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.
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.
Claim(s) 1,3-12,14,18 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tsals (US Patent # 4,909,088) in view of JP-2003279423 (Teruo et al), see translation. As to claim 1, Tsals discloses an apparatus for mounting a sensor including magnetostrictive torque sensor (10), configured to be mounted around a rotating shaft (12) having a magnetostrictive effect (ferromagnetic) and to detect torque applied to the rotating shaft, comprising: a support member(tube 40) having a cylindrical portion (see fig. 2) through which the rotating shaft (12) is inserted; a flexible substrate (flexible cover sheet 33/34/35) arranged around an outer periphery of the cylindrical portion and having a plurality of coils (inductive coil structure 28) composed of wiring patterns (see fig. 3 showing coils and patterns), see figs. 1-3 and col. 3, lines 44 et seq. Further, it is noted that Tsals lacks a specific teaching for a tightening member that tightens the flexible substrate toward an outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical portion in the form of a heat shrinkable tube that shrinks upon heating. However, there is disclosed mounting structure 36 and securing means 42 that maintains the coil 28 concentrically at a predetermined distance about the shaft 12 and includes a housing 38 and a tube 40 and the means 42 secures the tube and coil structure in the housing 38 and includes a yoke 44 which wraps around the coil structure 28 to fixedly hold it to the tube 40 with an epoxy resin in gap 45, see col. 6, lines 1 et seq. Further, it is indicated that other means such as clamps, screws and pressed fitting can be used. In a related prior art device, Teruo also discloses a magnetostrictive torque sensor including substrate 10, magnetostrictive film 12, coil 16 (par[012]) along with insulating layer 14/20 in the form of a heat shrinkable layer where the stress of the magnetostrictive film is adjusted using the heat shrinkability of the insulating layer, see translation par[007]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have substituted the means for mounting which include tightening yoke 44 such as clamps or pressed fittings or epoxy resin in gap 45 with the heat shrinkable insulating layer 14/20 as disclosed by Teruo et al since Teruo et disclose that the degree of shrinkage can be controlled and the stress can be adjusted by controlling the film thickness to an optimum value, see par[012] and further would be in the form of a tube since the insulating layer is on the coils, see fig. 2 of Tsals showing the tubular cross section. As to claim 3, note the magnetostrictive sheet 16 of Tsals which can be in the form of a strip (as the coil 28 looks when laid flat, fig. 3) which the coils are arranged side by side (see fig 3) and both ends are covered by the tightening member (see fig. 6) and in Teruo et al, note the fig. 4 depiction which shows the coils 16 are covered with insulating layers 14/20 in the form of a heat shrinkable film. As to claim 4, note claim 1 of Tsals indicating an adhesive means for securing the tube and sensor structure in said housing about the shaft. As to claim 5, note the terminal 31 of Tsals showing the protruding part extending in a shortitudinal direction which would inherently be outside of the housing mounting means with a plurality of terminals where the terminals are on the protruding piece which would obviously have a plurality of wires connected to the terminals for connection to the circuitry such that the signal can be measured for torque determination. As to claim 6, although the details are not provided for the cable of wires, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have provided a cable support portion and a fixing portion protrusion for fixing the protruding piece since the terminals 31 would need some form of support and fixing. As to claim 7, note a cover member (yoke 44) constituting a housing space (within as in fig. 6) to accommodate the flexible substrate (33/34/35) between the cylindrical portion of the support member (tube 40), and a sealing member composed of a mold resin (housing 38 with epoxy resin in gap 45) molded to cover at least a portion of each of the support member (40) and the cover member (yoke 44), wherein the cover member(yoke 44) is configured to prevent the mold resin from contacting the flexible substrate (33/34/35 of 28) and as the tightening member (securing means 42 with heat shrink layer 14/20), see fig. 6. As to claim 8, note a method for manufacturing the magnetostrictive torque sensor of Tsals comprising a placing step of placing the flexible substrate around the outer periphery of the cylindrical portion of the support member (bonded about the shaft 12 is a sheet of nonferromagnetic material 14. Bonded about the nonferromagnetic sheet 14 is a sheet of magnetostrictive material 16), and placing the heat-shrinkable tube (Teruo et al insulating layer 14/20) around an outer periphery of the flexible substrate (see par[011-12] of Teruo et al). and a tightening step of tightening the flexible substrate toward the outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical portion by heating the heat-shrinkable tube to shrink the heat-shrinkable tube. As to claim 9, it is noted that it is not specified how the ends of heat-shrinkable tube are bonded to the outer peripheral surface. However, it is noted that some form of securing is required to attach the heat shrink layer to the surface and the usage of an adhesive is old and known for securing such that the inclusion of such and adhesive is considered an obvious matter of design choice of known means of securing. As to claim 10, Teruo et al discloses usage of polyamide resin in par[012]. Further, usage of polyolefin or polyvinyl chloride is considered an obvious variant of heat shrink material based on the usage. As to claim 11, polyamide resin can be translucent. As to claim 12, note that support tube 40 of Tsals is a plastic and most plastics use resin. As to claim 14, note the multilayer structure of the flexible substrate depicted in figs. 3/4 of Tsals. As to claim 18, the thickness of the cover member yoke 44 is considered an obvious matter of design choice based on desired performance characteristics. As to claim 20, the temperatures recited would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing in order to assemble the sensor.
Claim(s) 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tsals in view of Teruo et al as applied to claims 1-12,14,18 and 20 above, and further in view of WO 2021177282 A1, see translation. As to claim 15, Tsals fails to indicate the coils having the +45 and -45 degree inclination. In a related prior art device, WO 2021177282 A1 discloses a detecting circuit 10 of a magnetostrictive torque sensor for detecting torque imparted to a magnetostrictive material 2 which has been subjected to shot peening is provided with a detecting coil 11 provided around the magnetostrictive material 2, and a drive unit 12 for performing AC excitation of the detecting coil 11, where the coils have a +45 and -45 degree inclination, see figs. 3a and 3b. Further, inclusion of the 45 degree orientation would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing in order to incline the angle with respect to the axial direction for enhanced detection.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 13, 16-17, and 19 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1,3-12,14,15,18 and 20 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on the combination of references applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NASHMIYA FAYYAZ whose telephone number is (571)272-2192. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday.
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NF
Examiner
Art Unit 2855
/N.S.F/Examiner, Art Unit 2855
/LAURA MARTIN SWEENEY/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2855
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