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 § 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 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.
Claim(s) 1-3 and 9-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tolleneer (US 20120240917 A1) in view of Kowald (US 20170241666 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Tolleneer teaches of:
A furnace assembly for use with a combustible fuel from a fuel supply (Fig. 3), comprising:
an intake manifold connectable to the fuel supply in which the fuel is mixable with air to form a pre-mixed fuel and air mixture (Fig. 3, 20; ¶ [0057], A premixed fuel-air mixture 30 is introduced in the premix burner 16 via the supply 20);
a partition panel (Fig. 4, 7);
a burner assembly mountable to the partition panel and operable to combust the pre-mixed fuel and air mixture to produce a heated flue gas (Fig. 4, 16), the burner assembly comprising:
a housing connected in fluid communication with the intake manifold (Fig. 4, 18);
burners locatable in the housing, each burner configured to produce a flame for the combustion of the mixture into a flue gas (Fig. 4, 21; ¶ [0045], In the example shown, the inputs 6 and the outputs 21 have a, elongated shape and define the flame zones of the burner, so to speak); and
a heat shielding plate located and shaped to reduce heat communicated to the partition panel due to the combustion (Fig. 4, 17) and comprising:
holes through the plate, each hole aligned with one of the burners (Fig. 4, holes 22 align with 21 of burner);
and a groove extending between the holes and shaped to accommodate thermal expansion of and reduce thermal deformation of the plate (Fig. 4, 24, 25 and 28 extend between the holes, the grooves would be capable of accommodating thermal expansion and deformation of 17); and
a heat exchanger mounted to the partition panel in thermal communication with the burners and comprising tubes positioned to receive the heated flue gas from the burners (Figs. 4-5, 4 are tube shaped, mounted to 7 and in thermal communication with the burners).
Tolleneer fails to explicitly teach:
the heat shielding plate comprising a high-temperature alloy
Kowald teaches of:
the heat shielding plate comprising a high-temperature alloy (¶ [0026], Embodiments of a flue shield as described herein can comprise a variety of materials. In a preferred embodiment a flue shield is made of stainless steel. Different stainless steels can be used such as 400 series, 300 series or other alloys of chromium, nickel and other metals as appropriate. Some embodiments may be able to use ceramics. A typical embodiment of a flue shield may have to withstand temperatures up to 1300 F)
The primary reference can be modified to meet this/these limitation(s) as follows:
make the heat shield of Tolleneer out of an alloy that can withstand temperature up to 1300 F
A person of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to make the above modification(s) because:
It has been found that the simple substation of one known element for another to obtain predictable results is obvious based upon the following rationale:
Tolleneer teaches of the claimed heat shield except for the substitution of the particular material it is made out of;
Kowald teaches of the heat shield made out of a heat resistant alloy;
A person of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention could have substituted the material of the heat shield of Tolleneer with the alloy of Kowald and the results would predictably have been heat shielding of the partition panel and heat exchanger tube connections
Applicant has placed no criticality on the use of a high-temperature alloy in the heat shield, simply stating that the heat shield “may” be made from such an alloy (see Applicant’s specification paragraph [0029])
Regarding claim 2, the combined teachings teach of the assembly of claim 1, and the combined teachings further teach:
wherein the heat shielding plate comprises a rectangular profile comprising two short sides and two long sides and the groove extends between the two long sides (Tolleneer, Fig. 4, 17 has a rectangular profile, each of the grooves extends in both the horizontal and vertical directions in their height and width and therefore extend between the two long sides of 17)
Regarding claim 3, the combined teachings teach of the assembly of claim 1, however, the combined teachings fail to explicitly teach:
wherein the groove comprises a v-shape cross-section profile.
The combined teachings can be modified to meet this/these limitation(s) as follows:
modify the grooves of Tolleneer to be v-shaped
A person of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to make the above modification(s) because:
it has been found that when the only difference between the claimed invention and the prior art is a particular shape of an element, Applicant has placed no criticality on the claimed shaped and modification to the shape in the prior art would not adversely affect its functionality, than such a change would be obvious to one of ordinary skill (see MPEP 2144.04.IV.B). In the instant case Applicant has placed no criticality on the v-shape of the groove, simply stating that the groove “may” be v-shaped but any other shape is suitable (see Applicant’s specification, ¶ [0031]) and modification to Tolleneer would not impact the heat shields functionality.
