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 .
Election/Restrictions
Claims 10, 19, and 20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected subcombinations, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 09/01/2026. Note that claim 10, not claim 9 (typo in the restriction filed 07/01/2026), belongs to non-elected invention I(B).
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the system elements of claim 1 and method steps of claim 12 must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Objections
Claims 1-9 and 11-18 are objected to because of the following informalities:
In claim 1, line 2, “a paint spray booth” should be --the paint spray booth-- to avoid creating another antecedent basis for the paint spray booth.
In claim 12, line 2, “a paint spray booth” should be --the paint spray booth-- to avoid creating another antecedent basis for the paint spray booth.
The other claim(s) not discussed above, or depending on the above claim(s), are objected to for inheriting the issue(s) from their linking claim(s).
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claims 1-7 and 11-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Beier (US 20150052978 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Beier teaches a system for monitoring parameters of a paint spray booth (i.e., “a filtration monitoring system”; see Abstract; “in a paint spray booth”; see [0028]) comprising:
a first differential pressure sensor associated with a paint spray booth, wherein the paint spray booth comprises at least one air filter (i.e., “devices 210A, 210B may be coupled to the input air flow and output air flow and configured to measure the differential pressure drop across one or more filters of the spray booth”; see [0028]);
a processing unit (i.e., “server 130”) for receiving data from the first differential pressure sensor (i.e., “Sensor 110 may be communicatively coupled to a controller 120. Controller 120 may be configured to transfer measured data received from sensor 110 to a server 130 of the filter monitoring system 100”; see [0018]); and
a display (i.e., “Communication apparatus 140”) for displaying (i.e., “Server 130 may be configured to generate a user interface viewable by a user and may be configured for multi-media notification capability. Web-based user interface, shown in an exemplary embodiment in FIG. 5… Communication apparatus 140 may be communicatively coupled with server 130. Communication apparatus 140 may include a computer, tablet, mobile device, cellular phone, smartphone and the like”; see [0022]; “Referring to FIG. 5, an exemplary user interface 500 depicting status of a plurality of filters in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown. User interface 500 may be a website accessible by a user to view status of the filters being maintained by a particular user”; see [0034]).
Beier does not explicitly disclose (see only the underlined):
a display for displaying real-time differential pressure information of the paint spray booth from the first differential pressure sensor.
However, Beier further teaches:
showing status of the filter to the person in charge of the maintenance of the filter (see [0034]) and a gauge and a meter (see FIG. 5).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the display for displaying real-time differential pressure information of the paint spray booth from the first differential pressure sensor, as claimed. The rationale would be to show the available sensor data to assist in monitoring the filter.
Regarding claim 2, Beier further teaches:
a communication protocol for sending the differential pressure information to a remote user (i.e., “controller 120 may transmit data in accordance with IEEE 802.11 standard, generally referred as a WIFI transceiver. Controller 120 may be configured for transmission via RF, ZigBee (IEEE 802.15.4), wired Ethernet (IEEE 802.3xx), wired Serial (RS-232/RS-485), cellular, infrared, BLUETOOTH, and the like without departing from the scope and intent of the present disclosure. It is further contemplated that sensor 110 and controller 120 may be coupled to a WIFI access point whereby server 130 may be communicatively coupled to the controller 120 via the WIFI access point”; see [0026]; “Server 130 may include a network interface configured to allow accessibility to a worldwide network, such as the world wide web, and generally referred as the Internet”; see [0027]).
Regarding claim 3, Beier further teaches:
wherein the at least one differential pressure sensor is mounted within an air ventilation and circulation system (i.e., “Differential pressure sensor may measure a difference between two pressures, one connected to each side of the sensor. Differential pressure sensor may measure the pressure drop across a monitored filter”; see [0024]).
Regarding claim 4, Beier further teaches:
wherein the first pressure differential sensor comprises a transmitter (i.e., “Device 210 may include a sensor 110 and controller 120… Device 210 may include an antenna 214 for wireless transmission”; see [0029) and further wherein the processing unit comprises a receiver, wherein the transmitter is configured to send differential pressure sensor data of the paint spray booth to the receiver (i.e., “one or more devices 210A, 210B to measure a characteristic of a monitored filter and transfer the measured data to server 130”; see [0028]; the receiver is implied in order to receive the measured data).
Regarding claim 5, as a result of modification applied to claim 1, Beier further teaches:
wherein the display shows real-time or near real-time differential pressure sensor data of the paint spray booth (see discussion of the display in claim 1 above).
Regarding claim 6, Beier further teaches:
wherein a figure illustrates a threshold and further wherein the figure illustrates whether the differential pressure sensor data from the first differential pressure sensor reaches the threshold (i.e., “Graph 400 may be representative of the differential pressure measurements for a particular filter after a filter change, labeled in the graph as FC… a sensor caution threshold may be set to alert when a filter should be considered for replacement and a sensor warning threshold may be set to alert when a filter needs replacement”; see [0032] and FIG. 4).
Beier does not explicitly disclose (see only the underlined):
wherein the display illustrates a threshold and further wherein the display illustrates whether the differential pressure sensor data from the first differential pressure sensor reaches the threshold.
However, as FIG. 4 of Beier is useful for viewing the trend of the measured differential pressure against two thresholds, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the figure of Beier in the display, such that the display illustrates a threshold and that the display illustrates whether the differential pressure sensor data from the first differential pressure sensor reaches the threshold, as claimed. The rationale would be to provide useful information, such as the trend and thresholds to the viewer.
