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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of group II (claims 5-7, 17 and 18) in the reply filed on 08/18/2026 is acknowledged. The non-elected claims 1-4, 8-16, 19 and 20 have been withdrawn from prosecution in the application by Applicant in the response filed.
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 5, 7 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiao (CN108689722,see The Espacenet English Machine Translation Version “EEMTV”).
Regarding claim 5, Xiao teaches a porous structured silica ceramic material useable as a foam filter made from a ceramic powder (see “EEMTV, para [0004],[0008]-[0021] and [0046]-[0051]) comprising: a mass ratio of nano-silica, alumina and silicon carbide in the mas ration of 8:2:2 (see “EEMTV, para [0046]-[0051]); thereby equating to a numerical mass ratio of 66% of silica (which lies inside the claimed range of 40% to 80% of silica, a prima facie case of obviousness exists), 17% of alumina (which falls within the claimed range of 8% to 30% of alumina, a prima facie case of obviousness exists) and 17% of silicon carbide (8% to 30% of alumina (which lies inside the claimed range of 8% to 30% of silicon carbide, a prima facie case of obviousness exists); and an auxiliary material comprising a binder in the form of a polyamide of mass ratio of 5% of mass of the nano-silica which equates to 3.3% of mass of the ceramic powder (which lies inside the claimed range of 1% to 5% of a mass of the ceramic powder) and a dispersing agent in the form of a polyvinylpyrrolidone of mass ratio of 3% of mass of the nano-silica which equates to 1.98% of mass of the ceramic powder (which is so close to the upper bound of the claimed range of 0.5% to 1% of a mass of the ceramic powder, that a prima facie case of obviousness exists),(see EEMTV, para [0004],[0008]-[0021] and [0046]-[0051]).
Regarding claim 7, Xiao teaches a porous structured silica ceramic material with a porosity of about 63% (see EEMTV, para [0063]). Xiao also teaches that the porosity of said ceramic silica material is adjustable by adding anhydrous ethanol (see EEMTV, para [0080], [0099], [0057]). Hence by mere optimization the porosity of the silica ceramic material of Xiao can reasonable be improved to any desired higher porosity to include the claimed range of 80% to 83% by adding anhydrous ethanol to the raw ceramic powder mixture, particularly since the 63% porosity disclosed by Xiao is close to the claimed range of 80% to 83%.
Regarding claim 17, Xiao teaches a silica ceramic material that comprises silica,
alumina, and silicon carbide but silent when it comes to the mesh number and the purity
of said respective components; however, Applicants , specification para [0057], indicates that alumina of a mesh number of not less than 200 mesh and a purity of not lower than 98%; silica of a mesh number of not less than 1,000 mesh and a purity of not lower than 95%; and silicon carbide of a mesh number of not less than 200 mesh and a purity of not lower than 95% is commercially available, hence selection to choose the same commercially available silica, alumina and silicon carbide at the respective mesh number and purity for making the silica ceramic material of Xiao would have been within the purview of one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made.
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as anticipated by or, in
the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Xiao (CN108689722, see The
Espacenet English Machine Translation Version “EEMTV”) as evidenced by Inagi et al. (JPH08295534, see The Espacenet English Machine Translation Version “EEMTV”).
Regarding claim 6, Xiao is silent with respect to the crystal phase of silica in the silica ceramic foam filter as being selected from the group consisting of β-quartz, α-quartz, γ-tridymite, β-tridymite, α-tridymite, β-cristobalite, α-cristobalite, and quartz glass, however as evidenced by Inagi et al., silica crystal phases are known in the art to include at least α-cristobalite crystal phase (see Inagi et al. EEMTV: para[0001], [0004], [0010]), hence absent any evidence to the contrary the silica in the silica ceramic material of Xiao would have reasonable included at least α-cristobalite crystal phase (see Inagi et al. EEMTV: para [0001],[0004],[0010]).
Claim 18 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as anticipated by or, in
the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Xiao (CN108689722,see The
Espacenet English Machine Translation Version “EEMTV”) in view of Zhu et al. (US Patent No. 10,994,234).
Regarding claim 18, Xiao teaches a silica ceramic material that comprises a binder in the form of a polyamide and a dispersing agent in the form of polyvinylpyrrolidone but fails to teach a binder comprising one or more selected from the group consisting of silica sol, methyl cellulose (MC), white latex, sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (Na-CMC), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), polyvinyl butyral (PVB), phenolic resin, and ethyl silicate; and the dispersing agent comprising at least one selected from the group consisting of sodium hexametaphosphate (SHMP) and sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP).
Zhu et al. teaches a silica ceramic for use as foam filter in which the binder comprises one or more selected from the group consisting of silica sol, methyl cellulose (MC), white latex, sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (Na-CMC), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), polyvinyl butyral (PVB), phenolic resin, and ethyl silicate; and the dispersing agent comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of sodium hexametaphosphate (SHMP) and sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP) (see Zhu et al., column 6, lines 45-67). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to use a binder comprising one or more selected from the group consisting of silica sol, methyl cellulose (MC), white latex, sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (Na-CMC), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), polyvinyl butyral (PVB), phenolic resin, and ethyl silicate; and the dispersing agent comprising at least one selected from the group consisting of sodium hexametaphosphate (SHMP) and sodium
tripolyphosphate (STPP) in the silica ceramic foam of Xiao as exemplified by Zhu et al., wherein doing so would amount to a mere substitution of one material for another within the same art that would work equally well in the silica ceramic foam of Xiao in order to improve the high temperature resistance and performance at high temperature in the application as a filter of molten metal (see Zhu et al., column 2, lines 30-35, column 3, lines 35-40 and column 6, lines 45-67).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Demey et al. (US 9,518,307) is also cited in PTO-892.
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/M.A/ Examiner, Art Unit 1733
/JESSEE R ROE/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1759
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