Regarding claim 9, Tolleneer teaches of:
A burner assembly mountable to a partition panel of a furnace assembly and operable to combust a pre-mixed combustible fuel and air mixture to produce a heated flue gas (Fig. 4, 16 is mountable to 7 and combusts premixed air and fuel), the burner assembly comprising:
a housing (Fig. 4, 18);
at least two burners, each configured to produce a flame for the combustion of the mixture into a flue gas (Fig. 4, 21); and
a heat shielding plate located between the burners and the partition panel and configured to reduce the heat communicated to the partition panel due to the combustion (Fig. 4, 17), and comprising:
holes through the plate, each hole aligned with one of the burners (Fig. 4, holes 22 align with 21 of burner); and
a groove extending between the holes and shaped to accommodate thermal expansion of and reduce thermal deformation of the plate (Fig. 4, 24, 25 and 28 extend between the holes, the grooves would be capable of accommodating thermal expansion and deformation of 17).
Tolleneer fails to explicitly teach:
the heat shielding plate comprising a high-temperature alloy
Kowald teaches of:
the heat shielding plate comprising a high-temperature alloy (¶ [0026], Embodiments of a flue shield as described herein can comprise a variety of materials. In a preferred embodiment a flue shield is made of stainless steel. Different stainless steels can be used such as 400 series, 300 series or other alloys of chromium, nickel and other metals as appropriate. Some embodiments may be able to use ceramics. A typical embodiment of a flue shield may have to withstand temperatures up to 1300 F)
The primary reference can be modified to meet this/these limitation(s) as follows:
make the heat shield of Tolleneer out of an alloy that can withstand temperature up to 1300 F
A person of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to make the above modification(s) because:
It has been found that the simple substation of one known element for another to obtain predictable results is obvious based upon the following rationale:
Tolleneer teaches of the claimed heat shield except for the substitution of the particular material it is made out of;
Kowald teaches of the heat shield made out of a heat resistant alloy;
A person of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention could have substituted the material of the heat shield of Tolleneer with the alloy of Kowald and the results would predictably have been heat shielding of the partition panel and heat exchanger tube connections
Applicant has placed no criticality on the use of a high-temperature alloy in the heat shield, simply stating that the heat shield “may” be made from such an alloy (see Applicant’s specification paragraph [0029])
Regarding claim 10, the combined teachings teach of the burner assembly of claim 9, and the combined teachings further teach:
wherein the heat shielding plate comprises a rectangular profile comprising two short sides and two long sides and the groove extends between the two long sides (Tolleneer, Fig. 4, 17 has a rectangular profile, each of the grooves extends in both the horizontal and vertical directions in their height and width and therefore extend between the two long sides of 17)
Regarding claim 11, the combined teachings teach of the burner assembly of claim 9, however, the combined teachings fail to explicitly teach:
wherein the groove comprises a v-shape cross-section profile.
The combined teachings can be modified to meet this/these limitation(s) as follows:
modify the grooves of Tolleneer to be v-shaped
A person of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to make the above modification(s) because:
it has been found that when the only difference between the claimed invention and the prior art is a particular shape of an element, Applicant has placed no criticality on the claimed shaped and modification to the shape in the prior art would not adversely affect its functionality, than such a change would be obvious to one of ordinary skill (see MPEP 2144.04.IV.B). In the instant case Applicant has placed no criticality on the v-shape of the groove, simply stating that the groove “may” be v-shaped but any other shape is suitable (see Applicant’s specification, ¶ [0031]) and modification to Tolleneer would not impact the heat shields functionality.
Claim(s) 4 and 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tolleneer (US 20120240917 A1) in view of Kowald (US 20170241666 A1) as presented in claims 1 and 9, and in further view of Specht (US 7726386 B2).
Regarding claim 4, the combined teachings teach of the assembly of claim 1, however, the combined teachings fail to explicitly teach:
where the holes each comprise a lip comprising a curved funnel cross-section profile.
Specht teaches of:
where the holes each comprise a lip comprising a curved funnel cross-section profile (Fig. 3, heat shield 120 has a curved funnel cross-section 124)
The combined teachings can be modified to meet this/these limitation(s) as follows:
add an annular lip to the holes of the heat shield 17 of Tolleneer so that they extend slighting into the openings 6 of the heat exchanger
A person of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to make the above modification(s) because:
it would create laminar flow of the combustion gases allowing them to stay more central within the heat exchangers and flow further into the heat exchanger before dispersing, improving efficiency (Col. 4, lines 54-56, By reducing entrance turbulence of the secondary combustion air, it has been found that significant reductions of carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide compounds result.)
Regarding claim 12, the combined teachings teach of the burner assembly of claim 9, however, the combined teachings fail to explicitly teach:
where the holes each comprise a lip comprising a curved funnel cross-section profile.
