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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. EP23172251.3, filed on 05/09/2023.
Claim Objections
Claims 1, 6 and 7 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 1, line 11, “the adjusting piston” should read --the at least one adjusting piston--.
Claim 6, lines 1, 4 and 5, “the adjusting piston” should read --the at least one adjusting piston--.
Claim 7, line 3, “the adjusting piston” should read --the at least one adjusting piston--.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
Claims 1-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites the limitation “the drilling tool” in line 8. Claim 1 earlier recites “rock drilling tools”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. Examiner suggests amending “the drilling tool” to --a drilling tool of the rock drilling tools-- or amending “rock drilling tools” in line 1 to --a rock drilling tool--.
Claims 2-13 are rejected due to dependency on rejected claim 1.
Claim 8 recites the limitation “the retainer including two gripping jaws”. Claim 1 recites “at least one gripping jaw”. It is not clear if applicant intended to claim --wherein the at least one gripping jaw comprises two gripping jaws-- or it is a different jaw.
Claim 10 recites the limitation “the gripper including one movable gripping jaw movable in relation to a fixed counterpart jaw”. It is not clear if “movable gripping jaw” and “fixed counterpart jaw” are part of the earlier claimed “at least one gripping jaw” or they are different jaws.
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.
Claims 1-5, 7-9, 11 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lassi (AU 2012101626 A4) in view of Quere (US 3312146 A).
Regarding claim 1, Lassi teaches (reproduced and annotated Figs. below) a gripper arranged for handling rock drilling tools (see rock drilling unit in Fig. 1), wherein the gripper comprising: at least one hydraulic cylinder (holding cylinders 41a and 41b) including a body (cylinder), a piston, a piston rod connected to the piston (piston 29), working pressure spaces (pressure spaces 49, 53 for the first hydraulic cylinder 41a; pressure spaces 50, 51 for the first hydraulic cylinder 41b), and a plurality of pressure fluid channels (channels 47, 44 for the first hydraulic cylinder 41a; channels a, 44 for the second hydraulic cylinder 41b) connected to the working pressure spaces for feeding and discharging pressurized hydraulic fluid for moving the piston in a first movement direction and in an opposite, second movement direction (right and left directions); and at least one gripping jaw (42, 42) movable by the hydraulic cylinder towards and away from the drilling tool (drilling tool 8), which is arranged to pass through the gripper,
In device of Lassi hydraulic cylinder actuator is a double action hydraulic cylinder and not a three position hydraulic cylinder.
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Quere teaches a hydraulic actuator with three stable positions. Quere teaches (reproduced and annotated Figs. below) a hydraulic cylinder with at least one adjusting piston (auxiliary pistons 2 and 3) having a first operating position with a first fixed stoppage and a second operating position with a fixed second stoppage, and wherein the adjusting piston is configured to limit movement length of the piston rod at one of the first and second operating positions (see Figs. 1-3 below) to situate the at least one gripping jaw in an intermediate position between extreme movement positions of the at least one gripping jaw.Quere teaches benefits of this hydraulic actuator with three stable positions over double-acting cylinders (col. 1, line 12, col. 2, line 17), including eliminating undesirable elastic effect of springs, obtaining extremely rapid, but controlled time of response to create three stable positions.
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It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before effective filing date of the claimed invention to replace double acting cylinder of Lassi with three position hydraulic cylinder of Quere. Doing so would make the jaws capable of having a third stable position besides fully opened and fully closed positions.
Regarding claim 2, in device of Quere the gripper is provided with three operational modes (extreme in, extreme out and intermediate), wherein each mode has a different protruding length of the piston rod; adding hydraulic cylinder of Quere in rock drilling tool of Lassi: a magnitude of the protruding length of the piston rod is configured to define a position of the at least one gripping jaw in relation to the rock drilling tool being handled.
Regarding claim 3, by replacing three position hydraulic cylinder of Quere with double acting cylinder of rock drilling tool of Lassi:the operational modes of the gripper are an open mode (extreme out), a guiding mode (intermediate), and a gripping mode (extreme in), the piston rod being configured to be moved to an extreme first protruding length in response to selection of the open mode, and to an opposite extreme second protruding length in response selection of the gripping mode, and wherein the piston rod is configured to be moved to an intermediate position between the extreme first and second protruding lengths in response to selection of the guiding mode.
Regarding claim 4, in three position cylinder of Quere the gripper has an idle mode whereby the pressure spaces of the hydraulic cylinder are connected to at least one tank pressure line (see pressure lines 47 and 48 connected to tank 53).
Regarding claim 5, in three position cylinder of Quere the at least one adjusting piston is a sleeve-like piece mounted movably on the piston rod (see auxiliary pistons 2 and 3 with central holes/annular clearances 5 and 6).
