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.
1.Claims 1-3,6-9,12-15 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Esmond (US20130230434) in view of Matthews (US6314721).
With respect to claim 1 Esmond discloses an air passage type silencer comprising:
An inlet side ventilation pipe (12 in figure 2);
An expansion portion (24 in figure 2) that communicates with the inlet-side ventilation piper and of which a cross sectional area is larger than the cross sectional area of the inlet side ventilation pipe;
An outlet side ventilation pipe (18 in figure 1, truncated but present in embodiment of figure 2) that communicates with the expansion portion and of which a cross-sectional area is smaller than a cross-sectional area of the expansion portion;
An opening portion (16) structure that is provide at least one of a connection portion between the expansion portion and the inlet-side ventilation pipe or a connection portion between the expansion portion and the outlet side ventilation pipe an of which a cross-sectional area gradually increases from the connection portion toward an inside of the expansion portion; and
A sound absorbing material (see both 32 and 26) that is disposed at least between an inner peripheral surface of the expansion portion and a distal end of the opening portion structure,
A central axis on the inlet side ventilation pipe and a central axis of the outlet side ventilation pipe are disposed to be parallel to a vertical direction and
The opening portion structure is disposed at a side surface of the expansion portion that is on a lower side in the vertical direction.
Esmond does not disclose wherein the opening portion structure includes a cutout portion formed from the distal end to a root side at a portion of the peripheral surface, a width of the cutout portion gradually increases from the root side toward the distal end.
Matthews discloses (see figures 2-4) a cut out portion (that is to say the portion of the exhaust outlet which is between the tabs and thus of shorter length) formed from the distal end to a root side at a portion of the peripheral surface, a width of the cutout portion gradually increases from the root side to the distal end (see increase in the width of the portion between the tips of the respective tab members as can be seen in figures 2-4)
Matthews tabs are analogous to the cut outs as the space between the tabs is analogous to the cut out portion and the tab is analogous to the extended portion beyond the cut out.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Matthews to provide tab and cut out portions which create a turbulent flow at the end thereof with the pipe members of Esmond. The motivation for doing so would be to allow for the vortex flow to interact and imping upon each other within the muffler body so as to further damp sounds through destructive interference.
With respect to claim 2 Esmond as modified further discloses wherein the opening portion structure is provided at each of the connection portion between the expansion and the inlet side ventilation pipe and the connection portion between the expansion portion and the outlet side ventilation pipe (see at least embodiment of figure 4 of Esmond where the muffler demonstrates symmetry).
With respect to claim 3 Esmond as modified further discloses wherein the sound absorbing material is a porous sound absorbing material (Esmond para 46).
With respect to claim 6 Esmond as modified further discloses wherein a central axis of the inlet side ventilation pipe and a central axis of the outlet side ventilation side coincide with each other (see again figure 4 Esmond) and the porous sound absorbing material is disposed along the inner peripheral surface of the expansion portion over an entire region in a direction along the central axis (see Esmond para 46 “some or all of the chamber may contain sound absorption material” as such the entirety of the chamber having sound absorption material would be understood to be taught).
With respect to claim 7 Esmond (see again figure 4) further discloses wherein the porous sound absorption material is in contact with a maximum diameter portion of the opening portion structure.
With respect to claim 8 Esmond as modified further discloses wherein the opening portion structure does not include a through hole (this is interpreted to mean the pipe portion is imperforate, as the description in para 46 describes the perforations as being preferable rather than required it is considered that both perforated and imperforate pipe sections are taught, in the event it is considered to not be taught it is considered to have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art).
With respect to claim 9 Esmond further discloses wherein the sound absorbing material is a porous sound absorbing material (para 46).
With respect to claim 12 Esmond as modified further discloses wherein a central axis of the inlet side ventilation pipe and a central axis of the outlet side ventilation side coincide with each other (see again figure 4 Esmond) and the porous sound absorbing material is disposed along the inner peripheral surface of the expansion portion over an entire region in a direction along the central axis (see Esmond para 46 “some or all of the chamber may contain sound absorption material” as such the entirety of the chamber having sound absorption material would be understood to be taught).
With respect to claim 13 Esmond (see again figure 4) further discloses wherein the porous sound absorption material is in contact with a maximum diameter portion of the opening portion structure.
With respect to claim 14 Esmond as modified further discloses wherein the opening portion structure does not include a through hole (this is interpreted to mean the pipe portion is imperforate, as the description in para 46 describes the perforations as being preferable rather than required it is considered that both perforated and imperforate pipe sections are taught, in the event it is considered to not be taught it is considered to have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art).
With respect to claim 15 Esmond as modified further discloses wherein the opening portion structure does not include a through hole (this is interpreted to mean the pipe portion is imperforate, as the description in para 46 describes the perforations as being preferable rather than required it is considered that both perforated and imperforate pipe sections are taught, in the event it is considered to not be taught it is considered to have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art).
With respect to claim 18 Esmond as modified further discloses wherein the opening portion structure does not include a through hole (this is interpreted to mean the pipe portion is imperforate, as the description in para 46 describes the perforations as being preferable rather than required it is considered that both perforated and imperforate pipe sections are taught, in the event it is considered to not be taught it is considered to have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art).
2. Claims 4-5,10-11, and 16-17 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Esmond (US20130230434) in view of Matthews (US6314721) as applied to claims 1-3,6-9,12-15 above and in further view of Yamaura (US7621372).
With respect to claims 4, and 10 Esmond as modified discloses the invention as claimed except wherein the porous sound absorbing material includes a base material that consists of resin and a surface layer that is on a surface of the base material and that consists of a resin nonwoven fabric, and the porous sound absorbing material is disposed such that a surface layer side faces an opening portion structure side.
Yamaura (column 9 lines 5-10) discloses the use of a fibrous sound absorber in an air passage type silencer which includes a base material that consists of a resin and a surface layer that is on a surface of the base material and that consists of a resin nonwoven fabric.
Esmond discloses the inclusion of the fibrous sound absorber on the opening portion structure side, it would be obvious to provide the surface layer on this surface of provide for the fibers to have space to allow for more air space within the bulk portion of the fibers.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use such a fiber with the device of Esmond as modified based upon the known properties of low expense of such material in an environment where they are thermally suitable.
With respect to claims 5 and 11 Esmond as modified discloses the invention as claimed except expressly wherein a water absorption rate of the resin for the base material of the porous sound absorbing material is 0.5% or less. The selection of such a value would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art based upon the desire to keep the fibers from being water logged and losing acoustic value as is known in the art. Further it has been held that where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or working ranges involves only routine skill in the art. In re Aller, 105 USPQ 233.
With respect to claims 16 and 17 Esmond as modified further discloses wherein the opening portion structure does not include a through hole (this is interpreted to mean the pipe portion is imperforate, as the description in para 46 describes the perforations as being preferable rather than required it is considered that both perforated and imperforate pipe sections are taught, in the event it is considered to not be taught it is considered to have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Hossameldin (US10139126) discloses an airborne nose reduction system; Ramos (US9784469) discloses a fabric silencer for air passage silencer; Mead (US20120103719) discloses an exhaust filter with divergent flows; Katoh (US8146706) discloses an air duct for vehicle air conditioning; Frederiksen (US7159692) discloses a silencer; Curl (US6374944) discloses a silencer; Wall (US5371331) discloses a modular muffler; Smith (US4981368) discloses a static fluid mixing silencer; and Burstein (US4685534) discloses a muffler of polymer construction.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FORREST M PHILLIPS whose telephone number is (571)272-9020. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday from 9:00-5:00.
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/FORREST M PHILLIPS/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2837