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 Species A, claims 1-4, in the reply filed on November 3, 2025 is acknowledged.
Claim 5 is withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.
Claim Objections
Claims 1-4 are objected to because of the following informalities: The term “feed” is misspelled as “fee” in claim 1. 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.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cheniuntai (US 2021/0187784) in view of Nikita (US 2016/0361834) and Jantes (US 2020/0197847).
Claim 1: Cheniuntai discloses a system for preparing and feeding a material of a construction 3D printer (abstract). The system includes a housing with two interior cavities (2, 3), a first cavity being a mixing cavity (2) and a second cavity being a feeding cavity (3), the two cavities being connected by a channel for feeding a ready mix (¶ 107), a mixing roller (9) installed in the mixing cavity (2), a feeding roller (10) installed in the feeding cavity (3), wherein the mixing roller is configured to rotate using a drive of the mixing roller (BLDC motor; ¶ 107), wherein the mixing roller is a cylinder with a mixing element and a feeding element being mounted thereon (fig. 1), wherein the feeding roller is configured to rotate using a drive of the feeding roller (BLDC motor; ¶ 107), wherein axes of the mixing roller and the feeding roller are mutually perpendicular (fig. 1), wherein an alternative nozzle (17) with its own drive is installed at an outlet of the feeding cavity (42, the third BLDC motor).
Cheniuntai is silent as to the feeding roller being a gerotor. However, Nikita discloses a system for preparing and feeding a material of a construction 3D printer that includes mixing and feeding cavities and rollers and teaches that either a gerotor or a piston type pump can be used to convey the material (¶ 65). Cheniuntai discloses a progressive cavity pump (rotor-stator positive displacement pum) as the feeding mechanism. Both progressive cavity pumps and gerotor pumps are well-known types of positive displacement pumps using a rotor-stator. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the application to have substituted the progressive cavity pump of Cheniuntai with the gerotor pump of Nikita, since both are art-recognized positive displacement pump alternatives for conveying construction materials, and the substitution of one known type of positive displacement rotor-stator pump for another would have yielded predictable results, namely a metered pumping of mixed construction material through the feeding cavity.
Cheniuntai is also silent as to a cyclone separator. However, in the same field of endeavor of conveying bulk material, Jantes discloses a system including a cyclone separator for use in a pneumatic conveyor system for accurately delivering a wide variety of bulk materials (abstract). As taught by Jantes, using a cyclone separator increases the transfer accuracy of the material (abstract). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the application to have utilized the cyclone separator of Jantes in the system of Cheniuntai in order to increase the transfer accuracy of the material.
Claims 2-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cheniuntai (US 2021/0187784) in view of Nikita (US 2016/0361834) and Jantes (US 2020/0197847), further in view of Meyer (US 4,778,276).
Claims 2-3: Cheniuntai is silent as to the mixing element including blades or pins arranged perpendicular to an axis of the mixing roller. However, Meyer discloses a system for conveying construction material including a cylindrical tubular housing with a driven rotating shaft equipped with radially projecting mixing blades and L-shaped pins (52, 54) for mixing the material (abstract; col. 2, lines 40-65; col. 6, lines 4-24). As taught by Meyer, the blades and pins effectively mix the construction material with liquids. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the application to have included the perpendicular blades of Meyer on the mixing element of Cheniuntai to effectively mix construction materials.
Claim 4: Meyer discloses the feeding element includes two auger flights (screw flights on the shaft as the feeding element to convey material along the housing; col. 2, lines 40-55).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LARRY THROWER whose telephone number is (571)270-5517. The examiner can normally be reached 9am-5pm MT M-F.
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/LARRY W THROWER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1754