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 with traverse of Group I, claims 1-14 and 18 in the reply filed on June 25th 2025 is acknowledged. However the restriction has been withdrawn and all the claims 1-18 have been rejoined.
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.
Claims 1-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Forrest et al. (5,753,172) in view of Bell et al. (2012/0111386).
Forrest et al. discloses an apparatus for simultaneous biaxial stretching of a thermoplastic polymer film, comprising:
A frame 11,
Radiant heaters 2,
Preheating zone 16 with heaters 17,
Stretching zone 18 with heaters 19,
Heat-setting zone 20 with heaters 21,
Wherein the heaters are commercial solar heaters – see col. 7, lines 44-51.
However, Forrest et al. fails to disclose: a solar heat generator, a heat generation circuit coveys a hear transfer fluid, a heat storage, a heat consumer circuit, and a temperature control device for control the temperature of the heating transfer fluid.
Regarding claims 1, 12-14 and 18, Bell et al. discloses an energy management system comprising a system 400 includes a solar collector 402, working medium collector conduit 404, concentrator 406, a conduit 408, junction valves 410, 414, 428, a thermal energy storage device 412, a second heat source 416 with fuel 418, a TEG 420, a cooling system 422, and cooling exchange 424, and an electric power control 426, and a controller unit ECU 560 to control power from the TEG to be transferred or to allocate power to other devices [0085], [0120], [0122].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide Forrest et al. with a solar-thermal process temperature control system as taught by Bell et al. in order to control the heat transferred from the solar-thermal system to improve Forrest’s film stretching unit.
Regarding claims 2-4, wherein Bell et al. further discloses a first heat exchanger connecting between a heat between the heat storage unit and the heat consumer circuit, a second heat exchanger that is connected between said at least one heat storage unit and the heat generation circuit, and that the heat storage unit is integrated into an intermediate circuit that conveys an intermediate-circuit heat transfer fluid, see Fig. 4, 402, 404, 408, 412.
Regarding claims 5-7, wherein Bell et al. discloses that the system collects solar powder in the solar collector 402, wherein the concentrator 406 forming part of the solar collector or in close proximity to the solar collector can be used to concentrate the solar power to increase the heat flux and the temperature achieved by heating a working medium, such as molten metal, molten salt, super-heated water, oil, anti-freeze, or other liquid, hot pressurized gas, or any other suitable working medium in the conduit 404, [0077], and that the thermal storage 412 can be used to store the thermal energy captured by the solar collector 402 using molten salt, water, a phase change material, another thermal energy storage medium, or a combination of thermal energy storage media to any desired amount of storage capacity at the storage temperature is greater than or equal to the nominal TEG 424 inlet temperature [0079]. Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to supply the heat transfer fluid at any desired temperature depending on the desired intended use.
Regarding claims 8-9, wherein Bell et al. further discloses that the thermoelectric-based powder generators can be different type of generators [0010]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to select a proper generator for the particular application as a matter of design choice.
Regarding claims 10-11, Bell et al. further discloses an electronic control unit uses input sensors, such as temperature sensors, flow rate sensors, speed sensors, solar flux measurements, pressure sensors, voltage sensors, current sensors, operating condition data, safety systems, readiness sensors, etc. to operate the system 400 and control the junction valves, pumps, fans, safety devices to determine available capacity, output rates, total output.
Regarding claims 15-17, Forrest further discloses that a thermoplastic film was formed by extruding a molten PEN polymer onto the surface of a rotating, cooled quench drum and cooled to produce an amorphous self-supporting film, wherein the cast film was then stripped from the quench drum and transported over heated rollers at 94˚C to the entrance of simultaneous biaxial tenter frame 11 where the beaded edges were gripped 15 by tenter clips. Just prior to the point at which the film entered the clips each bead passed between flat, sheathed electrical heaters 1, after the point at which the tenter clip jaws gripped 15 the film, three focused radiant heaters 2 were located on each side of the tenter frame, downstream from the final radiant heater the film entered the tenter oven which was divided into five heating zones for preheating 16 the film in preparation for stretching, stretching 18 the film simultaneously and then heat-setting 20 the film in the last three zones by arrays of flat radiant Casso solar type C heaters 17, 19 and 21 with the heater power inputs adjustable separately for each of the five heat zones. After stretching, the film passed through heat setting zone 20 where no further stretching occurred. At the exit of the tenter frame, the tenter clips on each side of the tenter frame were forced open 22 and the final film was wound into rolls. See col. 4, lines 10-35; col. 9, line 52- col. 10, line 45.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Thu-Khanh T. Nguyen whose telephone number is (571)272-1136. The examiner can normally be reached 7:30-4:30.
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/Thu Khanh T. Nguyen/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1743