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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 12/15/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Regarding claim 1, applicant argues that El-Refaie does not disclose the cooling channels associated with multiple electrical conductors are connected in series of in parallel. Examiner disagrees. FIG. 7 of the prior art discloses cooling channels are which are connected both in parallel and in series to each other. Thus, the argument is not persuasive.
Applicant’s arguments, see page 1, filed 12/15/2025, with respect to the claim and drawing objection have been fully considered and are persuasive. The objections of the claims and drawing has been withdrawn.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-8, 11-13 and 17-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by El-Refaie et al. (US 2022/0320933 A1).
Regarding claim 1, El-Refaie discloses a stator (12) for an electrical machine (10), the stator (12) comprising:
a stator core (18) with at least one stator groove (15), the stator core (18) including at least two electrical conductors (16) arranged therein;
at least two cooling channels (17) fluidically connected in parallel (FIG. 7 discloses the channels connected by the inlet and outlet in parallel),
wherein at least a part of the stator (12) is produced by additive manufacturing (¶ [0058]),
a predetermined number of the electrical conductors (16), forming at least one cooling channel (17) for a predetermined number of the electrical conductors (16) and that receives a cooling fluid;
wherein the stator (12) includes a plurality of cooling channel groups (cooling blocks 23), and
wherein each of the cooling channel groups (23) includes cooling channels (17) associated with multiple electrical conductors (16) that are configured to receive cooling fluid and that are fluidically connected in series or in parallel to form separate circuits or a single circuit (FIG. 7 discloses adjacent windings are cooling by a single cooling channel group and the cooling channels are connected in parallel ).
Regarding claim 2/1, El-Refaie was discussed above in claim 1. El-Refaie discloses wherein the predetermined number of electrical conductors (16) is less than or equal to a number of electrical conductors (16) in the at least one stator groove (15).
Regarding claim 3/1, El-Refaie was discussed above in claim 1. El-Refaie discloses wherein the electrical conductors (16) are arranged in a radial direction of the stator (12; FIG. 1D), and
wherein the cooling channels (17) form the electrical conductors (16), arranged in an inner region relative to the radial direction of the stator (12).
Regarding claim 4/3, El-Refaie was discussed above in claim 3. El-Refaie discloses wherein the cooling channels (17) form the electrical conductors (16) arranged in an outer region in relation to the radial direction of the stator (12) or in a middle region between the outer and the inner region (17; FIG. 2F).
Regarding claim 5/1, El-Refaie was discussed above in claim 1. El-Refaie discloses wherein the electrical conductors (16) include hollow channels (16), and the cooling channels (17) extend along a longitudinal direction of the respective electrical conductors (16), and wherein the electrical conductors (16) have a polygonal cross-section that corresponds to a polygonal cross-section of the cooling channels (17; FIG. 2D, 3).
Regarding claim 6/1, El-Refaie was discussed above in claim 1. El-Refaie discloses wherein each of the electrical conductors (16) has a cooling channel element (20) that forms the cooling channel (17) configured to receive the cooling fluid (¶ [0066]; FIG. 1C, D).
Regarding claim 7/6, El-Refaie was discussed above in claim 6. El-Refaie discloses wherein the cooling channel elements (20) are at least partially, enclosed by the respective electrical conductor (16) in an active region of the stator (12; FIG. 1B).
Regarding claim 8/6, El-Refaie was discussed above in claim 6. El-Refaie discloses wherein the cooling channel elements (20) in a first head region and a second head region of the stator (12) are at least partially enclosed by the respective electrical conductor (60; FIG. 1C).
Regarding claim 11/1, El-Refaie was discussed above in claim 1. El-Refaie discloses wherein a cooling channel element (20) is arranged next to the electrical conductor (16), so that at least a part of a wall of the cooling channel element (20) adjoins the electrical conductor 916; FIG. 2A).
Regarding claim 12/11, El-Refaie was discussed above in claim 11. El-Refaie discloses wherein the cooling channel element (20) is additionally arranged next to a neighboring electrical conductor (16), so that at least a part of the wall of the cooling channel element (20) and the respective electrical conductor (16) adjoins the neighboring electrical conductor (16; FIG. 2A).
Regarding claim 13/1, El-Refaie was discussed above in claim 1. El-Refaie discloses wherein the cooling channels (17) of the plurality of cooling channel groups (23) are connected in parallel, wherein a first cooling channel group (23) of the plurality of cooling channel groups (23) is connected in series with other cooling groups of the plurality of cooling channel groups (23), so that an inlet volume flow (27) and an outlet volume flow (29) are connected to form a cooling circuit (¶ [0057]).