Regarding claim 7, Beier further teaches:
a second differential pressure sensor associated with the paint spray booth, wherein the first differential pressure sensor is located in a first location within an air ventilation and circulation system and further wherein the second differential pressure sensor is located in a second location within the air ventilation and circulation system (i.e., “devices 210A, 210B may be coupled to the input air flow and output air flow and configured to measure the differential pressure drop across one or more filters of the spray booth”; see [0028]; see, also, FIG. 3).
Regarding claim 11, Beier further teaches:
a transmitter associated with the processing unit for (i.e., “Server 130 may include a network interface configured to allow accessibility to a worldwide network, such as the world wide web, and generally referred as the Internet.”; see [0027]).
Beier does not explicitly disclose (see only the underlined):
a transmitter associated with the processing unit for wirelessly sending the data from the processing unit to a remote receiver.
However, it is well-known to use a wireless transmitter for wireless internet connection. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate a transmitter associated with the processing unit for wirelessly sending the data from the processing unit to a remote receiver, as claimed. The rationale would be to utilize a well-known Internet connection technology for the networking.
Regarding claim 12, the claim recites the same substantive limitations as claim 1 and is rejected by applying the same teachings.
Regarding claim 13, Beier further teaches:
sending an alert to the display, wherein the alert indicates that the at least one air filter should be changed (i.e., “Server 130 may alert a designated person(s) via electronic mail, text, and voice phone calls via communication apparatus 140 regarding the predicted expiration time for a monitored filter”; see [0022]; “a large differential pressure measurement of a particular filter followed by a low differential pressure measurement of the same filter may alert server 130 to a filter change”; see [0030]).
Regarding claim 14, the claim recites the same substantive further limitations as claim 2 and is rejected by applying the same teachings.
Regarding claim 15, Beier further teaches:
wherein the at least one differential pressure sensor is mounted within an air ventilation and circulation system within the paint spray booth (i.e., “devices 210A, 210B may be coupled to the input air flow and output air flow and configured to measure the differential pressure drop across one or more filters of the spray booth”; see [0028].
Regarding claim 16, the claim recites the same substantive further limitations as claim 4 and is rejected by applying the same teachings.
Regarding claim 17, the claim recites the same substantive further limitations as claim 5 and is rejected by applying the same teachings.
Regarding claim 18, the claim recites the same substantive further limitations as claim 6 and is rejected by applying the same teachings.
Claims 8-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Beier in view of JEONG (KR 102347501 B1; machine translation provided).
Regarding claims 8 and 9, the prior art applied to the preceding linking claim(s) teaches the features of the linking claim(s).
Beier does not explicitly disclose:
(claim 8) an electrical current sensor associated with the paint spray booth configured to measure an electrical current within the paint spray booth; and
(claim 8) an electrical current gauge icon on the display configured to show a measurement of the electrical current of the paint spray booth measured by the electrical current sensor.
(claim 9) wherein the electrical current sensor is a current transducer.
But JEONG teaches:
an electrical current sensor associated with the paint spray booth configured to measure an electrical current within the paint spray booth, wherein the electrical current sensor transmit sensos data to an IoT controller for monitoring the sensor data (i.e., “a first current sensor (125) for measuring the current of a motor (not shown) for driving a fan of a fan supply unit (320)… a second current sensor (135) for monitoring the current of a motor (not shown) for driving an exhaust fan of a fan of an exhaust means unit (330).”; see translation ¶ [0040]; “a third current sensor (145) that measures the output current of a drying device forming a heat treatment means unit (350) and transmits it to the IOT controller (200), and a fourth current sensor (155) that measures the output current of a dehumidification cooling means unit (350) and transmits it to the IOT controller (200)”; see translation ¶ [0042]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Beier in view of JEONG, by incorporating an electrical current sensor associated with the paint spray booth configured to measure an electrical current within the paint spray booth; and an electrical current gauge icon on the display configured to show a measurement of the electrical current of the paint spray booth measured by the electrical current sensor; wherein the electrical current sensor is a current transducer, as claimed. The rationale would be to also provide electrical current measurement data of the filtration system to facilitate monitoring the system status remotely.
Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
HU et a. (CN 105772309 A) teaches a monitoring system for a paint spraying booth, involving multiple sensors, a data collecting module, a data processing and controlling module, a display and control interface. A dynamic/static filter layer is provided with a first differential pressure gauge connected with the controller. The monitoring system can output, via a network, the data to various outside terminals.
ACKERMANN et al. (WO 2023232197 A1) teaches a monitoring device for a paint booth, involving pressure measuring devices for determining a differential pressure to the atmospheric pressure of the environment; and a network in connection with an external system to display the measurement signal.
Koike et al. (US 20210245191 A1) teaches a paint facility, involving monitoring a filter unit using a differential pressure sensor and prompting an alert for replacement of said filter unit when the differential pressure exceeds a predetermined upper limit.
Bohrer et al. (US 20160121254 A1) teaches an air filtration monitoring system for a paint spraying booth, involving a first transducer and a second transducer located upstream and downstream of an air filter to determine the differential pressure and compared it with a predetermined threshold to indicate the saturation of the air filter. Performance data can be displayed or transmitted to other systems.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOHN C KUAN whose telephone number is (571)270-7066. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 9:00AM-5:30PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Andrew Schechter can be reached at (571) 272-2302. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JOHN C KUAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2857
