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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 8 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Thiara (US 2012/0262018 A1) in view of Tracy (US 2012/0286572 A1).
Re Claim 1: Thiara teaches a battery powered turbine generator system (see fig.1 para 0046-0047), the system comprising: one or more rechargeable deep cycle batteries for providing a predetermined voltage to a low voltage motor (see 13, 15, Fig. 1, Para 0046-0047, 0050) a battery power supply including multiple batteries electrically connected to supply voltage to DC motor 15 through a controller, the low voltage motor connected to a DC speed controller for controlling the operating voltage generated by the low voltage motor (see controller 17, 15, Fig. 1, Para 0047-0048, 0050) connected between the battery supply and the DC motor to regulate operation of the motor.
, the low voltage motor being connected to a belt drive for driving one or more direct drive turbine motors (see 21, 23, 27, 28, Figs. 1, 3–5B, Para 0052, 0059-0060), the one or more turbine motors being connected to a combiner box to accept the voltage from the one or more turbine motors (see 27 feeding common electrical output line, Fig. 1, Para 0052–0054) Thiara discloses that the AC outputs of alternators 27-1 t0 27-4 are rectified to DC, and that the four alternators taken together produce 96 V DC at 280 A; their outputs are fed via line 29 into battery power supply 13, each alternator being used to recharge two of the batteries 13-1 to13-8; while Thiara does not disclose a discrete “combiner box,” the rectified outputs of the multiple alternators are functionally collected into the battery power supply, which serves as the common DC reservoir.
Thiara doesn’t expressly teach the combiner box being connected to an inverter to configure the voltage for power distribution.
In an analogous art Tracy teaches the combiner box being connected to an inverter to configure the voltage for power distribution (see 32, 34, 30 fig.1 para 0015, 0022) an inverter connected within the power system to condition electrical power and provide power to a load.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to use the inverter-based power conditioning arrangement of Tracy in the invention of Thiara to configure electrical power generated by multiple mechanically driven generators for distribution, thereby providing predictable power conversion and delivery using known inverter technology.
Re Claim 2, Combination of Thiara and Tracey teaches invention set forth above, Tracy further teaches the system of claim 1 wherein the power is configured for grid connected power distribution (see 10 may be connected existing electric panel para 0023).
Re Claim 3, Combination of Thiara and Tracey teaches invention set forth above, Thiara further teaches wherein the power is configured for off-grid power distribution (see 42 external load para 0044, 0063).
Re Claim 8, Combination of Thiara and Tracey teaches invention set forth above, Combination further teaches further comprising a first three direct drive turbine motors connected in series via a first belt drive, and a second three direct drive turbine motors connected in series via a second belt drive (see 15,25, 28, 27-1 to 27-4g. 1, Fig. 2-3, Paras 0051-0053) Tracy teaches motor 20 driving a shaft 48 and clutch assembly 26, which, by means of at least one drive belt 44, turn one or more alternators 28; multiple alternators may be provided depending on the amount of power required by the user (see Fig. 2-5, Paras 0019-0021) Both references disclose belt driven multi generator arrangements from a single motor shaft.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to arrange the turbine motors of claim one as a first three on a first belt drive and a second three on a second belt drive, as recited, using the flexible multi generator belt arrangements suggested by Thiara and Tracy.
Re Claim 8, Combination of Thiara and Tracey teaches invention set forth above, Thiara further teaches wherein the first belt drive and the second belt drive are each connected to the low voltage drive motor (see Fig. 1, Fig. 2–3, Paras 0051–0053).
Claim(s) 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Thiara (US 2012/0262018 A1) in view of Tracy (US 2012/0286572 A1) further in view of Walton (US 5097194).
Re Claim 4, Combination of Thiara and Tracey teaches invention set forth above, combination doesn’t expressly teach comprising a 3-phase bridge rectifier connected to each of the one or more turbine motors.
