The system of claim 1, wherein the indicium of health comprises an alert.
See the rejection of claim 19 which discloses the same subject matter as claim 23 and is rejected for the same reasons.
(Bizum, [0064] discloses If the vibration signals indicate a fault or failure, one or more alerts may be raised by the GUI.)
On claim 24, Kuzbari, Gross, and Bizum cites: The system of claim 23, wherein in the alert comprises an indication that a vibration mode indicative of wear and/or failure of a component of the asset has been detected.
See the rejection of claim 19 which discloses the same subject matter as claim 24 and is rejected for the same reasons.
(Bizum, [0016] bearing. [0064] discloses If the vibration signals indicate a fault or failure, one or more alerts may be raised by the GUI.)
On claim 25, Kuzbari, Gross, and Bizum cites: The system of claim 1, wherein the asset is a pump and the at least one sensor package is configured to couple to one or more of an impeller, bearings, motor, and/or crosshead of the pump.
See the rejection of claim 19 which discloses the same subject matter as claim 25 and is rejected for the same reasons.
(Bizum, [0016] bearing. [0020] Additionally or alternatively, the load 34 may include a mechanical drive, compressor, pump, and the like. [0064] discloses If the vibration signals indicate a fault or failure, one or more alerts may be raised by the GUI.)
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 USC 103 as being unpatentable over Kuzbari et al., U.S. 2019/0302231 in view of Katan Baf Nezhad et al., U.S. 2021/0377859 (hereinafter 859) and and Gross et al. al, U.S. 2019/0154494 and Ume et al., U.S. 2012/0111115.
On claim 10, Kuzbari cites except:
The system of claim 1, wherein the processing comprises performing a fast Fourier transform (FFT) of the vibration data.
Kuzbari cites:
[0083] Optionally, the one or more sensors measure may be any one or more of: humidity, vibration, movement, motion, acceleration (an accelerometer), gyroscope, GPS, temperature, light or sound. Other sensors or peripherals may be included. Any one or more of the sensors may be formed from MEMS.
However, Kuzbari is silent with respect to the excepted claim limitations.
In the related art of device inspections, Ume cites:
[0013] As discussed in more detail below, embodiments of the present invention can utilize an energy source (e.g., a high-power pulsed laser) focused on a device (e.g., a chip's surface) to generate stress waves that induce vibrations. A vibrometer (e.g., a laser Doppler vibrometer) can be positioned to measure resulting out-of-plane displacement of the chip surface. Package quality can then be assessed by correlating measured vibration response of a known-good reference sample to the response of the sample under inspection to identify the changes in structural vibrations caused by abnormal interconnects. Error Ratio analysis and Correlation Coefficient analysis in the time domain, spectral analysis in the frequency domain based on fast Fourier transform (FFT), and defect pattern recognition, wavelet analysis, and Local Temporal Coherence (LTC) analysis methods have been successfully used in quantifying changes in vibration response caused by missing, misaligned, and cracked solder bumps in flip chips, chip scale packages (CSPs), land grid array (LGA) packages, ball grid array (BGA) packages and multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Kuzbari’s vibration detection features using the FFT spectral analysis embodiment of Ume such that the claimed invention is realized. Ume includes a known embodiment wherein vibration responses measured using FFT analysis is used to determine defects in a product. One of ordinary skill would have adapted Ume’s FFT analysis system
Claim 21 is rejected under 35 USC 103 as being unpatentable over Kuzbari et al., U.S. 2019/0302231 in view of Katan Baf Nezhad et al., U.S. 2021/0377859 (hereinafter 859) and Gross et al. al, U.S. 9/0154494 and Bizub, U.S. 2016/0377506 and Matsuno et al., U.S. 4,736,726.
On claim 21, Kuzbari and Gross cites except:
The system of claim 20, wherein the asset is a pump and wherein the rotation sensor comprises a proximity detector configured to sense a position of one or more pump components with respect to a top dead center (TDC).
Gross cites:
[0025] The disclosed embodiments provide a new prognostic-surveillance technique, which operates by applying a FWHM metric to a spectral distribution of vibration sensor readings in the frequency domain. By using this metric, the new technique decouples prognostic surveillance from dependence on the amplitude of vibrations in the asset under surveillance. As a result, the new technique provides high sensitivity annunciation for subtle degradation modes at the earliest incipience of the degradation, and has equally high sensitivity when the rotating machinery is operating during peak load conditions, or more importantly, when the machinery is operating at “normal” or lower load conditions, where conventional prognostic-surveillance techniques are quite insensitive. This new technique is also “self calibrating,” which means that it can be trained on a new asset, or on an asset for which there presently does not exist any known mechanical degradation modes. This new prognostic-surveillance technique can be used to monitor any type of rotating machinery, which is equipped with vibration sensors, such as motors, generators, pumps, fans, and blowers. Hence, this new prognostic-surveillance technique can be broadly applied to rotating machinery in various industries, such as utilities, transportation, manufacturing, oil and gas, and enterprise computing.
However, Kuzbarin nor Gross discloses the feature of sensing a position of one or more pump components with respect to a TDC. In the related
Matsuno, col. 3, lines 64-67 and col. 4, lines 1-4 cites:
a reference position sensor 44 formed of an electromagnetic pickup, for example, for detecting a reference position, e.g. a top dead center (TDC) from a rotational displacement of a pump driving pulley 42D solidly secured to the pump driving shaft 42A; an engine speed sensor 46 formed of an electromagnetic pickup, for example, for detecting an engine speed from a rotational displacement of a gear wheel 42E solidly secured to the pump driving shaft 42A…
In other words, Matsuno discloses an embodiment in which an electromagnetic pickup is used to determine TDC of a rotational displacement of a pump. Furthermore, the embodiment discloses determining rotational displacement and engine speed.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include into Kuzbari and Gross’s rotating machinery sensor systems a modified embodiment of Matsumo’s TDC detection arrangement wherein once TDC is determined, one of ordinary skill would use TDC as a reference point to detect rotational displacement as well as engine speed. TDC is a widely known reference point for determining engine speed and rotational displacement and one of ordinary skill would have derived these two parameters when TDC is used a reference point.
Response to Arguments
The applicant’s argument with respect to the rejection of claim 1 has been carefully reviewed. However, the claimed “process vibrational data from the at least one accelerometer to determine a condition of the rotating or reciprocating component, determine an indicium of the health of the asset based on the condition, and transmission circuitry powered by the electrical energy and configured to cause the antenna to transmit one or more signals comprising data indicative of the indicium of health determined by the control using backscatter” was not examined in a prior Office Action. Accordingly, the applicant’s arguments are moot since the amended claim limitations require a new search and consideration.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CAL EUSTAQUIO whose telephone number is (571)270-7229. The examiner can normally be reached 8am-5pm. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Brian Zimmerman, can be reached at (571) 272-3059. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application lnformation Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAlR only. For more information about the PAlR system, see http:/lpair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAlR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-91 99 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/CAL J EUSTAQUIO/Examiner, Art Unit 2686
/BRIAN A ZIMMERMAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2686
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