Regarding claim 15/1, El-Refaie was discussed above in claim 1. El-Refaie discloses wherein the cooling channels are distributed over the electrical conductors such that one cooling channel is provided in an inner region relative to a radial direction of the stator (12), two cooling channels are provided in a middle region relative to the radial direction of the stator and one cooling channel is provided in an outer region relative to the radial direction of the stator, wherein the outer region adjoins the middle region in the direction of an outer circumference of the stator, and wherein the outer region comprises two electrical conductors.
Regarding claim 17/1, El-Refaie was discussed above in claim 1. El-Refaie discloses wherein at least one winding head (21) of the stator (12) is additively applied to a non-additively produced stator core (18) or active region of the stator (12; ¶ [0058] winding 14 is made by additive method).
Regarding claim 18/1, El-Refaie was discussed above in claim 1. El-Refaie discloses wherein at least one connecting element (22) of at least one cooling channel element (20) is produced by additive manufacturing (¶ [0058] heat exchanger 22 is made by additive method).
The limitation “wherein the at least one connecting element is produced together with at least one winding head of the stator or at least one electrical conductor by additive manufacturing” is a product-by-process limitation. As the claim is to a structure, and El-Refaie discloses all the structure of the claim, the specific steps of the methods are anticipated by El-Refaie.
Regarding claim 19/1, El-Refaie was discussed above in claim 1. El-Refaie discloses wherein at least one winding head (21) of the stator (12) is additively applied to a stator core (18) or active region of the stator (12; ¶ [0058] winding 14 is made by additive method).
Regarding claim 20/1, El-Refaie was discussed above in claim 1. El-Refaie discloses wherein at least one winding head (21) of the stator (12) comprises at least one connecting element (22) for at least one cooling channel element (20; FIG. 1B).
Regarding claim 21/1, El-Refaie was discussed above in claim 1. El-Refaie discloses wherein the additive manufacturing includes applying build-up material layer by layer by a selective solidification of the build-up material by impinging of a beam thereon (¶ [0094]).
Regarding claim 22/1, El-Refaie was discussed above in claim 1. El-Refaie discloses wherein aluminium materials or aluminium powder, copper materials or copper powder, are used as raw or build-up material for the additive manufacturing (¶ [0095]), wherein the copper materials or the copper powder have a purity of more than 99.5% (¶ [0070] 99.92% dense).
Regarding claim 23/1, El-Refaie was discussed above in claim 1. El-Refaie discloses electric machine (10) for electrically or hybrid-electrically driven vehicle (¶ [0002]), the electric machine comprising:
the stator (12) of claim 1 and a rotor (13).
Regarding claim 24/1, El-Refaie was discussed above in claim 1. El-Refaie discloses stator cooling system (FIG. 1B, C), comprising:
an electric machine (10); and
a cooling unit (17, 20, 22-23, 27, 29) fluidically coupled to the cooling channels (17) of the electrical conductors (16) of the stator (12) of claim 1 such that the plurality of cooling channel groups (23) are fluidically connected in series or in parallel to form separate circuits or a single circuit (FIG. 1B, C),
wherein the cooling unit (17, 20, 22-23, 27, 29) supplies the circuits or the single circuit with a cooling fluid (¶ [0057]).
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 9-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over El-Refaie et al. (US 2022/0320933 A1) in view of Diehl et al. (US 2021/0328472 A1).
Regarding claim 9/6, El-Refaie was discussed above in claim 6. El-Refaie does not disclose wherein the cooling channel elements and the respective electrical conductors branch out at a first head region and in a second head region of the stator.
Diehl discloses wherein the cooling channel elements and the respective electrical conductors (59) branch out at a first head region and in a second head region (59a, 59c) of the stator (FIG. 7).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing of the claimed invention to have modified El-Refaie in view of Diehl to disclose wherein the cooling channel elements and the respective electrical conductors branch out at a first and in a second head region of the stator, for the advantages of jointly feed coolant into the hollow conductors from a common coolant chamber (¶ [0092]).
Regarding claim 10/9, El-Refaie was discussed above in claim 9. El-Refaie discloses wherein each cooling channel element (17) can be fluidically coupled to a first end in the first head region and to a second end in the second head region by a connecting element (27, 29; FIG. 7).
Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over El-Refaie et al. (US 2022/0320933 A1).
Regarding claim 14/1, El-Refaie was discussed above in claim 1. El-Refaie does not explicitly disclose wherein a ratio between the predetermined number of conductors, and a number of conductors in the at least one stator groove is less than or equal to ¼.
