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
Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 1-10 in the reply filed on 6/4/2026 is acknowledged.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 5, and 7-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Amesbury et al., US Patent Application Publication No. 20060237401 A1.
Claim 1. Amesbury discloses a laser welding apparatus for welding a workpiece in a welding zone, comprising (Amesbury, Abstract “A laser welding system…”; Fig. 2 shows workpiece 18 in a welding zone.)
a first clamping jaw comprising an array of laser diodes arranged to emit laser light and (Amesbury, Fig. 3 shows the laser head 34 having the diode lasers 14 (seen in Fig. 2) and lens 40 that is part of the structure including the upper pressure plate 26, 42, collectively corresponding to the first clamping jaw.)
a transparent body arranged to receive and transmit the laser light into the workpiece, (Amesbury, Fig. 6 and 7 show a detailed view of the water cooled pressure plate 42, which includes a second layer 70; and [0039] “A second layer 70 of a substantially highly transmissive material, for example quartz, may be supported by the frame and established on the mask 66/first layer 68, if desired” the water cooled pressure plate 42 including the second layer 70 corresponding to the claimed transparent body.)
wherein the array of laser diodes is arranged in proximity to the transparent body, (Amesbury, [0018] “… laser head 12 having a linear array of at least two laser diodes 14 therein” which is in proximity to the water cooled pressure plate 42.)
the transparent body having a clamping surface arranged to come into contact with the workpiece. (Amesbury, [0044] “A method according to the embodiment(s) herein includes lifting the first component 20 and the other component 22 against a pressure plate 26, 42; and holding the components 20, 22 together under a predetermined pressure…” where components 20 and 22 are collectively the workpiece 18.)
Claim 5. Amesbury discloses the laser welding apparatus according to claim 1,
wherein the transparent body has a non-transmissive surface in regions immediately adjacent to the clamping surface. (Amesbury, Fig. 7 and [0038] detail the mask 66 “may be formed of any suitable substantially non-transmissive, highly reflective material. As used herein, ‘highly reflective’ is meant to mean a material which reflects at least 90% of the light incident upon it” and is immediately adjacent to the clamping surface, corresponding to the claimed non-transmissive surface.)
Claim 7. Amesbury discloses the laser welding apparatus of claim 1,
wherein the first clamping jaw comprises a holding frame for holding the transparent body, (Amesbury, Fig. 6 shows the water cooler pressure plate 42 having an upper member 54 attached to a lower member corresponding to the claimed holding frame for holding the transparent body.)
wherein the holding frame is arranged to dissipate heat from the transparent body. (Amesbury, [0037] “the cooling passages 72, 74 are in the lower frame member.”)
Claim 8. Amesbury discloses the laser welding apparatus of claim 1,
wherein the transparent body is made of a heat conducting material and/or comprises interior channels for receiving a cooling fluid. (Amesbury, [0037] “the cooling passages 72, 74 are in the lower frame member”; [0042] “The water/chilled water (if chilled water is used) is adapted to circulate through the water cooling passage(s) 72 and/or 74, and through outlet(s) 60 and/or 62, respectively, thereby removing heat from the pressure plate 42.”)
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.
The factual inquiries 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.
Claim(s) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Amesbury et al., US Patent Application Publication No. 20060237401 A1, in view of Aguirre et al., US Patent Application Publication No. 7189983 B2.
Claim 2. Amesbury discloses the laser welding apparatus according to claim 1.
Amesbury does not explicitly disclose wherein the array of laser diodes is two-dimensional and comprises sub-arrays of the laser diodes, wherein the sub-arrays of the laser diodes are individually addressable to adjust an intensity distribution along the welding zone.
Aguirre discloses wherein the array of laser diodes is two-dimensional and comprises sub-arrays of the laser diodes, (Aguirre, Fig. 2 shows the a 2D array of solid state radiation sources 104; and col. 5 line 38 “In an exemplary embodiment, the solid state radiation sources 104 comprise a plurality of discrete LED dies or chips disposed in an array pattern, however other solid state radiation sources are applicable as well including laser diodes.”)
wherein the sub-arrays of the laser diodes are individually addressable to adjust an intensity distribution along the welding zone. (Aguirre, col. 5 line 42 “The discrete LED dies 104 are mounted individually and have independent electrical connections for operational control (rather than an LED array where all the LEDs are connected to each other by their common semiconductor substrate).”)
Amesbury and Aguirre are analogous art because they are related to the arrangement of laser diodes for an apparatus. Although Amesbury does not explicitly disclose the array of laser diodes being 2D, Amesbury mentions the 1x6 laser diode stack arrangement of the embodiment shown in Fig. 1 may not be limited to a specific number of diodes and that “it is to be understood that any suitable number of laser diodes 14 may be used, as desired and/or as suitable for a particular application” (see Amesbury, [0018]). The embodiment of Fig. 2 is also depicted in Figs. 3 and 4 to have a plurality of laser diodes 14 and “it is to be understood that any suitable number of diodes 14 may be in each bank 44, and any suitable number of banks 44 may be used, as desired for a particular application)” (see Amesbury, [0035]). Furthermore, the laser diodes taught by Aguirre are independently connected and controlled by the controller. Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the linear array of diodes taught by Amesbury with the independently connected and controlled 2D array pattern of diodes taught by Aguirre. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a modification as arrays stacked in certain patterns such as a square or rectangular shape can be used for curing materials having a wide variety of shapes such as those having corners or crevices (see Aguirre, col. 15 line 36) and being individually connected and controlled by the controller allows the LED dies to produce a symmetrical radiation pattern and become more efficient at converting electrical energy to light (Aguirre, col 15 line 46) as taught by Aguirre.