Regarding claim 7, in three position cylinder of Quere there are three working pressure spaces in the at least one hydraulic cylinder, and wherein a prevailing pressure is adjustable for moving the piston and for moving a relative position of the piston and the adjusting piston.
Regarding claim 8, in three position cylinder of Quere the gripper is part of a retainer including two hydraulic cylinders mounted on opposite sides in relation to the drilling tool arranged to pass through the retainer, and wherein the piston rod of each of the two hydraulic cylinders face towards each other, the retainer including two gripping jaws, which are mounted to distal ends of both piston rods.
Regarding claim 9, Lassi teaches (reproduced and annotated Figs. above) the gripper is part of a retainer including an articulated lever mechanism (see Fig. 8) configured to transmit movements of the at least one hydraulic cylinder (pressure-medium cylinders 25) to the gripping jaws mounted to lever arms of the lever mechanism.
Regarding claim 11, Lassi teaches (reproduced and annotated Figs. above) a rock drilling unit (1) arranged for drilling holes in rock surfaces (10), the rock drilling unit comprising: a feed beam (3); a rock drilling machine mounted movably on the feed beam (movable parts on top of 3); and a retainer (14) disposed at a front end portion of the feed beam, the retainer being arranged to selectively grip a drilling tool mountable to the rock drilling machine, wherein the retainer includes a gripper (gripper shown in Figs. 9 and 10).
Regarding claim 13, Lassi teaches (reproduced and annotated Figs. above) a method of handling a drilling tool (drilling tool 8) on a rock drilling unit (1), the method comprising: drilling a drill hole in a rock surface (10) by means of the rock drilling unit; gripping the drilling tool by at least one gripping jaw (42, 42) of a gripper as claimed in claim 1, the gripper being mounted on the drilling unit; and moving the at least one gripping jaw in relation to the drilling tool by means of at least one hydraulic cylinder of the gripper (see two hydraulic cylinders above)
As stated in rejection of claim 1 above, in device of Lassi hydraulic cylinder actuator is a double action hydraulic cylinder and not a three position hydraulic cylinder.
Quere teaches a hydraulic actuator with three stable positions. Quere teaches (reproduced and annotated Figs. above) a hydraulic cylinder with at least one adjusting piston (auxiliary pistons 2 and 3) having a first operating position with a first fixed stoppage and a second operating position with a fixed second stoppage, and wherein the adjusting piston is configured to limit movement length of the piston rod at one of the first and second operating positions (see Figs. 1-3 below) to situate the at least one gripping jaw in an intermediate position between extreme movement positions of the at least one gripping jaw.Quere teaches benefits of this hydraulic actuator with three stable positions over double-acting cylinders (col. 1, line 12, col. 2, line 17), including eliminating undesirable elastic effect of springs, obtaining extremely rapid, but controlled time of response to create three stable positions.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before effective filing date of the claimed invention to replace double acting cylinder of Lassi with three position hydraulic cylinder of Quere. Doing so would make the jaws capable of having a third stable position besides fully opened and fully closed positions.
Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lassi in view of Quere and further in view of Riipponen (WO 2010092236 A1).
Regarding claim 12, Lassi teaches (reproduced and annotated Figs. above) a rock drilling unit (1) arranged for drilling holes in rock surfaces (10), the rock drilling unit comprising: a feed beam (3); a rock drilling machine mounted movably on the feed beam (movable parts on top of 3);
Riipponen teaches a drilling rock unit (1) equipped with the claimed rod handler and tool magazine (see Figs. 1-7) “to introduce rods (9, 18) into the center (K) of a rock drilling unit (4) or a bolting device by means of a changing device (13)” (abstract, par. 0001-0016).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before effective filing date of the claimed invention to add rod handler and tool magazine of Riipponen to rock drilling unit of Lassi for automatic loading of rods and bolting devices.
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lassi in view of Quere and further in view of Wase (US 10100592 B2).
Regarding claim 10, Lassi teaches (reproduced and annotated Figs. above) the gripper is part of a rod handler (rod handler comprises percussion device 5 and rotation device 6) arranged for moving (axial and rotational movement of the drill bit) the rock drilling tools to a drilling axis (X) of a rock drilling machine,
In device of Lassi both jaws are movable.
Wase teaches a drilling rock unit (1) equipped with a movable and a fixed jaw for the gripper (Fig. 2; col. 6, line 52-col. 7, line 2).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before effective filing date of the claimed invention to use combination of fixed and movable jaw gripper (which is an equivalent structure known in the art) instead of both movable jaw gripper of Lassi. Therefore, because these two jaw mechanisms were art-recognized equivalents before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, one of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to substitute fixed and movable jaws for both movable jaws.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 6 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MAHDI H NEJAD whose telephone number is (571)270-0464. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7:30am-4pm EST.
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MAHDI H. NEJAD
Examiner
Art Unit 3723
/MAHDI H NEJAD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3723
Prosecution Insights