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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I, claims 1-17, in the reply filed on 04/08/2026 is acknowledged.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 01/08/2025, 05/07/2025 and 08/28/2025 have been considered by the examiner.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-5 and 10-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu et al. (US 2023/0085248) in view of Fan (US 2022/0331881).
Regarding claim 1, Liu teaches coated cutting tools which include a substrate and a coating adhered to the substrate comprising a polycrystalline α-alumina deposited by chemical vapor deposition (Paragraph [0004]). The coatings may have a texture coefficient (TC) of greater than 6 for the (006) growth direction and greater than 5 for the (0012) direction with identical formulas to that of claim 1 (Paragraphs [0006]-[0016]).
Liu is silent with respect to the alumina layer having a length of ∑3 type grain boundaries as measured by EBSD of more than 0% but less than 10% of the total length of all grain boundaries.
Fan teaches coated cutting tools (Paragraph [0001]). The tools include a substrate and an alumina layer (Paragraph [0011]). The alumina layers are formed such that the length of ∑3 grain boundaries being 1% to 10% of the total length of all grain boundaries in order to allow for the increase in the proportion of random grain boundaries having relatively high grain boundary energy and facilitate nucleation of the grain boundaries (Paragraphs [0050]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing of the invention to form the alumina coatings of Liu to have a length of ∑3 grain boundaries being 1% to 10% of the total length of all grain boundaries in order to allow for the increase in the proportion of random grain boundaries having relatively high grain boundary energy and facilitate nucleation of the grain boundaries as taught by Fan.
Regarding claim 2, Liu teaches the tools as discussed above with respect to claim 1. As discussed above, the length of ∑3 grain boundaries being 1% to 10% of the total length of all grain boundaries.
Regarding claim 3, Liu teaches the tools as discussed above with respect to claim 1. As discussed above, the length of ∑3 grain boundaries being 1% to 10% of the total length of all grain boundaries.
Regarding claim 4, Liu teaches the tools as discussed above with respect to claim 1. As discussed above, the TC for the (006) direction is greater than 6.
Regarding claim 5, Liu teaches the tools as discussed above with respect to claim 4. As discussed above, the TC for the (0012) direction is greater than 5.
Regarding claim 10, Liu teaches the tools as discussed above with respect to claim 1. Liu further teaches at least 5% of all grain boundaries having a misorientation angle of less than 15 degrees (Paragraph [0004]).
Regarding claim 11, Liu teaches the tools as discussed above with respect to claim 10. As discussed above, Liu further teaches at least 5% of all grain boundaries having a misorientation angle of less than 15 degrees, overlapping with the claimed ranges.
Regarding claim 12, Liu teaches the tools as discussed above with respect to claim 11. As discussed above, Liu further teaches at least 5% of all grain boundaries having a misorientation angle of less than 15 degrees, overlapping with the claimed ranges.
Regarding claim 13, Liu teaches the tools as discussed above with respect to claim 1. The alumina layer may have a thickness of 1 to 20 microns (Paragraph [0047]).
Regarding claim 14, Liu teaches the tools as discussed above with respect to claim 1. The alumina layers may have a residual stress of 20 to 400 MPa (Paragraph [0047]).
Regarding claim 15, Liu teaches the tools as discussed above with respect to claim 1. The tools may further have an inner layer between the substrate and the alumina layer formed from one or more metallic elements selected from the group consisting of aluminum and metallic elements of Groups IVB, VB and VIB of the Periodic Table and one or more non-metallic elements selected from Groups IIIA, IVA, VA and VIA of the Periodic Table (Paragraph [0048]).
Regarding claim 16, Liu teaches the tools as discussed above with respect to claim 15. As discussed above, the inner layers may be formed from one or more metallic elements selected from the group consisting of aluminum and metallic elements of Groups IVB, VB and VIB of the Periodic Table and one or more non-metallic elements selected from Groups IIIA, IVA, VA and VIA of the Periodic Table.
Regarding claim 17, Liu teaches the tools as discussed above with respect to claim 1. The substrates may be formed from cemented carbide having a metallic binder in an amount of 1 to 15 weight percent (Paragraph [0018]).
Claims 6-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu et al. (US 2023/0085248) in view of Fan (US 2022/0331881) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Engqvuist et al. (US 2020/0306837).
Regarding claim 6, Liu teaches the tools as discussed above with respect to claim 1.
Liu is silent with respect to the alumina layer comprising columnar grains.
Engqvuist teaches a CVD coated cutting tool which includes an alumina layer and having improved crater wear resistance (Paragraph [0001]). The alumina layers may be provided with columnar grains having a width of 0.5 to 2 microns (Paragraph [0017]-[0018]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing of the invention to form the alumina layers of Liu to have columnar grains with widths of 0.5 to 2 microns providing improved wear resistance as taught by Engqvuist.
Regarding claims 7-9, Liu teaches the tools as discussed above with respect to claim 6. As discussed above, the grains of the alumina layers have widths from 0.5 to 2 microns.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANIEL P DILLON whose telephone number is (571)270-5657. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri; 8 AM to 5 PM.
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/DANIEL P DILLON/Examiner, Art Unit 1783
/MARIA V EWALD/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1783
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