DETAILED CORRESPONDENCE
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 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 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tomida (US Patent 9,576,832 B2) in view of Kobayashi (JP 2022/177495A).
Regarding claim 1, Tomida discloses an article transport vehicle with damper element (see figures 1-5) comprising:
A transport vehicle (see below) for traveling along a travel path to transport an article (6, see figures 1-2), the transport vehicle comprising:
a holder (23, see figures 1-5) configured to hold a handle (9, see figure 3) on the article; and
a lifter (24 and 28, see figures 1-2) configured to lift and lower the holder, and
wherein:
the lifter comprises an elongated member (24a, see figures 1-2) suspending the holder and a lifting drive (29, see figures 1-2) configured to wind and unwind the elongated member to lift and lower the holder,
the holder comprises a support (considered the top plate portion of 23, see figure 3) that is a plate (see the top plate portion of 23, see figure 3) suspended parallel to a horizontal plane (see figure 3) by the elongated member, at least one first holder member (left 32, see figures 3-5) and at least one second holder member (see right 32, see figures 3-5) supported by the support (see figure 3) and movable toward and away from each other (as motor 33 moves members 32 horizontally, see column 5 lines 46-49), and a holder drive (33, 34, 35, 40, and 41 see figures 3-5) configured to drive the at least one first holder member and the at least one second holder member (see column 5 lines 46-49),
the at least one first holder member and the at least one second holder member are located below the support (as holder members 32 are at least partially below the top plate portion of 23, as shown in figure 3),
the holder drive is located in a space (see the space below the top plate portion of 23, see figure 3) in a vertical direction below the support (as the motor 33 is at least partially below the top plate portion of 23, as shown in figure 3), the space including the at least one first holder member and the at least one second holder member (see figure 3), and
the transport vehicle comprises an elongated member fastener (as there inherently is structure connecting the elongated member to the support) on the support, and the elongated member fastener fastening the elongated member to the support (as the elongated member is inherently fastened to the support).
Tomida does not explicitly disclose the elongated member fastener protrudes downward from the support.
Kobayashi discloses a ceiling transport vehicle (see figures 1-3) comprising a transport vehicle (1, see figures 1-3) comprises an elongated member fastener (40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, and 48, and/or 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 56, and 58, see figures 2-3) on the support, the elongated member fastener fastening the elongated member (B, see figures 2-3) to the support, and the elongated member fastener protrudes downward from the support (at least partially, as at least the elastic members 48 and/or 58 of the elongated fastener protrude downward from the support 7 and 11, see figure 2). Kobayashi teaches that the elongated member fastener prevents/reduces vibrations when the traveling unit travels or when the holding unit moves up and down (see paragraph 0022, paragraph 0025, and paragraph 0028, of Applicant provided machine translation, FOR of 04/05/2024, 35 pages).
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the article transport vehicle of Tomida by substituting the elongated member fastener of Kobayashi (with the taught elongated member fastener protruding downward from the support) for the elongated member fastener of Tomida, to prevent/reduce vibrations when the traveling unit travels or when the holding unit moves up and down as taught by Kobayashi, to reduce the distance between the support and the lifter for the benefit of reducing pendulum movements of the lifted article, and/or to increase the available surface area of the top surface of the support for the benefit of having extra surface area for the installation of other structure (such as sensor structure) on the top surface of the support.
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tomida (US Patent 9,576,832 B2) in view of Kobayashi (JP 2022/177495A) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Kobayashi (WO 2021/181924 A1, see US Patent 12,106,990 B2 for an English Translation).
Regarding claim 2, Neither Tomida nor Kobayashi 495’ disclose an article detector on the support, the article detector configured to detect the article as a holding target for the holder, wherein the article detector protrudes upward from the support, and wherein the article detector is at a position overlapping a space in the vertical direction including the lifting drive without overlapping the lifting drive as viewed in the vertical direction when the support is nearest the lifting drive in the vertical direction.
Kobayashi 924’ discloses an article detector (40, see figures 2, 4, and 6-10) on a support (11, see figures 1-2, 4, and 6-10), the article detector (40 and its signal cables, for the cables see column 8 lines 43-45) configured to detect the article as a holding target for the holder (column 8 lines 5-48), wherein the article detector protrudes upward from the support (at least partially as at least the seating sensor 46 and/or presence sensor 47 are above the lower portion of the support 11, as shown in figures 2, 4, and 6-10, and/or completely protruding upward from the support as the cables that output signals to controller 8 protrude upward from the support, see figures 1-2, 4, and 6-10, and column 8 lines 5-48), and wherein the article detector is at a position overlapping a space (considered the space between the front frame 22, rear frame 23, and unit 5, see figure 1) in the vertical direction including the lifting drive (belts 6a, see figure 1) without overlapping the lifting drive as viewed in the vertical direction when the support is nearest the lifting drive in the vertical direction (as shown in figure 1, the article detectors do not overlap the belts 6a).
