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 . This Office Action is responsive to the Applicant' s communication filed May 6, 2024. In view of this communication, claims 1-12 are now pending in the application.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on May 6, 2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on January 7, 2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
Claim Objections
Claims 3, 6, and 9 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 3, Line 3 should read “a further inner side than inner ends”.
Claim 6, Line 3 should read “a further inner side than inner ends”.
Claim 9, Line 2 should read “conductors have a plate-like shape.”
Appropriate correction is required.
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 1-2, 4, 7, and 10-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Steen et al. (US 4139790 A, hereafter referred to as Steen) in view of Seguchi et al. (US 5917248 A, hereafter referred to as Seguchi).
Regarding Claim 1, Steen discloses (see Figure 3) a motor (12, C3L24) comprising:
a stator (14, C3L26) having a cylindrical shape;
a rotor (13, C3L26) having a cylindrical shape provided in the stator (14, C3L26) and is rotatable about a central axis of the stator (14, C3L26), wherein
the rotor (13, C3L26) has a cage (33/34, C3L65-67: “The conductor bars 33 form a part of a squirrel cage winding which includes end rings 34 for a short circuited secondary winding on the rotor 13.”) and a plurality of permanent magnets (27-30, C5L2) disposed side by side in a circumferential direction on an inner side of the cage (33/34, C3L65-67),
the cage (33/34, C3L65-67) includes a plurality of secondary conductors (Annotated Figure 3, C7L17-20: “This low resistance squirrel cage is aided by the filling of the flux barriers such as 50, 51, 54 and 55 with the metallic conductor of the squirrel cage.”) that extend in a radial direction, and
the plurality of secondary conductors (Annotated Figure 3) are interposed between inner parts of secondary conductors (Annotated Figure 3) on opposite sides in the circumferential direction (shown in Figure 3, each secondary conductor is located between at least two secondary conductors in the circumferential direction.).
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Steen does not disclose a driving wheel of a vehicle being driven by rotation of the rotor.
However, Seguchi, in the same field of technology, does disclose (see Figure 1) a driving wheel (700, C4L58) of a vehicle being driven by rotation of the rotor (1210, C5L20-21) (C4L56-59: “A torque-rotational speed converter 1000 (T-S converter) is a driving unit which is driven by an engine 100 to drive vehicle wheels 700 at driving torque and rotational speed controlled according to vehicle driving conditions.”).
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It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify the motor disclosed by Steen such that a driving wheel of a vehicle may be driven by the rotation of the rotor, as disclosed by Seguchi, in order to directly control engine power transmitted to the wheel during operation (C1L54-60: “In view of the above described circumstances, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide an improved system and method for driving an electric vehicle in which a portion of the engine power is transmitted directly to the wheels with the remainder converted into electric power so that both torque and rotational speed of the wheels can be changed, thereby increasing efficiency of the system”).
Regarding Claim 2/1, Steen in view of Seguchi has been discussed above.
Additionally, Steen discloses (see Figure 3) that outer ends of the plurality of secondary conductors (Annotated Figure 3) form an outer circumferential end part of the rotor (13, C3L26).
Regarding Claim 4/2/1, Steen in view of Seguchi has been discussed above.
Additionally, Steen discloses (see Figure 3) that the cage (33/34, C3L65-67) further includes a plurality of other secondary conductors (33, C3L62), the plurality of other secondary conductors (33, C3L62) are disposed side by side in the circumferential direction at circumferential positions corresponding to the plurality of permanent magnets (27-30, C5L2) on an outer side, and inner ends of the plurality of other secondary conductors (33, C3L62) are located on an outer side than inner ends of the plurality of secondary conductors (Annotated Figure 3).
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Regarding Claim 7/1, Steen in view of Seguchi has been discussed above.
Additionally, Steen disclose (see Figure 3) that the cage (33/34, C3L65-67) further includes a plurality of other secondary conductors (33, C3L62), the plurality of other secondary conductors (33, C3L62) are disposed side by side in the circumferential direction at circumferential positions corresponding to the plurality of permanent magnets (27-30, C5L2) on an outer side, and inner ends of the plurality of other secondary conductors (33, C3L62) are located on an outer side than inner ends of the plurality of secondary conductors (Annotated Figure 3).
Regarding Claim 10/1, Steen in view of Seguchi has been discussed above.
Additionally, Steen discloses (see Figure 3) that the rotor (13, C3L26) is divided into an outer rotor part (22, C5L29) and an inner rotor part (21, C5L31), and the inner rotor part (21, C5L31) has a polygonal shape when viewed in an axial direction.
Regarding Claim 11/1, Steen in view of Seguchi has been discussed above.
Additionally, Steen discloses that the plurality of permanent magnets (27-30, C5L2) are rare-earth magnets (C5L13-14: “The magnets are preferably Rare Earth magnets,”).
Regarding Claim 12/1, Steen in view of Seguchi has been discussed above.
Additionally, the drawings of Sheen suggest (see Figure 3) that each of the plurality of permanent magnets (27-30, C5L2) has a plate-like shape.
Claims 3 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Steen in view of Seguchi as applied to claims 1 and 2 above, and further in view of Ionel et al. (WO 2008137709 A2, hereafter referred to as Ionel).
Regarding Claim 3/2/1, Steen in view of Seguchi has been discussed above.
Steen in view of Seguchi does not disclose that inner ends of the plurality of secondary conductors are located on an inner side than inner ends of the plurality of permanent magnets.
However, Ionel, in the same field of technology, does disclose (see Figure 4) that inner ends of the plurality of secondary conductors (60, ¶ [0034]) are located on an inner side than inner ends of the plurality of permanent magnets (100, ¶ [0037]).
