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 .
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed on 8/24/2026 has been entered.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I in the reply filed on 8/24/2026 is acknowledged.
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 1-7 and 21-25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over USPAP 2014/0326715 to Zizzo in view of USPAP 2020/0200696 to Linde and USPAP 2001/0035661 to Doshi.
Claim 1, Zizzo discloses a composite panel including at least one electrical grid embedded in a fiber-reinforced polymer, the electrical grid defining an electrical circuit. Zizzo discloses “a composite structure formed of rigid composite material in which particulates or fibres reinforce a polymer matrix,” having “first and second electrically conductive metallic meshes embedded therein, and respective electrodes electrically connected to the meshes” (see entire document including the abstract; [0013]; claim 1). The composite material may be reinforced with continuous fibers, such as carbon fibers ([0021], [0047]). The meshes (upper mesh 11 and lower mesh 12) are embedded in the composite panel, and a current flows to each connected electrical unit “around a circuit which includes the meshes” ([0048], [0050]).
Zizzo further discloses a control system operatively coupled to the electrical grid. Zizzo discloses “a control system arranged to control the power supplied to the embedded mesh” based on an input from a thermometer ([0027]), and discloses that sensors send data signals — conveyed via the meshes of the composite material — to an electronic control unit, such as an engine health monitoring unit ([0034]). Zizzo does not expressly disclose that the control system is configured to detect a break in the electrical circuit of the electrical grid, although Zizzo evidences awareness of the underlying concern, disclosing that its mesh architecture provides improved fault tolerance via “a reduced likelihood of single point (e.g. broken wire) failure” ([0053]). Linde remedies this deficiency. Linde discloses a fiber composite component comprising a plurality of layers of fibers embedded in a matrix material and at least two rupture sensing fibers — carbon fibers having an electrically insulating coating — connected at their ends to electrical connection devices (see entire document including [0005]; claim 1). Linde discloses arranging the rupture sensing fibers in two groups extending in different directions (e.g., at an angle of 90°) so as to form “a grid of rupture sensing fibers” over the component for monitoring its mechanical integrity ([0015], [0036]; claim 5). Linde further discloses a component system comprising an evaluation unit connected to the electrical connection devices and “designed to measure the conductivity of the rupture sensing fibers individually and to generate a warning signal if a conductivity of at least one of the rupture sensing fibers is below a predetermined value,” such that the evaluation unit “is able to detect a rupture or a break by measuring the conductivity of the individual rupture sensing fibers” ([0020]; claim 10). A break in a monitored fiber interrupts the electrical circuit formed by that fiber, detected as a loss of continuity ([0009], [0011]). It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the control system of Zizzo — already operatively coupled to, and in electrical communication via, Zizzo’s embedded conductive mesh/grid — to additionally perform the conductivity-based break-detection function taught by Linde. Zizzo and Linde are both directed to networks of electrically conductive fibers/meshes embedded in fiber-reinforced composite panels for aerospace and vehicular structural components; Zizzo itself identifies broken-conductor failure as a known concern addressed by its mesh architecture ([0053]); and Linde discloses a known, art-recognized technique for detecting exactly this type of failure using a similarly configured embedded conductive-fiber grid. Combining the references thus amounts to applying a known technique (Linde’s continuity/break-detection function) to a known device (Zizzo’s control system and embedded electrical grid) ready for improvement, to yield the predictable result of a break-detection capability, with a reasonable expectation of success.
