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 .
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 4 and 5 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.
Regarding claim 4, the limitation “when, in the flank… (emphasis added)” beginning at Line 26 is unclear. It raises the question whether the limitations following the clause are optional, and there is a possibility that the flank is not provided with these features. Appropriate correction/clarification is required.
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 4 and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takai (WO 2014118881) in view of Ono et al. (WO 2021024848, hereinafter ‘Ono’).
Regarding claim 4, Takai discloses a drill 10 comprising a bar-shaped tool main body 17 to be rotated around a shaft center C. A discharge flute 18 is provided in a helical shape in an outer peripheral surface of the tool main body from a leading end portion toward a rear end portion thereof. A cutting edge 12 is formed at a ridge section between an inner face of the discharge flute oriented toward the front in a rotation direction of the tool main body and a flank 32/34 is formed at the leading end portion. An oil hole 22 is provided at the flank, the oil hole supplying a cutting fluid to the side of the cutting edge. A gash portion 52 is provided, a ridge line 12c between the gash portion and the flank extends from an inner end of the cutting edge toward an outer side in a radial direction while curving in a circular arc shape toward the front in the rotation direction and connected to the discharge flute (see e.g. Fig. 3). The oil hole is provided with a fan-shaped cross-section as a result of being surrounded by a front-side inner wall surface FH positioned to a front side in the rotation direction RT of the tool main body, a rear-side inner wall surface RH positioned to a rear side in the rotation direction of the tool main body and facing the front-side inner wall surface in a circumferential direction, an outer peripheral-side inner wall surface OH formed by a partial cylindrical surface centered on a center line of the tool main body and having a radius of curvature R1 corresponding to a radius of a circumscribed circle of the oil hole and an inner peripheral-side inner wall surface IH formed by a partial cylindrical surface centered on the center line of the tool main body and having a radius of curvature R2 corresponding to a radius of an inscribed circle of the oil hole and being smaller than the radius of curvature of the outer peripheral-side inner wall surface in the radial direction. In the flank, a reference line P extending from the shaft center of the tool main body toward the outer side in the radial direction is a first reference line (see Fig. 4). A reference line rotated by a first angle A/2 to the front in the rotation direction around the shaft center with respect to the first reference line is a second reference line (the line which FH lies on in Fig. 4). A reference line rotated by the first angle to the rear in the rotation direction around the shaft center with respect to the first reference line is a third reference line (the line which RH lies on in Fig. 4). The oil hole is provided between the second reference line and the third reference line and the front-side inner wall surface is disposed along the second reference line. An imaginary reference line rotated to the rear in the rotation direction around an intersection point between the inscribed circle and the first reference line by a second angle greater than the first angle with respect to the first reference line and facing the gash portion could be drawn on Fig. 4 of Takai (see annotated Fig. 4 below).
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Takai does not disclose the rear-side inner wall surface being disposed along this fourth reference line.
Ono discloses a similar drill, wherein in one embodiment (Fig. 9), a similar oil hole H1 is provided. This oil hole has a circular arc-shaped curved rear-side inner face (the side distributing coolant along FD5 in Fig. 9) which extends at least partially along a reference line rotated rearwardly in the tool rotation direction around a larger angle than the leading face of the oil hole (e.g. the side distributing coolant along FD2 in Fig. 9).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to provide the rear-side inner wall surface of the oil hole of Takai along the fourth reference line at least at a portion thereof, curved in a circular arc shape to the same direction side as the gash portion toward the front in the rotational direction, at a position separated from the gash portion, as taught by Ono, in order to distribute coolant along a desired direction. Such a modification is merely a change in the shape of the oil hole, to a shape suggested by Ono, for the purpose of directing coolant to a desired direction, see also MPEP 2144.04, IV, B.
Regarding claim 5, neither Takai nor Ono explicitly disclose the radius of curvature of the rear-side inner wall surface.
However, optimizing the radius of curvature to be between 0.35D and 0.45D (D being the diameter of the drill) in order to arrive at the best balance of tool strength (discussed by Takai) and coolant distribution (discussed by Ono) would have been an obvious modification to make by one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing. See MPEP 2144.05, II, A.
Conclusion
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/Alan Snyder/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3722