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It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify the motor disclosed by Steen in view of Seguchi such that inner ends of the plurality of secondary conductors are located on an inner side than inner ends of the plurality of permanent magnets, as disclosed by Ionel, in order to increase torque or efficiency (¶ [0041: “During motor steady-state operation at synchronous speed, the magnetic saturation of the bridges 145 reduces the magnet leakage flux and therefore increases the motor output torque and/or efficiency.”]).
Regarding Claim 6/1, Steen in view of Seguchi has been discussed above.
Steen in view of Seguchi does not disclose that inner ends of the plurality of secondary conductors are located on an inner side than inner ends of the plurality of permanent magnets.
However, Ionel, in the same field of technology, does disclose (see Figure 4) that inner ends of the plurality of secondary conductors (60, ¶ [0034]) are located on an inner side than inner ends of the plurality of permanent magnets (100, ¶ [0037]).
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It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify the motor disclosed by Steen in view of Seguchi such that inner ends of the plurality of secondary conductors are located on an inner side than inner ends of the plurality of permanent magnets, as disclosed by Ionel, in order to increase torque or efficiency (¶ [0041: “During motor steady-state operation at synchronous speed, the magnetic saturation of the bridges 145 reduces the magnet leakage flux and therefore increases the motor output torque and/or efficiency.”]).
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Steen in view of Seguchi as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Finkle et al. (US 20180212502 A1, hereafter referred to as Finkle).
Regarding Claim 9/1, Steen in view of Seguchi has been discussed above.
Steen in view of Seguchi does not disclose that each of the secondary conductors have a plate-like shape.
However, Finkle, in the same field of technology, does disclose (see Figure 8) that each of the secondary conductors (32, ¶ [0100]) have a plate-like shape.
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It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify the motor disclosed by Steen in view of Seguchi such that each of the secondary conductors have a plate-like shape, as disclosed by Finkle, in order to improve torque ([0012]: “When first rotor reaches near synchronous rpm, the stator flux penetrates to second bars of the SC inner rotor applying additional torque to further accelerate the SC inner rotor toward synchronous RPM.”).
Claims 5 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Steen in view of Seguchi as applied to claims 1 and 2 above, and further in view of Ueda et al. (US 20200251942 A1, hereafter referred to as Ueda).
Regarding Claim 5/2/1, Steen in view of Seguchi has been discussed above.
Additionally, Steen discloses (see Figure 3) that the rotor (13, C3L26) is divided into an outer rotor part (22, C5L29) and an inner rotor part (21, C5L31), the plurality of permanent magnets (27-30, C5L2) are housed in a housing part (23-26, C3L44) provided between the outer rotor part (22, C5L29) and the inner rotor part (21, C5L31) in the radial direction.
Steen in view of Seguchi does not explicitly disclose that the housing part is filled with a resin material for coupling the outer rotor part, the inner rotor part and the plurality of permanent magnets to each other.
However, Ueda, in the same field of technology, does disclose that the housing part is filled with a resin material (12, ¶ [0052]) for coupling the outer rotor part (34O, ¶ [0045]), the inner rotor part (34I, ¶ [0045]) and the plurality of permanent magnets (33A/B, ¶ [0045]) to each other (¶ [0052]: “The mold resin unit 12 supports the permanent magnets 33A, 33B. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the mold resin unit 12 includes a disc 11, an outside support 1, and an inside support 2.”).
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It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify the motor disclosed by Steen in view of Seguchi such that the housing part is filled with a resin material for coupling the outer rotor part, the inner rotor part and the plurality of permanent magnets to each other, as disclosed by Ueda, in order to provide a support to the permanent magnets without interfering with magnetic flux distribution during rotation of the rotor (¶ [0059]: “By circumferentially supporting the permanent magnets 33A, 33B without generating the circumferential bias, the degradation of the cogging torque due to the disturbance of the magnetic flux distribution can be prevented even when the rotor 30 rotates.”).
Regarding Claim 8/1, Steen in view of Seguchi has been discussed above.
Additionally, Steen discloses (see Figure 3) that the rotor (13, C3L26) is divided into an outer rotor part (22, C5L29) and an inner rotor part (21, C5L31), the plurality of permanent magnets (27-30, C5L2) are housed in a housing part (23-26, C3L44) provided between the outer rotor part (22, C5L29) and the inner rotor part (21, C5L31) in the radial direction.
Steen in view of Seguchi does not explicitly disclose that the housing part is filled with a resin material for coupling the outer rotor part, the inner rotor part and the plurality of permanent magnets to each other.
However, Ueda, in the same field of technology, does disclose that the housing part is filled with a resin material (12, ¶ [0052]) for coupling the outer rotor part (34O, ¶ [0045]), the inner rotor part (34I, ¶ [0045]) and the plurality of permanent magnets (33A/B, ¶ [0045]) to each other (¶ [0052]: “The mold resin unit 12 supports the permanent magnets 33A, 33B. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the mold resin unit 12 includes a disc 11, an outside support 1, and an inside support 2.”).
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It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify the motor disclosed by Steen in view of Seguchi such that the housing part is filled with a resin material for coupling the outer rotor part, the inner rotor part and the plurality of permanent magnets to each other, as disclosed by Ueda, in order to provide a support to the permanent magnets without interfering with magnetic flux distribution during rotation of the rotor (¶ [0059]: “By circumferentially supporting the permanent magnets 33A, 33B without generating the circumferential bias, the degradation of the cogging torque due to the disturbance of the magnetic flux distribution can be prevented even when the rotor 30 rotates.”).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHARLIE FRANK MANN whose telephone number is (703)756-1275. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 7:30AM - 4:30PM PST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Oluseye Iwarere can be reached at (571) 270-5112. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/C.F.M./Examiner, Art Unit 2834
/ALEXANDER A SINGH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2834