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.
Claims 1-4 and 6-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Schonenborn et al. (U.S. Publication No. 20230213485) in view of Boyer et al. (U.S. Publication No. 20120266680) and Yang et al. (CN208125268, see attached English translation).
Regarding claim 1, Schonenborn teaches a vibration detection device of a bllisk comprising: a plurality of exciters configured to vibrate a plurality of blades integrally formed on an outer periphery of a disk of a blisk (Paragraph 25, “Integrally manufactured blade wheels are also referred to as “blade integrated disks” or “blisks” for short” and paragraph 68, “Situated beneath each blade of the blade wheel disk is a speaker, as an acoustic actuator, which may emit the multifrequency signal in such a way that it impinges in the same manner on each blade of the blade wheel disk, and shifts it into a first excitation”), using a plurality of excitation signals of a traveling wave in which a phase is sequentially shifted in a traveling direction or a backward wave in which a phase is sequentially shifted in a delay direction (Paragraph 68, “the speakers are activated via a corresponding phase shift, so that each speaker provides for its blade a corresponding excitation that is phase-shifted, and the corresponding blades are thus likewise excited with phase shifting. The phase-shifted activation is produced by an appropriate control unit which also generates the multifrequency signal”); a laser vibrometer (Paragraph 23, “A measurement may in particular take place using a laser, for example a laser Doppler vibrometer”).
Schonenborn is silent about a laser vibrometer configured to output a laser beam for detecting a vibration of each of the plurality of blades and receive a reflected beam from a target irradiated with the laser beam; an optical path changer arranged on an optical path of the laser beam and configured to change an optical path of the laser beam and the reflected beam based on a vibration detection position of a blade designated as an irradiation target for the laser beam from among the plurality of blades; and a controller configured to detect a vibration response to excitation of the respective blades, from the laser beam and the reflected beam corresponding to the respective blades being excited by the respective exciters.
Boyer teaches a laser vibrometer (Fig.1, 18) configured to output a laser beam (Fig.3, step 304 and paragraph 22) for detecting a vibration of each of the plurality of blades (Fig.3, step 310 and paragraph 25) and receive a reflected beam from a target irradiated with the laser beam (Paragraph 25, “The light detector 30 is used to determine the reflection frequency of the reflection”); and a controller configured to detect a vibration response to excitation of the respective blades, from the laser beam and the reflected beam corresponding to the respective blades being excited by the respective exciters (Fig.3, step 310 and paragraph 25).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to use laser vibrometer to detect vibration of Schonenborn’s blisk because laser vibrometer is a non-contact vibrometer, therefore avoiding mass loading that alters the target's dynamic properties, also laser vibrometer could detect ultra-small, high-frequency vibrations with high spatial resolution.
The combination of Schonenborn and Boyer is silent about an optical path changer arranged on an optical path of the laser beam and configured to change an optical path of the laser beam and the reflected beam based on a vibration detection position of a blade designated as an irradiation target for the laser beam from among the plurality of blades.
Yang teaches an optical path changer (Fig.2, and paragraph 9, “high-speed X-Y scanning lens”) arranged on an optical path of the laser beam and configured to change an optical path of the laser beam (Paragraph 10, “High-speed X-Y scanning lens: Guides the measuring laser to continuously scan a closed curve on the surface of the object under the drive of a continuous sinusoidal signal”) and the reflected beam based on a vibration detection position of a blade designated as an irradiation target for the laser beam from among the plurality of blades (Fig.2 and paragraphs 9-11).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to incorporate Yang’s high-speed X-Y scanning lens into Schonenborn’s laser vibrometer because it would allow Schonenborn’s laser vibrometer to cover all of the surface of Schonenborn’s blades.
Regarding claim 2, the combination of Schonenborn, Boyer and Yang teaches all the features of claim 1 as outlined above, Schonenborn further teaches wherein the respective exciters are configured to excite the corresponding respective blades by changing a frequency of the excitation signals, and the controller is configured to detect the vibration response for each frequency of the excitation signals (Paragraph 68).
Regarding claims 3-4, the combination of Schonenborn, Boyer and Yang teaches all the features of claims 1-2 as outlined above, Schonenborn further teaches wherein the respective exciters are configured to excite the corresponding respective blades at an excitation order that simulates a pressure fluctuation generated in fluid around the blisk due to rotation of the blisk (Paragraph 68).
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Schonenborn, Boyer and Yang teaches all the features of claim 1 as outlined above, Schonenborn further teaches wherein the plurality of exciters are a plurality of speakers each configured to output sound waves corresponding to waveforms of the plurality of excitation signals (Paragraph 68).
Regarding claim 7, the combination of Schonenborn, Boyer and Yang teaches all the features of claim 1 as outlined above, Schonenborn further teaches wherein the laser vibrometer is a laser vibrometer utilizing a Doppler effect (Paragraph 23).
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Schonenborn et al. (U.S. Publication No. 20230213485) in view of Boyer et al. (U.S. Publication No. 20120266680) and Yang et al. (CN208125268, see attached English translation) and Mitaritonna et al. (U.S. Publication No. 20100116044).
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Schonenborn, Boyer and Yang teaches all the features of claim 1 as outlined above, the combination of Schonenborn, Boyer and Yang is silent about wherein the controller is configured to detect an amplitude and a phase of the vibration response and analyze a distribution of the detected amplitude and the detected phase of the respective blades, thereby detecting a number of nodal diameters for a vibration generated in the blisk, using the vibration response.
Mitaritonna teaches wherein the controller is configured to detect an amplitude and a phase of the vibration response and analyze a distribution of the detected amplitude and the detected phase of the respective blades, thereby detecting a number of nodal diameters for a vibration generated in the blisk, using the vibration response (Paragraphs 80-82).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to detect amplitude and phase of Schonenborn’s vibration response, and detect nodal diameter of a vibration generated in Schonenborn’s blisk because amplitude, phase and nodal diameter could be used for structural health monitoring of Schonenborn’s blisk.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to XIN Y ZHONG whose telephone number is (571)272-3798. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9 a.m. - 6 p.m..
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/XIN Y ZHONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2855