Kobayashi 924’ teaches that 1) the seating sensor of the detector detects seating of a holding portion (9, see column 8 lines 33-36), 2) the presence sensor of the detector detects the presence of a FOUP in a state in which the FOUP is lifted (see column 8 lines 36-38), and 3) the cables of the detector output signals to a controller (8) are connected to the seating sensor and presence sensor (see column 8 lines 43-45).
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the article transport vehicle of Tomida as modified by Kobayashi 495’ above by providing the article detector as taught by Kobayashi 924’, to provide a seating sensor that detects seating of a holding portion as taught by Kobayashi 924’, to provide a presence sensor that detects the presence of a FOUP in a state in which the FOUP is lifted as taught by Kobayashi 924’, and/or to provide cables of the detector that output signals to a controller connected to the seating sensor and presence sensor as taught by Kobayashi 924’.
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tomida (US Patent 9,576,832 B2) in view of Kobayashi (JP 2022/177495A) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Kobayashi (WO 2021/181923 A1, see US Patent 12,139,176 B2 for an English Translation).
Regarding claim 3, Tomida discloses the holder drive (33, 34, 35, 40, and 41 see figures 3-5) comprises a first rail (considered the two rails 40 on the upper half of figure 5) and a second rail (considered the two rails 40 on the lower half of figure 5) extending in a direction (see the direction of rails 40 in figure 5) in which the pair of first holder members and the pair of second holder members move (see figures 3-5), a first guide (considered the upper left guide 41 on the upper half of figure 5) and a second guide (considered the upper right guide 41 on the upper half of figure 5) movable along the first rail, a third guide (considered the lower left guide 41 on the upper half of figure 5) and a fourth guide (considered the lower right guide 41 on the upper half of figure 5) movable along the second rail, a motor (33, see figure 5), and a transmission (34 and/or 35) configured to transmit a driving force from the motor to the pair of first holder members and the pair of second holder members (column 7 lines 23-34), the first holder member (left 32) is supported by the first guide (see figures 3-5), and the second holder member (right 32) is supported by the second guide (see figures 3-5), the first holder member (left 32) is supported by the third guide (see figures 3-5), and the second holder member (right 32) is supported by the fourth guide (see figures 3-5), and the motor and the transmission are located between the first rail and the second rail (see figure 5).
Neither Tomida nor Kobayashi 495’ disclose the at least one first holder member comprises a pair of first holder members and the at least one second holder member comprises a pair of second holder members.
Kobayashi 923’ discloses a gripper device, conveyance vehicle, and conveyance method (see figures 2 and 6-7) comprising engaging plates (13, see figures 2 and 6-7, i.e. holder members), each engaging plate (13, see figures 2 and 6-7, i.e. a holder member) further comprising two second buffer members (15, see figures 2 and 6-7, i.e. a pair of holder members). Kobayashi 923’ teaches the two buffer members are affixed to positions that correspond to the positions of center columns (203) of the three columns (203) erected on an FOUP (200, see column 6 line 57 to column 7 line 31).
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the article transport vehicle of Tomida as modified by Kobayashi 495’ above by substituting the holder members of Kobayashi 923’ (with each holder member comprising pairs of buffer members, i.e. a pair of holder member) for the holder members of Tomida, to provide buffer members affixed to a positions that correspond to the position of center columns of the three columns erected on an FOUP as taught by Kobayashi 923’, to provide pairs of holder members to accommodate varying configurations of handles attached to articles to be transported, and/or to better distribute the lifting force to the article to be transported, as four points of contact of the lifting force provides better distribution of lifting force than two points of contact.
With the modification above, the at least one first holder member comprises a pair of first holder members and the at least one second holder member comprises a pair of second holder members.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 4 is 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Tomida (US Patent 9,576,832 B2), Kobayashi (JP 2022/177495A), Kobayashi (WO 2021/181924 A1, see US Patent 12,106,990 B2 for an English Translation), and Kobayashi (WO 2021/181923 A1, see US Patent 12,139,176 B2 for an English Translation) are considered the closest prior art references to the claimed invention of dependent claim 4.
Claim 4 claims:
wherein:
the holder drive comprises a rail extending in a direction in which the first holder member and the second holder member move and a drive to move the first holder member and the second holder member along the rail,
the transport vehicle comprises a bridge below the support,
the bridge crosses the rail as viewed in the vertical direction, and
the bridge supports wiring on the support.
Important Note: Underlining is provided to point out the important areas of the bolded limitations above.
None of Tomida (US Patent 9,576,832 B2), Kobayashi (JP 2022/177495A), Kobayashi 924’, nor Kobayashi 923’ disclose nor would be obvious to the limitations of 1) “the transport vehicle comprises a bridge below the support”, 2) “the bridge crosses the rail as viewed in the vertical direction”, and 3) “the bridge supports wiring on the support”, in conjunction with the remaining limitations of the claim and the limitations of independent claim 1.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JUAN J CAMPOS, JR whose telephone number is (571)270-5229. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 9am-6pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Anna M. Momper can be reached on phone number 571-270-5788. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/JJC/
/ANNA M MOMPER/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3619