DETAILED ACTION
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
2. The specification, the abstract and the drawings are all acceptable.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
3. 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 of this title, 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.
4. Claims 1-2, 10-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over USPN 10,951,152 to Hayashi, and in view of USPN 10,128,739 to Mori.
As to claim 1, Hayashi teaches a power converter (fig. 1: “10 – power conversion apparatus”) that supplies alternating current power to a motor (fig. 1: “5”) that drives a load(col. 2: lines 65 – col. 3: lines 9), the power converter comprising: a converter (fig. 1: “11”) that rectifies a power supply voltage applied from an alternating current power supply(fig. 1: “6”); a capacitor (fig. 1: “C”) connected to an output end of the converter(fig. 1: “11”); an inverter (fig. 1: “13”) connected across the capacitor(fig. 1: “C”); and control circuitry(fig. 1: “40”) that controls an operation of the inverter(col. 4: lines 23-29), wherein the control circuitry performs first control of reducing vibration of the load (col. 8: lines 62-67).
Hayashi does not teach an apparatus to perform second control of reducing a ripple component of a capacitor output current that is output from the capacitor to the inverter and the second control is control of causing a loss in the motor.
Mori teaches an apparatus to perform second control of reducing a ripple component of a capacitor output current (col. 14: lines 51-54) that is output from the capacitor (fig. 1: “3”) to the inverter (fig. 1: “4a”) and the second control is control of causing a loss in the motor(col. 18: lines 43-51 wherein the motor system loss is controlled by reducing a ripple component of a capacitor output current).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the teachings of Mori into Hayashi since Hayashi suggests a motor control system and Mori suggests the beneficial use of reducing a ripple component of a capacitor output current for a motor control system in the analogous art of motor control technology.
The motivation for this comes from the fact that Mori teaches an apparatus of reducing a ripple component of a capacitor output current for a motor control system which can be used to improve the motor control system disclosed by Hayashi.
As to claim 2, Hayashi in view of Mori teaches the power converter according to claim 1, wherein the first control is performed using a torque current(Hayashi col. 9: lines 43-50), and the second control is performed using an excitation current(Mori col. 18: lines 43-51 wherein the “activation current” is equivalent to the excitation current).
As to claim 10, Hayashi in view of Mori teaches a motor drive apparatus comprising the power converter (Hayashi fig. 1: “10”) according to claim 1.
As to claim 11, Hayashi in view of Mori teaches a refrigeration cycle applied apparatus comprising the power converter (Hayashi fig. 1: “10”) according to claim 1.
Allowable Subject Matter
5. Claims 3-9, 12-13 are objected to as being dependent upon the rejected base claim 1, but could be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claims and any intervening claims for the following reasons: No prior art of record discloses the features as claimed in the noted claims.
6. The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter. The non-obvious features are:
In comparison with the closest prior art as cited in this Office action and any previous Office actions, no prior art of record discloses the following features as claimed in the following claim limitations:
As per claim 3: The control circuitry controls to cause the loss in the motor in a first period in which motor power, which is power supplied from the inverter to the motor, is lower than a set power value.
As per claim 6: The control circuitry controls to cause the loss in the motor in a first period in which a torque current compensation value for reducing the vibration of the load has a negative value.
As per claim 9: Command value generation circuitry that generates an excitation current command value on the basis of the torque current or the excitation current; and current compensation circuitry that generates an excitation current compensation value for reducing the ripple component, and the excitation current compensation value is superimposed on the excitation current command value.
Conclusion
7. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
USPN 10,439,542 to Taniguchi discloses a motor control system.
8. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DAVID S LUO whose telephone number is (571)270-5251. The examiner can normally be reached 8AM-5PM.
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/DAVID LUO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2846