El-Refaie does disclose in FIG. 2E, 2F and ¶ [0064] that the number of hollow conductors and solid conductors can be varied. As there is a total of 6 layers of conductors, changing the number of hollow conductors such that the ratio between the hollow conductors and solid conductors is at most ¼, would be obvious to try for one of ordinary skill in the art, as there is a finite number of predictable solutions, with a reasonable expectation of success.
Claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over El-Refaie et al. (US 2022/0320933 A1) in view of Wang et al. (CN 109361277 A).
Regarding claim 16/1, El-Refaie was discussed above in claim 1. El-Refaie does not disclose wherein the cooling channels are distributed over the electrical conductors such that the electrical conductors are provided alternately in a radial direction of the stator from an inner circumference to an outer circumference of the stator.
Wang discloses wherein the cooling channels (13) are distributed over the electrical conductors (9, 10) such that the electrical conductors (9, 10) are provided alternately in a radial direction of the stator from an inner circumference to an outer circumference of the stator.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing of the claimed invention to have modified El-Refaie in view of Wang to disclose wherein the cooling channels are distributed over the electrical conductors such that the electrical conductors are provided alternately in a radial direction of the stator from an inner circumference to an outer circumference of the stator, for the advantages of increasing cooling efficiency of the stator by placing the cooling channels in between the conductors.
Claims 25-26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over El-Refaie et al. (US 2022/0320933 A1) in view of Weeber et al. (US 2004/0066099 A1).
Regarding claim 25/1, El-Refaie was discussed above in claim 1. El-Refaie does not disclose a sensor unit configured to detect at least one temperature of the electrical conductors of the stator; and
a control unit.
Weeber discloses a sensor unit (41) configured to detect at least one temperature of the electrical conductors of the stator (¶ [0029]); and
a control unit (fan controllers).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing of the claimed invention to have modified El-Refaie in view of Weeber to disclose a sensor unit configured to detect at least one temperature of the electrical conductors of the stator, and a control unit, for the advantages of adjusting the cooling through the temperature of the stator.
The limitation “a control unit communicatively connected to the sensor unit and a cooling unit and is configured to control the cooling unit to adjust the temperature of the electrical conductors of the stator below a predetermined lower limit temperature or above a predetermined upper limit temperature to a set-point temperature” is a product-by-process limitation. As the claim is to a structure, and El-Refaie in view of Weeber discloses all the structure of the claim, the specific steps of the methods are anticipated by El-Refaie in view of Weeber.
Regarding claim 26/1, El-Refaie was discussed above in claim 1. El-Refaie does not disclose detecting at least one temperature of the electrical conductors of the stator.
Weeber discloses detecting at least one temperature of the electrical conductors of the stator (by temperature sensor 41; ¶ [0029]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing of the claimed invention to have modified El-Refaie in view of Weeber to disclose wherein at least one temperature of the electrical conductors of the stator is detected, for the advantages of adjusting the cooling through the temperature of the stator.
The limitation “wherein a cooling fluid is supplied to a circuit formed by the cooling channels to adjust the temperature of the electrical conductors of the stator below a predetermined lower limit temperature or above a predetermined upper limit temperature to a set-point temperature” is a product-by-process limitation. As the claim is to a structure, and El-Refaie in view of Weeber discloses all the structure of the claim, the specific steps of the methods are anticipated by El-Refaie in view of Weeber.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 15 is 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.
Regarding claim 15/1, the specific limitation of “wherein the cooling channels (11) are distributed over the electrical conductors (10) such that one cooling channel is provided in an inner region (IB) relative to a radial direction of the stator (100), two cooling channels (MB) are provided in a middle region relative to the radial direction of the stator (100) and one cooling channel is provided in an outer region (AB) relative to the radial direction of the stator (100), wherein the outer region (AB) adjoins the middle region (MB) in the direction of an outer circumference of the stator (100), and wherein the outer region (AB) comprises two electrical conductors” in the combination as claimed are neither anticipated nor made obvious over the prior art made of record.
El-Refaie discloses a stator having conductors with cooling channels inside the conductors, but does not disclose an outer region of a stator slot comprising two electrical conductors, and one of the two electrical conductors has a cooling channel.
Wang et al. (CN 109/361277 A) and Tomioka (JP 2020-150592 A) discloses a stator having conductors, where conductors in the outer region, middle region and inner region of a slot has cooling channels, but fails to disclose an outer region of a stator slot comprising two electrical conductors, and one of the two electrical conductors has a cooling channel.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MINKI CHANG whose telephone number is (571)270-0521. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Seye Iwarere can be reached at (571) 270-5112. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MINKI CHANG/Examiner, Art Unit 2834
/OLUSEYE IWARERE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2834