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 § 103
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 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, 6 & 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Neri (US 5,474,251) in view of Rittershaus (US 5,209,247).
With respect to claims 1 & 3, Neri discloses a feeder setup device comprising:
a feeder holding section 1 configured to hold, at a work execution position in a vertical posture, vertically oriented tape feeders 7, 7, 7 to which a reel 11a around which a carrier tape 5 is wound is attached, a tape feeder being configured to feed a carrier tape to supply a component;
a reel holding section 10 configured to hold a plurality of reels in upright, stacked configuration, e.g. posture; and
a reel attachment mechanism 12, 17 configured to take out a reel from a reel holding section, and attach a reel to a tape feeder at a work execution position.
Neri discloses a reel holding section and a reel attachment mechanism, and does not disclose reels in a lying down posture or a reel attachment mechanism that changes reels to a vertical posture from a lying down posture.
With respect to FIGS. 5A, 5B, Rittershaus discloses a feeder holding section (indicated generally as 15a, 15b), a reel holding section 102 configured to hold stacked reels 30 in a lying down posture, and a reel attachment mechanism 14c, 14d configured to take out a reel from a reel holding section, change a reel to a vertical posture, and attach a reel to a tape feeder at a work execution position. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the invention of Neri to include reels in a lying down posture or a reel attachment mechanism that changes reels to a vertical posture from a lying down posture, as taught by Rittershaus, which, due to the configuration of the process facility, allows a robot to transfer the pallets of reels directly to the feeder holding sections.
With respect to claims 6 & 7, Neri does not disclose a reel removal mechanism configured to remove a reel from a tape feeder at a work execution position. Rittershaus discloses a reel removal mechanism 20 configured to remove a reel from an "empty" tape feeder at a work execution position, wherein reel attachment mechanism 14c and a reel removal mechanism 20 are operable independently of each other. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the invention of Neri to include a reel removal mechanism configured to remove a reel from an "empty" tape feeder at a work execution position, wherein reel attachment mechanism and a reel removal mechanism are operable independently of each other, as taught by Rittershaus, which, due to the configuration of the process facility, allows a robot to transfer the pallets of reels directly to the feeder holding sections.
Claim(s) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Neri in view of Rittershaus and further in view of Yoichi (JP 2019204858) (English translation included with reference copy).
Neri discloses a feeder accommodation section configured to accommodate multiple tape feeders 7, 7, 7 in a vertical posture, and does not disclose a feeder conveyance section. Yoichi discloses a feeder conveyance section 5 which conveys tape feeders 6 between a feeder accommodation section 4 and a feeder holding section. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the invention of Neri to include a feeder conveyance section, as taught by Yoichi, which removes the requirement that a worker replace the tape feeder or otherwise collect the waste tape from the waste tape collection box of the mounting apparatus.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 10 & 11 are allowed. Claims 4, 5, 8 & 9 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GREGORY W ADAMS whose telephone number is (571)272-8101. The examiner can normally be reached Mon - Fri, 8am-5pm.
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/GREGORY W ADAMS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3652