Specht teaches of:
where the holes each comprise a lip comprising a curved funnel cross-section profile (Fig. 3, heat shield 120 has a curved funnel cross-section 124)
The combined teachings can be modified to meet this/these limitation(s) as follows:
add an annular lip to the holes of the heat shield 17 of Tolleneer so that they extend slighting into the openings 6 of the heat exchanger
A person of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to make the above modification(s) because:
it would create laminar flow of the combustion gases allowing them to stay more central within the heat exchangers and flow further into the heat exchanger before dispersing, improving efficiency (Col. 4, lines 54-56, By reducing entrance turbulence of the secondary combustion air, it has been found that significant reductions of carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide compounds result.)
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tolleneer (US 20120240917 A1) in view of Kowald (US 20170241666 A1) as presented in claim 1, and in further view of Schultz (US 20040250810 A1).
Regarding claim 8, the combined teachings teach of the assembly of claim 1, however, the combined teachings fail to explicitly teach:
further comprising an inducer blower downstream of the heat exchanger and in fluid communication with the tubes, the blower operable to create a negative pressure in the heat exchanger and pull the combusted flue gas into the tubes.
Schultz teaches of:
further comprising an inducer blower downstream of the heat exchanger and in fluid communication with the tubes, the blower operable to create a negative pressure in the heat exchanger and pull the combusted flue gas into the tubes (Fig. 1, 116 pulls gasses through 114)
The combined teachings can be modified to meet this/these limitation(s) as follows:
add an inducer at the downstream end of the heat exchangers 5 of Tolleneer
A person of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to make the above modification(s) because:
it would ensure that there is flow through the heat exchanger and that the used combustion gasses are exhausted out of the system (Schultz, ¶ [0002], A combustion air blower, or inducer, is used to remove exhaust gases from the building.)
Claim(s) 16-18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tolleneer (US 20120240917 A1) in view of Kowald (US 20170241666 A1) and Schultz (US 20040250810 A1).
Regarding claim 16, Tolleneer teaches of:
A method of operating a furnace assembly for use with a combustible fuel from a fuel supply to heat an interior of a structure, comprising:
supplying fuel from a fuel supply to an intake manifold;
supplying air to the intake manifold to form a pre-mixed fuel and air mixture (¶ [0017], whereby the burner has a premix chamber in which fuel and sufficient air for the essentially complete combustion of the fuel is mixed);
flowing the pre-mixed fuel and air mixture to a burner assembly (Fig. 4, pre-mixed fuel 30 is supplied via 20 to 16);
combusting the pre-mixed fuel and air mixture on burners of the burner assembly to produce a heated flue gas (Fig. 4, mixture 30 is combusted on burners 21);
reducing an amount of heat from the combustion communicated to a partition panel to which the burner assembly is mounted with a heat shielding plate (Fig. 4, 17; ¶ [0061], As a result of the thickness of the heat shield 17, the passages 22 form, so to speak, guides that more or less channel the heat radiation 32 from the flame zones of the burner 16 in the flow direction of the primary channels, such that this heat radiation 32, as shown in FIG. 5, only contacts the walls of the primary channels 5 at a shallow angle, so that this radiation 32 only has a limited effect on the heating of these walls), each hole aligned with one of the burners;
compressing a groove in the heat shielding plate between the holes during the combustion to accommodate thermal expansion of and reduce thermal deformation of the plate (Fig. 4, grooves 24, 25 and 28 would allow for thermal expansion and deformation of 17);
passing an air stream over an exterior of the tubes to transfer heat from the heated flue gas in to tubes to the air stream to produce a heated air stream (Fig. 3, 9 passes an air stream over heat exchangers 5); and
flowing the heated air stream into the interior of the structure (¶ [0001], The present invention relates to a heating appliance for air heating, more specifically for heating air that is used for heating the spaces of buildings or similar)
Tolleneer fails to explicitly teach:
the heat shielding plate comprising a high-temperature alloy and comprising holes through the plate
operating a blower downstream of the burner assembly to create a negative pressure in a heat exchanger mounted to the partition panel in thermal communication with the burner and comprising tubes and pull the heated flue gas into the tubes
Kowald teaches of:
the heat shielding plate comprising a high-temperature alloy (¶ [0026], Embodiments of a flue shield as described herein can comprise a variety of materials. In a preferred embodiment a flue shield is made of stainless steel. Different stainless steels can be used such as 400 series, 300 series or other alloys of chromium, nickel and other metals as appropriate. Some embodiments may be able to use ceramics. A typical embodiment of a flue shield may have to withstand temperatures up to 1300 F)
The primary reference can be modified to meet this/these limitation(s) as follows:
make the heat shield of Tolleneer out of an alloy that can withstand temperature up to 1300 F
A person of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to make the above modification(s) because:
It has been found that the simple substation of one known element for another to obtain predictable results is obvious based upon the following rationale:
Tolleneer teaches of the claimed heat shield except for the substitution of the particular material it is made out of;
Kowald teaches of the heat shield made out of a heat resistant alloy;
A person of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention could have substituted the material of the heat shield of Tolleneer with the alloy of Kowald and the results would predictably have been heat shielding of the partition panel and heat exchanger tube connections
Applicant has placed no criticality on the use of a high-temperature alloy in the heat shield, simply stating that the heat shield “may” be made from such an alloy (see Applicant’s specification paragraph [0029])
Schultz teaches of:
operating a blower downstream of the burner assembly to create a negative pressure in a heat exchanger mounted to the partition panel in thermal communication with the burner and comprising tubes and pull the heated flue gas into the tubes (Fig. 1, 116 pulls gasses through 114)
The combined teachings can be modified to meet this/these limitation(s) as follows:
add an inducer at the downstream end of the heat exchangers 5 of Tolleneer
A person of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to make the above modification(s) because:
it would ensure that there is flow through the heat exchanger and that the used combustion gasses are exhausted out of the system (Schultz, ¶ [0002], A combustion air blower, or inducer, is used to remove exhaust gases from the building.)