In an analogous art Walton teaches comprising a 3-phase bridge rectifier connected to each of the one or more turbine motors (see 14 fig.6 col.3 lines 14-29) 16, 60, 86 output for each generator 16, 58, 84 supplying battery charger 24.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to provide 3 phase bridge rectifier connected to each turbine motor/generator of Walton in the system of Thiara and Tracy to rectify electrical output of each turbine motor/generator before supplying to dc system thereby allowing independent conversion of multiple generator outputs into stable DC.
Claim(s) 5 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Thiara (US 2012/0262018 A1) in view of Tracy (US 2012/0286572 A1) further in view of Walton (US 5097194) further in view of Jhang (US 2007/0284886 A1).
Re Claim 5, Combination of Thiara, Tracey and Walton teach invention set forth above, combination doesn’t expressly teach further comprising a digital power multimeter connected to each of the one or more turbine motors.
In an analogous art Jhang teaches further comprising a digital power multimeter connected to each of the one or more turbine motors (see 12, 13, 16, 17, 18 fig.1 para 0010-0011).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to provide per generator monitoring arrangement of Jhang in the multi generator system of Thiara Tracy and Walton to individual measure the output parameters of each motor/generator thereby allowing monitoring and diagnostics.
Re Claim 10, Combination of Thiara and Tracey teaches invention set forth above, combination doesn’t expressly teach wherein each of the first three direct drive turbine motors and each of the second three direct drive turbine motors are each connected to a corresponding digital power multimeter and to a corresponding 3-phase bridge rectifier.
In an analogous art Jhang further teaches each of the second three direct drive turbine motors are each connected to a corresponding digital power multimeter (see 12, 13, 16, 17, 18 fig.1 para 0010-0011).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to provide per generator monitoring arrangement of Jhang in the multi generator system of Thiara Tracy and Walton to individual measure the output parameters of each motor/generator thereby allowing monitoring and diagnostics.
In an analogous art Walton further teaches wherein each of the first three direct drive turbine motors and each of the second three direct drive turbine motors are each connected to a corresponding 3-phase bridge rectifier (see 14 fig.6 col.3 lines 14-29) 16, 60, 86 output for each generator 16, 58, 84 supplying battery charger 24.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to apply the per-generator output conversion arrangement taught by Walton and the multi generator system of Thiara, Tarcy and Jhang so that each turbine motor/generator independently provides rectified DC output and measurable electrical parameters, thereby allowing individual conversion and monitoring of generator performance with predictable system control and charging behavior.
Claim(s) 6 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Thiara (US 2012/0262018 A1) in view of Tracy (US 2012/0286572 A1) further in view of Sinha et al (US 2004/0139689 A1).
Re Claim 6, Combination of Thiara and Tracey teaches invention set forth above, combination doesn’t expressly teach further comprising a fused safety switch connected to the inverter.
In an analogous art Jhang FURTHER teaches further comprising a fused safety switch connected to the inverter (see 508, 510 fig.5 para 0026)
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to use the inverter connected safety disconnect arrangement of Sinha in the multi generator system of Thiara and Tracy to provide isolation of the inverter output for maintenance and emergency conditions and provide safety.
Re Claim 7, Combination of Thiara, Tracey and Sinha teach invention set forth above, Sinha further teaches further comprising a utility meter connected to the fused safety switch (see 508, 510, 512 fig.5 para 0026)
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to use the utility meter connection arrangement of Sinha in the inverter-based system of system of Thiara and Tracy so that electric energy supplied through the safety disconnect may be measured prior to delivery to the utility grid, thereby providing predictable energy accounting and safe grid interconnection for inverter-based power system.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Aqeel H Bukhari whose telephone number is (571)272-4382. The examiner can normally be reached M-F (9am to 5pm).
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/AQEEL H BUKHARI/Examiner, Art Unit 2836
/Menatoallah Youssef/SPE, Art Unit 2849