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 .
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, 5-10, 12-14, 16-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yoshiyuki (WO 2005/010427) in view of Thyroff (US 7127937).
Regarding to claims 1, 9, 13-14: Yoshiyuki discloses a vehicle comprising:
a fuel cell system including a stack (FIG. 1, element 20), a plurality of fuel tanks (FIG. 1, elements 51-54) configured to store pressurized fuel for the stack, a manifold (FIG. 1, elements 31, 31a-d), and a plurality of tank valves (FIG. 1, elements V1-V4) each connected between one of the fuel tanks and the manifold; and
a controller programmed to, responsive to an abnormality occurring while sequentially fluidly coupling each of the fuel tanks to the manifold via at least one of the tank valves during a vehicle parked condition, prevent at least one of the fuel tanks from providing fuel to the stack during subsequent operation of the vehicle (page 7, 2nd paragraph: Any one of the hydrogen tanks 51-54 is selected as a hydrogen supply source. Page 5, 6th paragraph: When an abnormality is present in the fuel supply from a tank, the total amount of fuel remaining may be calculated excluding the tank where the abnormality exists).
Yoshiyuki however does not teach wherein the abnormality is based to an increase in a value of a thermodynamic property of fuel in the manifold.
Thyroff discloses a method for leak detection in a fuel feeding system to feed the fuel from a plurality of tanks to a fuel cell stack via a manifold (FIG. 1), the method comprises detecting an abnormality based to an increase in a value of a thermodynamic property of fuel in the manifold (FIG. 3: The increase in the delta pressure to be greater than the upper limit (72) indicating the tank valve leak (73)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the abnormality detection in Yoshiyuki to be based on the increase in the fuel property as disclosed by Thyroff in order to be able to detect a tank valve leak (FIG. 3).
Regarding to claim 2: further comprising a plurality of check valves each connected between one of the fuel tanks and the manifold in parallel with one of the tank valves and configured to permit flow of fuel from the manifold to the one of the fuel tanks responsive to the value in the manifold exceeding a value of a thermodynamic property in the one of the fuel tanks (Yoshiyuki: FIG. 1, elements D1-D4).
Regarding to claims 3, 10, 13: wherein the controller is further programmed to, responsive to the value in the manifold remaining same during the sequentially fluidly coupling and less than the value in the manifold during previous vehicle operation, prevent at least one of the fuel tanks from providing fuel to the stack during subsequent operation of the vehicle (Thyroff: FIGs. 1-2: In step 46, when the measured pressure is less than the shut down pressure of the previous operation, the secondary valve 26 (FIG. 1) is closed to prevent the fuel tanks (14, 16) from feeding fuel to the fuel cell stack (12)).
Regarding to claims 5, 12, 16: wherein the controller is further programmed to generate a message for output regarding the at least one of the fuel tanks (Yoshiyuki: page 5, 6th paragraph: When an abnormality is present, a notification is provided).
Regarding to claims 6-8, 17-19: wherein the thermodynamic property is density, pressure, or mass (In both Yoshiyuki and Thyroff, the fuel property is pressure. According to the ideal gas law, pressure and density are directly proportional to each other, wherein density is mass per unit volume).
Claim(s) 4, 11, and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yoshiyuki (WO 2005/010427) in view of Thyroff (US 7127937), and further in view of Norman et al. (US 2011/0020716).
Yoshiyuki, as modified, discloses the claimed invention as discussed above, except wherein the controller is further programmed to pump fuel from the at least one of the fuel tanks to other of the fuel tanks.
Norman et al. discloses a fuel cell system having a plurality of tanks (FIG. 1, elements 41-1, 41-2), a fuel cell stack (FIG. 1, element 13), and a pump for transferring the fluid between the plurality of tanks (Abstract).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system in Yoshiyuki, as modified, to be able to transfer fuel between the tanks as discloses by Norman et al. in order to perform recycling and re-pressurization (paragraph [0012]).
CONTACT INFORMATION
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LAM S NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-2151.
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/LAM S NGUYEN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853
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