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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites in lines 5-8, the limitation "the method comprising discharging ore (x) charged in at least one of the plurality of main hoppers and then sequentially charging the ore from a furnace wall side toward a furnace center side by using a rotating chute". In particular the limitation as written appears to be missing at least a step between the steps of (i) discharging ore (x) charged in at least one of the plurality of main hoppers; and (ii) sequentially charging the ore (x) from a furnace wall side toward a furnace center side by using a rotating chute because (1) the manner of material flow between the main hoppers and the rotating chute is missing; and (2) the center of the furnace is not necessarily a holding location for the ore charge to be moved towards the furnace wall by the rotating chute. Claim 1 is therefore rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being incomplete for omitting essential steps, such omission amounting to a gap between the steps. See MPEP § 2172.01.
Claims dependent upon claims rejected above, either directly or indirectly, are likewise rejected under this statute.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-4 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection of claim 1 under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: .
The closest identified prior art of record is Nakamura et al. (JP 2004010980 A, cited in IDS filed 11/01/2023, original document and machine translation supplied herein), Natsui et al. (CN 103403193 A, original document and machine translation supplied herein), and Sato et al. (JP 2016050323 A, cited in IDS filed 11/01/2023, original document and machine translation supplied herein).
Regarding claim 1, Nakamura teaches a method for charging raw materials into a blast furnace (Title, pg. 3 last 3 lines). Nakamura teaches the blast furnace including a bell-less charging device (pg. 2 line 2) that includes a plurality of main hoppers 4-1 and 4-2 and an auxiliary hopper 5 (pg. 11 line 12 Fig. 1) at a furnace top portion (pg. 11 lines 9-10). Nakamura teaches the auxiliary hopper 5 having a smaller capacity than the main hoppers 4-1 and 4-2 (pg. 12 lines 5-6), the method comprising discharging ore (x) charged in at least one of the plurality of main hoppers 4-1 and 4-2 (pg. 19 lines 5-6) then sequentially charging the ore (x) from a furnace wall side toward a furnace center side by using a rotating chute 11 (Fig. 1, pg. 16 lines 1-8).
Nakamura does not teach the ore (x) having a JIS reducibility index (RI) of greater than 55%, wherein discharging of low-reactivity ore (y) charged in the auxiliary hopper is started simultaneously with a start of charging of the ore (x) or at a point in time after the start of the charging, the low-reactivity ore (y) having a JIS reducibility index (RI) of 55% or less, the low-reactivity ore (y) being charged together with the ore (x) from the rotating chute, or wherein charging of the low-reactivity ore (y) is stopped at least before a point in time at which charging of 56 mass% of the ore (x) is completed based on a total amount of the ore (x) to be charged per batch.
Natsui teaches a raw material charging method using a raw material charging device (i.e., a method for charging raw materials into a blast furnace) (Title). Natsui teaches the blast furnace including a bell-less charging device [0002], that includes a plurality of main hoppers 4 (Fig. 6, [0005]), the method comprising discharging ore (x) charged in at least one of the plurality of main hoppers (Fig. 6, [0040, 0052]), then sequentially charging the ore (x) from a furnace wall side toward a furnace center side by using a rotating chute 8 (Fig. 6, [0006, 0009]).
Natsui does not teach an auxiliary hopper at a furnace top portion, the ore (x) having a JIS reducibility index (RI) of greater than 55%, discharging of low-reactivity ore (y) charged in the auxiliary hopper is started simultaneously with a start of charging of the ore (x) or at a point in time after the start of the charging low-reactivity ore (y) having a JIS reducibility index (RI) of 55% or less, wherein the low-reactivity ore (y) is charged together with the ore (x) from the rotating chute, or wherein charging of the low-reactivity ore (y) is stopped at least before a point in time at which charging of 56 mass% of the ore (x) is completed based on a total amount of the ore (x) to be charged per batch.
Sato teaches a blast furnace operation method (Title), comprising charging raw materials into a blast furnace [0003]. Sato teaches an average reducibility index of the ore of 50% or more or 65% ore less [0013], which overlaps with an ore (x) having a JIS reducibility index (RI) of greater than 55% and a low-reactivity ore (y) having a JIS reducibility index (RI) of 55% or less.
Sato does not teach the blast furnace including a bell-less charging device that includes a plurality of main hoppers and an auxiliary hopper at a furnace top portion, sequentially charging ore from a furnace wall side toward a furnace center side by using a rotating chute, wherein discharging of low-reactivity ore (y) charged in the auxiliary hopper is started simultaneously with a start of charging of the ore (x) or at a point in time after the start of the charging, wherein the low-reactivity ore (y) is charged together with the ore (x) from a rotating chute, wherein charging of the low-reactivity ore (y) is stopped at least before a point in time at which charging of 56 mass% of the ore (x) is completed based on a total amount of the ore (x) to be charged per batch.
Based on the above discussion, the closest prior art, taken singularly or in combination, does not fairly suggest or render obvious a method for charging raw materials into a blast furnace as claimed. As the independent claim is free from the art, claims 2-4 are also free from the art due at least to their dependency from claim 1.
Conclusion
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/Keith D. Hendricks/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1733
/NIKOLAS TAKUYA PULLEN/Examiner, Art Unit 1733