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 .
Drawings
1. The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the methods of claims 21-26” must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
2. Claims 14-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(1) as being anticipated by Politis et al (USPN 2016/0276821).
Regarding claim 14, Politis discloses a short-circuiting device (see figures 24-27) for quenching a fault arc in a switchgear system (a switchgear system 60, see par. 0117), the device comprising:
at least one power-electronic switch (such as crowbar 520 includes thyristors, see par. 0236) for selectively switching a short-circuit current (by triggered) on and off (see par. 0233, 0237).
Regarding claim 15, Politis discloses one separately activatable power-electronic switch (each switch 520 for each power conductor, see figure 24) for each outer conductor of the switchgear system (60).
Regarding claim 16, Politis discloses wherein said at least one power-electronic switch (520) is a thyristor or a Triac (such as thyristors, see par. 0236).
Regarding claim 17, Politis discloses a switchgear (60), comprising: at least one outer conductor; a short-circuiting device (520); and a control unit (a controller 506) for detecting a fault arc affecting one or more of said at least one outer conductor and for activating said short-circuiting device when a fault arc is detected (see par. 0231, 0237).
Regarding claim 18, Politis discloses wherein the switchgear is a low-voltage system or a medium-voltage system (see par. 0114).
Regarding claim 19, Politis wherein said short-circuiting device (520) has one separately activatable power-electronic switch for each of said at least one outer conductor (each switching 520 for each conductor L1 to L3, see figure 24); and said control unit (the controller 506) is configured to activate, for switching on a short-circuit current, only a respective said power-electronic switch or switches of said short- circuiting device which is or are assigned to said one or more outer conductors affected by the fault arc (each switching 520 is triggered once the arc fault current through each conductor L1 to L3 is above the threshold current, see pars. 0236, 0240).
Regarding claim 20, Politis discloses comprising a protective device (a main circuit breaker 68) for interrupting a current in said one or more outer conductors affected by the fault arc (0127, 0231).
Regarding claim 21, Politis discloses a method for quenching a fault arc in one or more outer conductors (L1-L3) of a switchgear (A SWITCHGEAR 60, SEE FIGURE 24), the method comprising:
providing a short-circuiting device (a crowbar switching 520) when a fault arc is detected in the one or more outer conductors, triggering an ignition of the at least one power-electronic switch (520), to generate with the at least one power-electronic switch a short-circuit current until a following zero crossing (at t3) in the one or more outer conductors affected by the fault arc (see par. 0237, and figure 27).
Regarding claim 22, Politis discloses wherein the short-circuiting device (520) has one separately activatable power-electronic switch per outer conductor of the switchgear (each switching 520 for each conductor L1 to L3, see figure 24), and the method comprises igniting only those power-electronic switches which are assigned to the one or more outer conductors affected by the fault arc (see par. 0236, 0240).
Regarding claim 23, Politis discloses when a further fault arc occurs after the voltage zero crossing in the one or more outer conductors affected by the fault arc (if the arc fault is still present after the zero crossing at t3), igniting the at least one power-electronic switch (520) again (see par. 0237) and activating a protective device (the main circuit breaker 68) for interrupting a current in the one or more outer conductors (L1 to L3) affected by the fault arc in order to interrupt the short-circuit current flowing through the at least one power-electronic switch (e.g. see par. 0247).
Regarding claim 24, Politis discloses once more operating the switchgear (60) after the quenching of the fault arc if a cause of the fault arc is no longer existent and no further ignition of a fault arc occurs (such as when the arc current is resolved, the switchgear 60 resumes a normal operation, e.g. see par. 0105).
3. Claims 14, 21, 25-26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(1) as being anticipated by Moen et al (USPN 2015/0263720).
Regarding claim 14, Moen discloses a short-circuiting device (see figures 1-2) for quenching a fault arc (such as a current fault results in an electric arc in a switchgear system (a switchgear switching, see par. 0002, 0036), the device comprising:
at least one power-electronic switch (such as thyristors 2 shown in figures 1-2, see par. 0236) for selectively switching a short-circuit current (by sinking) on and off (see par. 0038-0039).
Regarding claim 21, Moen discloses a method (see figure 4) for quenching a fault arc in one or more outer conductors (three phase conductors in figure 1) of a switchgear (a switchgear in figure 2), the method comprising:
providing a short-circuiting device (by closing the thyristors 2) when a fault arc is detected in the one or more outer conductors (three phase conductors in figure 1), triggering an ignition of the at least one power-electronic switch (the thyristors 2), to generate with the at least one power-electronic switch a short-circuit current until a following zero crossing (see par. 0052) in the one or more outer conductors affected by the fault arc.
Regarding claim 25, Moen discloses a non-transitory computer program comprising software code sections for carrying out the method (see figure 4, and par. 0077).
Regarding claim 26, Moen discloses a non-transitory computer program product, which can be loaded directly into an internal memory of a digital computing unit and which contains software code sections configured to carry out the method (see par. 0077, and figure 4-5) when the computer program product runs on the computing unit.
Conclusion
4. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANNY NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-2054. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00AM-4:30PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Monica Lewis can be reached at 571-271-1838. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/DANNY NGUYEN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2838