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.
Claims 1-7 and 9-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tomizawa (WO-2020059164) in view of Ghosh (US-8114535-B2).
Regarding claim 1, Tomizawa teaches:
An electric work vehicle comprising (Tomizawa, Figs. 1-3, electric hydraulic excavator 200):
a battery housing including a first battery housing portion (Tomizawa, Fig. 5, battery box 41, upper two battery cases 42);
and an air cooling system (Tomizawa, Figs. 5-7, battery fans 46, lower space L, airflow passages F);
wherein the first battery housing portion includes a plurality of battery housing module compartments to house a plurality of battery modules (Tomizawa, Figs. 5-7, upper cases 42, battery-receiving regions within spaces S1/S2, batteries 43);
the plurality of battery housing module compartments are arranged in a plurality of rows that extend in a front-rear direction of the electric work vehicle (Tomizawa, Figs. 5 and 7, batteries 43 and their receiving regions in the upper cases 42);
the plurality of rows including a first row and a second row located below the first row in an up-down direction of the electric work vehicle (Tomizawa, Fig. 5, top case 42 (first row) and case 42 immediately below it (second row));
and a first opening connected to one of the plurality of battery housing module compartments included in the first row is smaller than a second opening connected to one of the plurality of battery housing module compartments included in the second row (Tomizawa, Figs. 5-8, battery box 41, top battery case 42 (first row), case 42 immediately below it (second row), battery-receiving spaces S1/S2, and the spaces between each case's pair of support plates 42c through which S1/S2 communicate downward. The space associated with the top case is the first opening, and the corresponding space associated with the immediately lower case is the second opening.).
Tomizawa fails to teach that the first opening is smaller than the second opening. Ghosh teaches varying the size of cooling-air apertures to control airflow through a battery assembly (Ghosh, Fig. 7, inlet metering plate 86, apertures 88; Specification page 11, column 5, line 47, “The metering of the uneven stream of incoming cooling air is accomplished by varying the size and shape of the periphery of the apertures 88”; line 51, “where the air source is near an outer edge of the inlet manifold 80, the apertures 88 … will be larger in area and the apertures 88 farther from that outer edge will be smaller in area”). Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to size the cooling-air openings of Tomizawa according to their positions relative to the incoming air, as taught by Ghosh, to control the airflow through the battery housing. Tomizawa supplies air from lower space L and moves it upward through the battery box to fans 46. Applying Ghosh’s disclosed positional sizing with larger apertures nearer to the incoming cooling-air source, and smaller apertures farther from it would make the opening associated with the lower row larger than the opening associated with the upper row.
Regarding claim 2, the combination further teaches:
The electric work vehicle according to claim 1,
wherein the first opening includes a plurality of openings (Tomizawa, Figs. 5-7, multiple communicating spaces associated with support plates 42c at the selected upper level).
Regarding claim 3, the combination further teaches:
The electric work vehicle according to claim 1,
wherein the first opening has a circular shape (Ghosh, Specification page 12, column 7, line 20, "A fourth embodiment utilizes circular shaped apertures 88").
Regarding claim 4, the combination further teaches:
The electric work vehicle according to claim 1,
wherein the second opening has an elongated slit shape (Tomizawa, Figs. 6-8, lengthwise space between support plates 42c at the second case level).
Regarding claim 5, the combination further teaches:
The electric work vehicle according to claim 1,
wherein the battery housing includes a second battery housing portion (Tomizawa, Fig. 5, lower two cases 42 of battery box 41);
the second battery housing portion includes a second plurality of battery housing module compartments to house a second plurality of battery modules (Tomizawa, Figs. 5-7, lower two cases 42, battery-receiving regions within S1/S2, batteries 43);
the second plurality of battery housing module compartments are arranged in a second plurality of rows that extend in the front-rear direction of the electric work vehicle (Tomizawa, Figs. 5 and 7, lower cases 42, their front-rear battery-receiving regions, and batteries 43);
the second plurality of rows includes a third row and a fourth row located below the third row in the up-down direction of the electric work vehicle (Tomizawa, Fig. 5, third and fourth cases 42 counted from the top);
and a third opening connected to one of the second plurality of battery housing module compartments included in the third row is smaller than a fourth opening connected to one of the plurality of battery housing module compartments included in the fourth row (Tomizawa, Figs. 5-7, communicating spaces between support plates 42c at the third and fourth case levels; Ghosh, Specification page 11, column 5, line 47, “The metering of the uneven stream of incoming cooling air is accomplished by varying the size and shape of the periphery of the apertures 88”; line 51, “where the air source is near an outer edge of the inlet manifold 80, the apertures 88 … will be larger in area and the apertures 88 farther from that outer edge will be smaller in area”).
Regarding claim 6, the combination further teaches:
The electric work vehicle according to claim 5,
wherein the second battery housing portion is located below the first battery housing portion in the up-down direction of the electric work vehicle (Tomizawa, Fig. 5, lower two cases 42 below upper two cases 42).
Regarding claim 7, the combination further teaches:
The electric work vehicle according to claim 5,
wherein a front surface of the second battery housing portion is located at a same or substantially same location as a front surface of the first battery housing portion in a front-rear direction of the electric work vehicle (Tomizawa, Fig. 5, common front surface 41c of the second, third, and fourth cases 42 counted from the top).
Regarding claim 9, the combination further teaches:
The electric work vehicle according to claim 5,
wherein the third opening is located below the first opening in the up-down direction of the electric work vehicle (Tomizawa, Figs. 5-7, openings between support plates 42c of the third case 42 from the top, below the corresponding openings between support plates 42c of the top-most case 42).
Regarding claim 10, the combination further teaches:
The electric work vehicle according to claim 5,
wherein the third opening is located below the second opening in the up-down direction of the electric work vehicle (Tomizawa, Figs. 5-7, openings between support plates 42c of the third case 42 from the top, below the corresponding openings between support plates 42c of the second case 42 from the top).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8 and 11-14 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding claim 8, the prior art of record does not teach the claimed invention having a portion of the first battery housing portion that is located farther rearward than the second battery housing portion.
Regarding claim 11, the prior art of record does not teach the claimed invention having the first and second openings of claim 1 located, respectively, between a central battery-housing gap receiving cool air from one or more evaporators and the corresponding first-row and second-row compartments.
Regarding claims 12-14, these claims inherit the allowable subject matter indicated for claim 11 through dependency. The prior art of record additionally does not teach the claimed invention having respective duct-attached blowers directing air from the gap laterally across the corresponding battery modules.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure:
Kamada (JP-2011116321-A) discloses battery cooling with an evaporator and a central main air passage.
Saito (US20100285347-A1) discloses central supply ducts, battery blocks, and outer exhaust ducts providing lateral cooling airflow.
Yamashiro (US-20160368393-A1) discloses plural exhaust fans associated with exhaust ports.
Huang (CN-109244594-A) discloses location-dependent open areas in a battery-cooling distribution plate.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WILLIAM R BRENNER whose telephone number is (571)270-0299. The examiner can normally be reached 7:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. EDT.
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/WILLIAM RICHARD BRENNER/Examiner, Art Unit 3613
/JAMES A SHRIVER II/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3613
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