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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 03/11/2024 was filed on the filing date of the instant application. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Specification
Applicant is reminded of the proper language and format for an abstract of the disclosure.
The abstract should be in narrative form and generally limited to a single paragraph on a separate sheet within the range of 50 to 150 words in length. The abstract should describe the disclosure sufficiently to assist readers in deciding whether there is a need for consulting the full patent text for details.
The language should be clear and concise and should not repeat information given in the title. It should avoid using phrases which can be implied, such as, “The disclosure concerns,” “The disclosure defined by this invention,” “The disclosure describes,” etc. In addition, the form and legal phraseology often used in patent claims, such as “means” and “said,” should be avoided.
The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because it contains the phrase “The present disclosure provides…”. A corrected abstract of the disclosure is required and must be presented on a separate sheet, apart from any other text. See MPEP § 608.01(b).
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 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen (CN 114086632 A, refer to attached translation) in view of Kado (JP 2023061492 A, refer to attached translation).
Regarding claim 1, Chen discloses a watermaker with a sandwich evaporation assembly, comprising the sandwich evaporation assembly (refer to fig. 1), a compressor (1), a fan (9) and an expansion valve (5);
wherein the sandwich evaporation assembly has a preheater (7), an evaporator (6) and a radiator (3), the preheater (7) is arranged on a gas inlet side of the evaporator (refer to the dark lined arrows), the radiator (3) is arranged on an air outlet side of the evaporator (6), the preheater (7) and the radiator (3) are connected through a first conduit (refer to fig. 1 below), and the radiator and the evaporator are connected through a second conduit (refer to fig. 1 below);
the expansion valve (5) is arranged on the second conduit;
the compressor (1) is connected to the evaporator (6) through a third conduit (refer to fig. 1 below) and connected to the preheater (7) through a fourth conduit (refer to fig. 1 below) to suck out a low-temperature and low-pressure refrigerant gas from the evaporator, the low-temperature and low-pressure refrigerant gas is compressed to form a high-temperature and high-pressure superheated refrigerant gas, then the superheated refrigerant gas is fed into the preheater (7), and then forms a supercooled liquid refrigerant after entering the radiator (supercooled liquid refrigerant is formed after passing through radiator 3, and meets with the portion that flows through the preheater 7 before entering the expansion valve as can be seen from fig. 1), the liquid refrigerant is adiabatically throttled into a low-pressure liquid refrigerant by the expansion valve (5), and then the low-pressure liquid refrigerant is fed into the evaporator (6); and
the fan (9) is arranged on an air outlet side of the radiator (3), so that after being preheated by the preheater (7), outside air enters the evaporator (6) to generate water and cold air such that the cold air cools the radiator (3).
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While Chen discloses an atmospheric water generator (collected by tanks 10 and 11 through water pump 12, and filtered by sterilizing and purifying device 13), Chen fails to explicitly disclose wherein the residual cold air is then blown to a heat generating component of the atmospheric water generator to perform cooling and heat dissipation.
However, Kado further teaches that it is known in the art of refrigeration, to use residual cold air (flowing through condenser 18 as can be seen from fig. 7) to be blown to a heat generating component (60A) to perform cooling and heat dissipation (refer to paras. 40-41, wherein part of the air blown out from the condenser fan 19 reaches the electrical equipment box 60A, therefore, being cooled by the blown air along with the airflow direction change so that the efficiency of heat radiation can be further enhanced).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Chen such that the residual cold air as taught by Kado, is then blown to a heat generating component of the atmospheric water generator to perform cooling and heat dissipation, in order to further enhance the efficiency of heat radiation.
Regarding claim 2, Chen as modified meets the claim limitations as disclosed above in the rejection of claim 1. Further, Chen as modified discloses wherein a refrigerant coil is arranged in the preheater (7), and cooling fins are distributed on an outer surface of the refrigerant coil (refer to pg. 3, par. 3, wherein preheater 7 is a fin type heat exchanger).
Regarding claim 3, Chen as modified meets the claim limitations as disclosed above in the rejection of claim 1. Further, Chen as modified discloses wherein the fan is an axial flow fan (refer to fig. 1), but fails to explicitly disclose wherein an air outlet of the axial flow fan faces the compressor and the heat generating component of the atmospheric water generator.
However, Kado further teaches that it is known in the art of refrigeration, to provide an air outlet of an axial flow fan (19) facing a compressor (17) of the system and the heat generating component (60A) (refer to paras. 40-41, wherein the compressor 17 is arranged between the axial fan 19 and a front surface of the heat generating component, as a result, part of the air blown out from the axial fan also hits the compressor which can be air-cooled, and reaches the heat generating component, therefore, both being cooled by the blown air along with the airflow direction change so that the efficiency of heat radiation can be further enhanced).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Chen such that an air outlet of the axial flow fan faces the compressor and the heat generating component of the atmospheric water generator in view of the teachings by Kado, in order to further enhance the efficiency of heat radiation.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANA M VAZQUEZ whose telephone number is (571)272-0611. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7-4.
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/ANA M VAZQUEZ/Examiner, Art Unit 3763