Regarding claim 17, the combined teachings teach of the method of claim 16, and the combined teachings further teach:
wherein the heat shielding plate comprises a rectangular profile comprising two short sides and two long sides and the groove extends between the two long sides (Tolleneer, Fig. 4, 17 has a rectangular profile, each of the grooves extends in both the horizontal and vertical directions in their height and width and therefore extend between the two long sides of 17)
Regarding claim 18, the combined teachings teach of the method of claim 17, however, the combined teachings fail to explicitly teach:
wherein the groove comprises a v-shape cross- section profile.
The combined teachings can be modified to meet this/these limitation(s) as follows:
modify the grooves of Tolleneer to be v-shaped
A person of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to make the above modification(s) because:
it has been found that when the only difference between the claimed invention and the prior art is a particular shape of an element, Applicant has placed no criticality on the claimed shaped and modification to the shape in the prior art would not adversely affect its functionality, than such a change would be obvious to one of ordinary skill (see MPEP 2144.04.IV.B). In the instant case Applicant has placed no criticality on the v-shape of the groove, simply stating that the groove “may” be v-shaped but any other shape is suitable (see Applicant’s specification, ¶ [0031]) and modification to Tolleneer would not impact the heat shields functionality.
Claim(s) 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tolleneer (US 20120240917 A1) in view of Kowald (US 20170241666 A1) and Schultz (US 20040250810 A1) as presented in claim 16, and in further view of Specht (US 7726386 B2).
Regarding claim 19, the combined teachings teach of the method of claim 16, however, the combined teachings fail to explicitly teach:
where the holes each comprise a lip comprising a curved funnel cross-section profile.
Specht teaches of:
where the holes each comprise a lip comprising a curved funnel cross-section profile (Fig. 3, heat shield 120 has a curved funnel cross-section 124)
The combined teachings can be modified to meet this/these limitation(s) as follows:
add an annular lip to the holes of the heat shield 17 of Tolleneer so that they extend slighting into the openings 6 of the heat exchanger
A person of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to make the above modification(s) because:
it would create laminar flow of the combustion gases allowing them to stay more central within the heat exchangers and flow further into the heat exchanger before dispersing, improving efficiency (Col. 4, lines 54-56, By reducing entrance turbulence of the secondary combustion air, it has been found that significant reductions of carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide compounds result.)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-7, 13-15 and 20 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 5-7, 13-15 and 20:
Each of the claims recite flanges on the short sides or tabs on the long sides of the rectangular profile of the heat shield. None of the known references with heat shields teach of such an arrangement. Particularly, Tolleneer is the only known reference to teach of a heat shield with any groove and is therefore the only known primary reference for each of the independent claims. Shown in Fig. 5 of Tolleneer, the heat shield 17 is fit between on the surface of 18 and the partition panel 7 with no space left between. No known reference teaches of adding a flange or tab to 17, particularly ones that are arranged to accommodate for thermal expansion of 7. Therefore claims 5-7, 13-15 and 20 are objected to as containing allowable subject matter but depending from rejected claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL J GIORDANO whose telephone number is (571)272-8940. The examiner can normally be reached M-Fr 8 AM - 5 PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Steve McAllister can be reached at (571) 272-6785. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MICHAEL JAMES GIORDANO/Examiner, Art Unit 3762
/STEVEN B MCALLISTER/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3762