Zizzo, as modified by Linde, arguably does not expressly disclose that the composite panel forms part of a cargo body but Zizzo clearly discloses that its composite panel “may be for use on a vehicle” generally ([0031]; claim 10), and illustrates the panel principally in the context of a gas turbine engine and associated aircraft structure ([0004]–[0011], [0060]–[0068]). Doshi discloses that it was known to construct the body of a cargo vehicle from fiber-reinforced plastic with an embedded, electrically conductive element. Doshi discloses “[a] receptacle for a cargo vehicle comprising, in combination, a pair of sidewalls, a front wall, a bottom panel joining said sidewalls and said front wall,” the receptacle “made of a fiber reinforced plastic, at least a portion of said plastic material including dispersed electrically conductive material” (see entire document including claim 1; [0032]). Doshi further discloses an embodiment in which an open mesh fabric containing dispersed conductive material (e.g., carbon black or carbon fibers) is bonded to the FRP panel of the cargo receptacle to provide a conductive medium across the panel ([0044]–[0046]), and states that this FRP cargo-receptacle construction is “equally suited for and intended for use in other cargo hauling ... applications” generally ([0052]). It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to construct the composite panel of Zizzo, as modified by Linde, as, or as part of, a cargo body — e.g., a sidewall, floor, or front wall of a cargo receptacle as taught by Doshi — because Zizzo already discloses that its embedded-mesh composite panel is broadly suited for use on a vehicle without limitation to any particular vehicle type; because Doshi establishes that FRP cargo-vehicle receptacle walls and floors with an embedded, electrically conductive element were already known and were expressly recognized as suitable across cargo-hauling vehicle types generally; and because doing so constitutes nothing more than the use of a known composite-panel-with-embedded-conductive-grid structure for its known purpose in a known and analogous vehicle-body application, yielding the predictable result of a cargo body having an embedded electrical grid.
Claim 2, Zizzo discloses that “[t]he composite structure may further include a power source, such as a battery or generator, which supplies electrical power to the electrodes and can thereby power the electrical unit” ([0025]), and discloses power source 7 (e.g., a battery or generator) supplying “electrical power to the units 5 via the further electrodes 10 and the meshes 11, 12,” such that “[a] current I ... flows to each unit around a circuit which includes the meshes” ([0050]; see also claim 6). Zizzo’s electrical unit 5 corresponds to the claimed “electrical component,” and meshes 11, 12 correspond to the claimed “electrical grid” configured to distribute power from the power source to the electrical component.
Claim 3, Zizzo discloses that the first and second meshes “are electrically isolated from each other in the composite material so that the meshes can be held at different electrical potentials to each other” ([0014]), with a potential difference between the meshes in the range of 1 to 48 V ([0024], [0052]), and that each electrical unit 5 has an electrode 6 electrically bridging the relatively higher-potential mesh and the relatively lower-potential (return) mesh ([0048]–[0049]). Under the broadest reasonable interpretation, and in light of Zizzo’s disclosure that the composite material’s reinforcing fibers may themselves be electrically conductive carbon fibers arranged in layers together with the meshes ([0021], [0047]), Zizzo’s electrically isolated, oppositely biased conductive meshes read on the claimed “negative conductive fiber and a positive conductive fiber of the electrical grid.”
Claim 4, Zizzo discloses that “[o]n an engine there are a number of sensors, actuators and electronic units that require electrical power,” that “sensors may need to send data signals to an electronic control unit (e.g. a FADEC electronic engine control or an engine health monitoring unit),” and that “[s]ome of these signals can conveniently be sent via the meshes of the composite material” ([0034]). Zizzo further discloses a thermometer providing input to a control system ([0027]).
Claim 5, Zizzo discloses that the sensor may be “a thermometer (of any suitable form, such as a thermocouple or thermistor, for example)” ([0027]).
Claim 6, as discussed above with respect to claim 4, Zizzo discloses that sensor signals “can conveniently be sent via the meshes of the composite material” to the electronic control unit ([0034]), i.e., the electrical grid is configured to communicate a signal from the sensor to the control system.