Claim(s) 3-4 and 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Amesbury et al., US Patent Application Publication No. 20060237401 A1, in view of Le Monnier et al., US Patent Application Publication No. 20130025793 A1.
Claim 3. Amesbury discloses the laser welding apparatus according to claim 1.
Amesbury does not explicitly disclose wherein the transparent body is arranged to bundle the laser light passing through the transparent body such that a laser light bundle exiting the transparent body has a reduced area in a cross-section perpendicular to a propagation direction of the laser light, in comparison with a cross-section of the laser light bundle incident on the transparent body.
Le Monnier discloses wherein the transparent body is arranged to bundle the laser light passing through the transparent body (Le Monnier, Fig. 3b shows an embodiment where a sapphire bar 3b additionally has a synthetic sapphire plate 24 placed below it, collectively they correspond to the claimed transparent body arranged to bundle the laser light through the transparent body; Fig. 4a and 4b shows the front and side view of the bar where the laser beam F is being bundled through the sapphire bars; and [0082] “Due to their angle of incidence and the difference between the refraction indices of the air and of the synthetic sapphire bar 3a, the beams emitted by the laser diodes 2 reflect on its walls and overlap to form a uniform illumination at the outlet of said synthetic sapphire bar 3a, i.e. in direct contact with the first thermoplastic membrane 12.”)
Le Monnier discloses such that a laser light bundle exiting the transparent body has a reduced area in a cross-section perpendicular to a propagation direction of the laser light, in comparison with a cross-section of the laser light bundle incident on the transparent body. (Le Monnier, Fig. 7b shows the sapphire plate 24 narrowing the beam as it passes through; and [0129] details that the sapphire plate 24 also perform the function of containing the optical power of the laser in a direction transverse to the movement of the welding device, which corresponds with the claimed reduced area in a cross-section perpendicular to a propagation direction of the laser light.)
Amesbury and Le Monnier are analogous art because they are related to laser welding systems for thermoplastics. Amesbury does not explicitly disclose the transparent body arranged to bundle the laser light through the water cooled pressure plate 42. However, Le Monnier discloses an embodiment where a synthetic sapphire plate 24, similar to the quartz transparent component in the water cooled pressure plate 42, has an additional sapphire bar 3b shown in Fig. 3b. In this embodiment, the glass bar 3b performs the waveguide function to guild the beam into the sapphire plate 24. The sapphire plate 24 of Le Monnier is also taught to perform the function of containing the optical power of the laser in a direction transverse to the movement of the welding device (see Le Monnier, [0129]). Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the water cooled pressure plate taught by Amesbury by substituting the synthetic sapphire plate 24 of Le Monnier, and further add a parallelepiped shaped bar 3a in as taught by Le Monnier. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a modification in order to have the bar perform the function of a waveguide before directing the beams through the transparent synthetic sapphire plate 24.
Claim 4. Amesbury discloses the laser welding apparatus according to claim 1,
Amesbury does not explicitly disclose wherein the transparent body comprises a projecting ridge having a front surface forming the clamping surface of the transparent body.
Le Monnier discloses wherein the transparent body comprises a projecting ridge having a front surface forming the clamping surface of the transparent body. (Le Monnier, Fig. 4b shows the beveled lower section 4a of the parallelepiped shaped sapphire bar 3a with a front surface pressed against the thermoplastic illumination surface 23 between round-off sections 7a, where the surface of the bar pressed against 23 corresponds to the claimed projecting ridge.)
Amesbury and Le Monnier are analogous art because they are related to laser welding systems for thermoplastics. Amesbury does not explicitly disclose the transparent body having a projecting ridge forming the clamping surface of the water cooled pressure plate 42. Le Monnier teaches a contoured bottom surface of a transparent body where the surface that touches to workpiece has a round-off section 7a, forming a tapered ridge for the clamping surface. Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the water cooled pressure plate taught by Amesbury with the synthetic sapphire bar 3a in a parallelepiped shaped as taught by Le Monnier. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a modification to prevent the bar that clamps down on the thermoplastic member 12 from catching the membrane during operation.
Claim 6. Modified Amesbury discloses the laser welding apparatus according to claim 4 ,
wherein the clamping surface of the transparent body has a contour along a length of the transparent body which comprises different height levels along the length of the clamping surface. (Le Monnier, Fig. 5 shows round-off sections 7a along the length of the assembly of the plurality of sapphire bars 3a, corresponding to the claimed contour along the length of the transparent body.)
