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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 07/13/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, filed 06/18/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Hong et al. (US 2015/0302292 A1), Hong teaching the art recognized equivalence between flat compression springs and coils.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4, 9, 13, 14, 16-18 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.
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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5-8, 10-12, and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Felber et al. (US 2021/0245188 A1), and further in view of Hong et al. (US 2015/0302292 A1).
Re: Claim 1, Felber et al discloses the claimed invention including a metering system (1) with
a housing (18) (Fig. 1),
a piezo actuator (26) located therein (Fig. 2, Para. 32, piezo actuator),
a fluidic unit (90) with a valve (22) (Fig. 2),
a plunger device (68, 76) for closing the valve (Fig. 2));
and a transmission lever (24) for coupling the piezo actuator to the plunger device (Fig. 2),
wherein the piezo actuator is arranged substantially parallel next to the plunger device in the housing (Fig. 2, wherein the piezo actuator (10) extends away from the transmission lever substantially in the direction of a side facing the valve (Depicted in Fig. 2);
wherein the piezo actuator is tensioned relative to the housing via the transmission lever (68a) with the plunger device (40) by means of a spring arrangement (42, 44, 78), and wherein the spring arrangement comprises several compression springs (42, 44, 78) for the sprung tensioning of the plunger device (Figs 2-4, Para. 40, springs (42, 44) tension the plunger the device via the lever, and spring 78 tensions at the plunger device itself) except for them all being coil springs. However, Hong teaches the use of flat compression springs (63, 64) (Fig. 6) or coil compression springs (67, 68) for tensioning a levered metering system (Fig. 9).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date to select coil springs for tensioning as taught by Hong, since replacing the springs of Felber with coil springs would be a matter of art recognized equivalents, as Hong shows the equivalence of coil springs and flat compression springs for their use in the dispensing art and the selection of any of these known equivalents to bias would be within the level of ordinary skill in the art.
Re: Claim 2, Felber discloses the claimed invention including the transmission lever extends transversely to an extent direction of the piezo actuator and an extent direction of the plunger device (Fig. 2) and/or wherein the piezo actuator is tensioned relative to the housing (18) via the transmission lever (20) with the plunger device by means of a spring arrangement (78) (Fig. 2, Para. 40, tensioned by spring).
Re: Claim 3, Felber discloses the claimed invention including the plunger device is formed from at least two rod elements (68, 76), which are tensioned with respect to one another, wherein preferably the plunger device comprises on the lever side a transmission element (68a) as a first rod element (68), and on the lever side a closure element (76a) as a second rod element (76) (Fig. 2).
Re: Claim 5, Felber discloses the claimed invention including the opening spring arrangement (54) fits the closure element (53) resiliently in the housing (100) such that a force acts on the closure element (Depicted in Fig. 7), in order to bring the closure element in the direction of an opened valve position, and wherein the closure spring arrangement tensions the transmission element resiliently in the housing such that a contrary force acts on the transmission element, in order to bring the transmission element against the closure element and thus to bring the closure element in the direction of a closed valve position (Depicted in Fig. 7, Para. 40, tensioned by spring).
Re: Claim 6, Felber discloses the claimed invention including the transmission element has two parts (68a, 70) which are able to be coupled to one another, preferably a rod part (76) and a head sleeve part (82), and/or the head sleeve part (45) has a flange (47), at which the transmission lever (20) stands on the valve side (Fig. 2 stands on via rod part).
Re: Claim 7, Felber discloses the claimed invention including the rod part (68) of the transmission element is guided axially on the valve side parallel to the piezo actuator in a first housing sleeve portion (74) of a housing sleeve of the housing with relatively close radial surrounding play, whereas the head sleeve part (76a) of the transmission element facing away from the valve is guided with relatively wide radial surrounding play (Figs. 1-2).
Re: Claim 8, Felber discloses the claimed invention including one of the closure springs (78) of the spring arrangement stands at the head sleeve part (82) on a flange surface of the flange facing away from the valve (Fig. 2).
Re: Claim 10, Felber discloses the claimed invention including a first permanent magnet (69) is fastened on the plunger device, and wherein in the housing (2) a Hall sensor (71) is arranged lying opposite, spaced apart by a gap with respect to this permanent magnet (Depicted in Fig. 2, Para. 39, magnet for a hall sensor).
Re: Claim 11, Felber discloses the claimed invention including a surrounding region around the Hall sensor (71), is magnetically shielded at least on the sides facing away from the first permanent magnet (69) by means of a shield (71) (Fig. 2, depicts a housing around the sensor providing some shielding and further, Para. 39, a hall effect sensor inherently utilize utilizes some shielding for isolating the magnetic field).
Re: Claim 12, Felber discloses the claimed invention including a housing sleeve (6) is mounted adjustably in position relative to the surrounding housing (2) of the metering system (1) for adjusting a distance between valve (16) and closure element (51).
Re: Claim 15, Felber discloses the claimed invention including the closure element is installed detachably in the metering system (Depicted in Fig. 2).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. References cited on the PTO-892 are provided for additional examples of metering systems implementing levers for actuation.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHARLES P. CHEYNEY whose telephone number is (571)272-9971. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 8:00 am - 4:30 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Paul Durand can be reached at 571-272-4459. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CHARLES P. CHEYNEY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3754
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