DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-4 are pending.
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 set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dehoff (US 2022/0252066) in view of Ono (CN 107731797, citations to machine translation).
Regarding claim 1, Dehoff discloses a pump device comprising (gerotor pump, par 0001): an electric motor including a motor rotor (electric motor with rotor, par 0003) … , a stator (par 0008) disposed on a radially outer side of the motor rotor (par 0008) and including a stator coil (coils, par 0008), and a rotation shaft (shaft, par 0020) configured to rotate integrally with the motor rotor (par 0020);
a pump (100, par 0014) including a pump rotor (gerotor 108, par 0015) connected to one axial side of the rotation shaft, and a pump housing (outer gerotor 112, par 0015) that houses the pump rotor;
a motor housing (motor housing, par 0008) … with a side portion (inner sides of the housing, par 0008) to which the stator is internally fixed (stator is fixed to the housing, par 0008) and a bottom portion provided on the other axial side of the rotation shaft (fig 1, housing of motor 174 is the other side of shaft 106 from gerotor 108 has a far end at the end of the motor housing, which reasonably indicate a bottom portion of the overall housing), and that houses the motor rotor in an internal space surrounded by the side portion and the bottom portion (par 0008);
Dehoff does not recite the motor including a permanent magnet… the motor housing having a bottomed tubular shape,
a board on which a driver configured to drive the electric motor is mounted, and that is provided on an outer surface side of the bottom portion of the motor housing; and
a busbar that electrically connects the driver and the stator coil, and that is provided while being visibly exposed to an outside at least in part when viewed from an outer side of the motor housing.
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Annotations on Ono fig 2
Ono teaches an electric motor (abstract) with a rotor (102) a stator (10b) and a permanent magnet (105, pg 7, 3rd paragraph from bottom)… the motor housing having a bottomed tubular shape (cylindrical housing, pg 5, 3rd paragraph from bottom),
a board on which a driver configured to drive the electric motor is mounted (control board 113 where the board is for the power converter circuit, pg 8, 5th-6th paragraph), and that is provided on an outer surface side of the bottom portion of the motor housing (fig 2 depicts board 110 at an end of the housing, at the axial end of the shaft); and
a busbar (“113 s” pg 15, 4th para from bottom, pg 16, 4th – 6th para ) that electrically connects the driver and the stator coil (pg 15, 4th – 6th paragraph; power module 110 of controller connected to stator winding 101 via connectors 113), and that is provided while being visibly exposed to an outside at least in part when viewed from an outer side of the motor housing (113n is external to housing 111, fig 2 depicts “113 s” as external and connected to 113n; pg 12, 3rd from bottom; pg 14, 2nd para from bottom) where the conductors are outside in order to reduce magnetic inductance and reducing the size of the controller (pg 18 last paragraph, pg 19 first paragraph) thereby reducing noise (pg 17, 1st paragraph; pg 17, last paragraph; pg 18 2nd paragraph).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to replace the generically described rotary electric motor with rotor and shaft of Dehoff, with the rotary electric motor of Ono for the expected result of providing rotational energy, while also including external conductors between the controller and stator of the motor thereby enabling one to reduce the mutual inductance of the bus bars and influence on the electric controller and thereby reducing noise and enabling better performance of the controller (Ono, pg 16-17).
Claims 2-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dehoff in view of Ono in view of Yamada (US 5814909).
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Yamada fig 3
Regarding claim 2, Dehoff in view of Ono teaches the pump device according to claim 1. The combination does not disclose wherein a surface area enlargement portion that enlarges a surface area is provided on an exposed part of the busbar.
Yamada teaches an analogous rotating electric motor with an inverter power device (30) connected via conductor wires (22, c 4 ln 26-29) to coils (20) of a motor stator (16) where a heat radiating member (52) is mounted to the conductor (22) such that the heat radiating member (52) can improve the heat conductivity of the conductor (22, c 4 ln 24-29) where the heat radiating member (52) is in the form of fins (c 4 ln 37).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the busbars between the stator and inverter power device of the combination by adding the heat radiating member (52) taught by Yamada in order to increase the heat radiation and thereby prevent thermal damage and degradation (c 4 ln 30-35).
Yamada is silent on the surface enlargement being provided on an exposed part of the busbar. Examiner notes that the “exposed part” of the busbar is the part that is “visibly exposed … when viewed from an outer side of the motor housing” in regards to claim 1.
However, Yamada further teaches that the heat radiation member may be mounted on the outer wall of the motor casing (c 2 ln 13-15, 36-37, 55-56). A person of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that heat radiation on the outer wall of the casing has the benefit of releasing heat outside of the casing and thereby more efficiently release heat from the system.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention that when forming the prior art combination, to attach Yamada’s (heat radiating member, 52) to the exterior busbar of the combination as suggested by the Yamada’s heat radiating member installed to the exterior of the case (Yamada, heat radiating member outside the case, c 2 ln 55-56) for the expected result of transmitting heat via the conductors outside the motor casing (Yamada, c 2 ln 13-15, 36-37, 55-56) and thereby prevent thermal damage to the motor, especially by avoiding the heating atmosphere within the casing (Yamada, c 1 ln 56-60).
Regarding Claim 3, Dehoff in view of Ono in view of Yamada teaches the pump device according to claim 2, wherein: the surface area enlargement portion is provided separately from the busbar (Yamada, heat radiating member 52 is separately manufactured and “mounted” to the conductor, c 4 ln 25-26, 43-46), the surface area enlargement portion is fixed (Yamada, “mounted” fits the plain meaning of fixed) to the exposed part of the busbar (obviousness of mounting to the exposed part was explained in claim 2).
Regarding claim 4, Dehoff in view of Ono in view of Yamada teaches the pump device according to claim 2, wherein the surface area enlargement portion has a shape with at least one of fins projecting toward an outside from the busbar and projections and recesses (Yamada, fig 3, heat radiating member 52 is fins, c 4 ln 36-37).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Kimmich (US 2013/0193785) includes a cooling plate 12 attached externally to the housing and directly attached to conducting wire.
Isoda (US 2011/0101804) includes cooling fins on the conductor which is open to air passages from the outside via ports 2 (fig 7).
Holmes (US 2009/0025952) includes cooling fins (72) mounted directly to the busbar (62).
Jung (KR 20180010129) includes external busbars within an cooling apparatus.
Inamura (CN 107453554) includes cooling fins between the stator and controller, outside of the motor housing but within housing 110.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GEOFFREY S LEE whose telephone number is (571)272-5354. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 0900-1800.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Essama Omgba can be reached at (469) 295-9278. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/GEOFFREY S LEE/ Examiner, Art Unit 3746
/DOMINICK L PLAKKOOTTAM/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3746