Claim 7, Linde discloses this feature. As discussed above, Linde’s rupture sensing fibers are arranged in two groups extending in different directions (e.g., perpendicular to one another) so as to form a grid ([0015], [0036]). Linde discloses that its evaluation unit is “designed to locate a potential rupture by providing an identification of a detected broken rupture sensor fiber into the warning signal,” and that an “association table” may be stored “in which geometric information are associated with individual rupture sensing fibers,” a process that “may also be conducted for the grid arrangement with a first group of rupture sensing fibers with a first direction of extension and a second group of rupture sensing fibers with a second direction of extension” ([0021]). Linde further illustrates this two-axis localization: when a break occurs, it interrupts one fiber from the first (e.g., horizontally extending) group and one fiber from the second (e.g., vertically extending) group, “which allows to at least roughly estimate the location of the break” along both axes ([0037]; see also [0043], locating a break to a particular layer and position). For the same reasons discussed above with respect to claim 1, it would have been obvious to incorporate Linde’s two-axis break-localization functionality into the control system of the Zizzo/Linde/Doshi combination, so that the control system identifies a horizontal location and a vertical location of the break, as claimed.
Claim 21, the combination of Zizzo, Linde, and Doshi discloses each element of claim 21, for the reasons discussed above with respect to claim 1 (cargo body; composite panel with embedded electrical grid; see [0013], [0031], [0047]–[0050]; Doshi claim 1, [0032], [0044]–[0046], [0052]) and claim 2 (power source; electrical component in communication with the power source; grid configured to distribute power; Zizzo [0025], [0050]), and further discloses a control system and a sensor in communication with the control system, as discussed above with respect to claim 1 and claim 4 (Zizzo [0027], [0034]). With respect to the grid being configured as claimed, Zizzo discloses distributing power from the power source to the electrical component ([0025], [0050]) and communicating a signal from the sensor to the control system ([0034]). Accordingly, this limitation is met without resort to Linde’s puncture/break-detection teaching; Linde’s teaching (discussed above with respect to claim 1) remains applicable and is relied upon below with respect to claim 24, which specifically requires the puncture-detection function.
Claim 22, see the discussion of claim 3 above (Zizzo [0013], [0021], [0024], [0047]–[0049], [0052]), which applies equally to claim 22.
Claim 23, see the discussion of claim 5 above (Zizzo [0027]), which applies equally to claim 23.
Claim 24 depends from claim 21 and requires that the electrical grid’s “detecting a puncture” function (one of the three alternative functions recited in claim 21) be selected, and that the control system identify a horizontal and a vertical location of that puncture. Linde discloses this feature. As discussed above with respect to claim 1 and claim 7, Linde discloses that a rupture or break in a monitored fiber of the grid — the same physical phenomenon as a “puncture” through the composite, i.e., localized fiber breakage resulting from an external force — is detected by the evaluation unit via a loss of fiber conductivity ([0009], [0011], [0020]), and that the two-directional grid arrangement of rupture sensing fibers, together with the evaluation unit’s use of a stored geometric association table, allows the evaluation unit to identify the location of the break along both the first (e.g., horizontal) and second (e.g., vertical) directions of fiber extension ([0021], [0036]–[0037], [0043]). For the same reasons discussed above with respect to claim 1 and claim 7, it would have been obvious to incorporate Linde’s puncture/break-detection and two-axis localization functionality into the electrical grid and control system of the Zizzo/Doshi combination, so that the control system identifies a horizontal location and a vertical location of the puncture, as claimed.
Claim 25, Zizzo discloses that its composite panel comprises a rigid composite material in which continuous fibers, such as carbon fibers, reinforce a polymer matrix ([0013], [0021], [0047]), i.e., a fiber-reinforced polymer layer. Doshi likewise discloses fiber- and fiberglass-reinforced plastic (FRP) embodiments of its cargo-vehicle receptacle panel (Doshi, claim 1; [0047]–[0050]), providing an additional, independent basis for this limitation in the context of the cargo-body combination discussed above with respect to claim 1.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANDREW T PIZIALI whose telephone number is (571)272-1541. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 7am-5pm.
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/ANDREW T PIZIALI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1789