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Amesbury et al., US Patent Application Publication No. 20060237401 A1.
Claim 9. Amesbury discloses the laser welding apparatus according to claim 1,
wherein the welding zone is elongated and (Amesbury, [0026] “The continuous line of laser energy L is generally in a plane containing the workpiece 18, and is substantially orthogonal to a direction W of translation of the workpiece” along the line where the first component 20 is to be welded to at least one other component 22.)
Although the embodiment of Amesbury in Fig. 2 does not explicitly disclose an elongated welding zone, Amesbury mentions the 1x6 laser diode stack arrangement of the embodiment shown in Fig. 1 may not be limited to a specific number of diodes and that “it is to be understood that any suitable number of laser diodes 14 may be used, as desired and/or as suitable for a particular application” (see Amesbury, [0018]). The embodiment of Fig. 2 is also depicted in Figs. 3 and 4 to have a plurality of laser diodes 14 and “it is to be understood that any suitable number of diodes 14 may be in each bank 44, and any suitable number of banks 44 may be used, as desired for a particular application)” (see Amesbury, [0035]). Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the laser diode arrangement in the embodiment shown in Fig. 2 taught by Amesbury into the elongated welding zone enabled by the arrangement of the laser diodes shown in the embodiment of Fig. 1 of Amesbury. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a modification in order to enable welding a first component 20 to more than one component(s) 22 and adapt the continuous wave laser beams 16 to weld a workpiece 18 according to its size and number of components (see Amesbury, [0020]).
defines a longitudinal axis, so that the transparent body is extending along the longitudinal axis and has an elongated shape. (Amesbury, Fig. 2 shows the cooled pressure plate 42 having an elongated shape in the direction of scanning, which corresponding to the claimed longitudinal axis.)
Claim(s) 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Amesbury et al., US Patent Application Publication No. 20060237401 A1, in view of Link, US Patent Application Publication No. 7318878 B2.
Claim 10. Amesbury discloses the laser welding apparatus according to claim 1,
further comprising a second clamping jaw opposite to the first clamping jaw and (Amesbury, Fig. 2 shows a positioning member 28 and lift fixture 30 corresponding to the claimed second clamping jaw.)
arranged to clamp the workpiece in cooperation with the clamping surface of the transparent body of the first clamping jaw along the welding zone, (Amesbury, [0027] “The system 10 may further include a workpiece positioning member 28 and/or translating member 32, generally in conjunction with a suitable lift fixture 30 at a predetermined pressure (discussed further below), adapted to substantially continuously place consecutive adjacent areas of the workpiece 18 to be welded a predetermined distance from the laser head 12 for a predetermined period of time”; and [0044] “A method according to the embodiment(s) herein includes lifting the first component 20 and the other component 22 against a pressure plate 26, 42; and holding the components 20, 22 together under a predetermined pressure…”)
Amesbury does not explicitly disclose wherein the second clamping jaw comprises a further array of laser diodes arranged to emit laser light and a further transparent body arranged to receive and transmit the laser light, wherein the further array of laser diodes is arranged in proximity to the further transparent body, wherein the transparent body and the further transparent body are arranged to clamp the workpiece therebetween.
wherein the second clamping jaw comprises a further array of laser diodes arranged to emit laser light and a further transparent body arranged to receive and transmit the laser light, (Link, Fig. 1 shows radiation-conducting fibers 15 and 17 along with their respective focusing optics 16 and 18 as well as clamps in the form of glass panes 11 and 12 mirrored on either side of the workpiece which is a plastic film 10; and col. 4 line 6 “The radiation sources are preferably laser radiation sources, for example instance diode lasers, solid-state lasers, gas lasers or laser diode arrays.”)
wherein the further array of laser diodes is arranged in proximity to the further transparent body, (Link, Fig. 1 shows the bottom radiation-conducting fibers 17 and focusing optic 18 being in proximity to the bottom glass pane and clamp 12.)
wherein the transparent body and the further transparent body are arranged to clamp the workpiece therebetween. (Link, Fig. 1 shows the glass panes 11 and 12 work in tandem to clamp the workpiece, plastic film 10, between them.)
Amesbury and Link are analogous art because they are related to laser welding systems for plastic or thermoplastics. Although, Amesbury does not explicitly disclose the second clamping jaw as having its own transparent body and laser diode array, Link teaches a mirrored set of clamping glass panes and radiation sources working in tandem to clamp the workpiece for welding. Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the apparatus of Amesbury to have a mirror clamp and laser system opposite the first clamping jaw on the other side of the workpiece as taught by Link. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a modification because “as a result of simultaneous irradiation of the plastic film 10 from both sides via the focussing optics 16 and 18, a uniform weld 19 can be achieved over the entire thickness of the plastic film 10…” (see Link, col. 4 line 18).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Osborne, US 3997385 A directed to clamping of a film material for radiant energy welding.
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/K.B.M./Examiner, Art Unit 3761
/JUSTIN C DODSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3761
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