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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 05/17/2024 has been considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
The claims are objected to because they include reference characters which are not enclosed within parentheses.
Reference characters corresponding to elements recited in the detailed description of the drawings and used in conjunction with the recitation of the same element or group of elements in the claims should be enclosed within parentheses so as to avoid confusion with other numbers or characters which may appear in the claims. See MPEP § 608.01(m).
Claim 11 objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 11, line 8, “pump supply pressure PSP” should read --pump supply pressure (PSP)--
Claim 11 line 7 “load sensing pressure LSP” should read --load sensing pressure (LSP)--
to properly establish the abbreviation in an analogous manner to the previous recited “load sensing pressure (LSP)” in claim 1.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 11 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 11 recites the limitation " the sensed load sensing pressure LSP" in lines 6-7. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 11 recites the limitation, “the pump supply pressure” in line 6, and " the pump supply pressure PSP" in lines 7-8. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claims 12-20 are indefinite because they depend from an indefinite base claim.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-5, 10-15, 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kamada (US 6308516).
Kamada discloses:
1. (Currently Amended) A control system for controlling a hydraulic supply system on a mobile machine, wherein the hydraulic supply system includes a pump supply (2) for supplying a pressurized fluid to a plurality of consumers (3, 4) carried by the mobile machine (99);
the control system comprising at least one controller (30, 9, 10, 11) configured to: receive, from a pressure sensor (12, 13, 14, 15) of a load sensing system associated with at least one of the consumers, a pressure signal (load pressure signal is “x” in Figures, “load pressure signal “x” in Col. 5 lines 41-45, “load pressure PL” in Col. 8 lines 38-52, “load pressure x” in Col. 14 lines 24-28, etc.) indicative of a sensed load sensing pressure (LSP) associated with the at least one of the consumers;
determine whether the LSP is rising or falling; and
compute and generate a control signal for regulating a pump supply pressure provided by the pump supply in dependence on the sensed LSP; wherein the at least one controller is configured to dampen a control system response to changes in the LSP, and
wherein the at least one controller is configured to apply different damping characteristics when the LSP is rising than when the LSP is falling (Col. 12 lines 20-36 discloses two different operating modes when a quantity of state x increases and a quantity of state x decreases, wherein x is the load pressure;
see Col. 9, 12, 14, 15 discloses the controller 30 having the load sensing pressure x as an input which adjusts the pump 2 response suppressing/damping, etc.).
2. (Currently Amended) The control system of claim 1, wherein the at least one controller is configured to dampen the control system response to changes in the LSP only when the LSP is falling, such that the control system response to changes in the LSP is undamped when the LSP is rising (Col. 14-15 discloses “when raising the boom”…”and so pump response is not suppressed”…the detection signal of the boom pressure sensor 12 does not change the pump response is not suppressed and the detection signal of the boom pressure sensor 12 does not change which indicates undamped control).
3. (Currently Amended) The control system of claim 1, wherein the at least one controller is configured to dampen the control system response to changes in the LSP more strongly when the LSP is falling than when the LSP is rising (Col. 12, 14 discloses damping, PSP is left undamped/is not adjusted when LSP is rising, therefore the adjustment of PSP in response to when LSP is falling is more strongly than when the LSP is rising).
4. (Currently Amended) The control system of claim 1, wherein the at least one controller is configured to dampen the control system response to changes in the LSP by applying a digital low pass filter (Col. 10 lines 28-30 discloses low frequency low-pass component of the input value (quantity of state) x is obtained as X(n)).
5. (Currently Amended) The control system of claim 4, wherein the low pass filter is a first order filter (Col. 10 lines 28-30 discloses low frequency low-pass component of the input value (quantity of state) x is obtained as X(n), absent further limitations Kamada’s system meets the limitation of a first order filter as resistance and capacitance are used in the filter).
10. (Currently Amended) A mobile machine comprising a hydraulic supply system including a pump supply (2) for supplying a pressurized fluid to a plurality of consumers (3, 4) carried by the mobile machine and a control system (30, etc.) for controlling the hydraulic supply system as claimed in claim 1.
11. (Currently Amended) A method of controlling a hydraulic supply system on a mobile machine, wherein the hydraulic supply system includes a pump supply for supplying a pressurized fluid to a plurality of consumers carried by the mobile machine, the hydraulic supply system comprising an electronic load sensing (E-LS) system, the E-LS system configured to adjust the pump supply pressure in dependence on the sensed load sensing pressure LSP, wherein the method comprises dampening adjustment of the pump supply pressure PSP in response to changes in the LSP, and wherein the method comprises applying different damping characteristics depending on whether the LSP is rising or falling (see claim 1 rejection for similar claim limitation mapping and discussion).
12. (Currently Amended) The method of claim 11, further comprising dampening adjustment of the PSP in response to a falling LSP and leaving adjustment of the PSP undamped in response to a rising LSP (see claim 2 rejection for equivalent limitation mapping and discussion).
13. (Currently Amended) The method of claim 11, further comprising dampening adjustment of the PSP in response to changes in the LSP more strongly when the LSP is falling than when the LSP is rising (see claim 3 rejection for equivalent limitation mapping and discussion).
14. (Currently Amended) The method of claim 11, wherein the method comprises dampening adjustment of the PSP in response to changes in the LSP by applying a digital low pass filter (see claim 4 rejection for equivalent limitation mapping and discussion).
15. (Currently Amended) The method of claim 14, wherein the low pass filter is a first order filters (see claim 5 rejection for equivalent limitation mapping and discussion).
20. (New) The mobile machine of claim 10, wherein the plurality of consumers comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of a consumer on the mobile machine and an implement attached to the mobile machine (see claim 10 rejection for equivalent limitation mapping and discussion).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 6-9 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.
Claims 16-19 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
The prior art does not appear disclose nor render obvious the limitations of claim 6 or 16 in combination with their base claim limitations.
Claims 7-9 and 17-19 are allowable because they depend from allowable claim 6 or 16.
Conclusion
The art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Cheng et al. (US 12025158) discloses a hydraulic system with a load sensing system that electronically controls a variable pump and includes a low-pass filter in the control
Lingenfelter et al. (US 9759212) discloses a hydraulic system with electronic load sense control wherein as load sense pressure is increased, dampening increases in the system
Baldus et al. (US 6033188) discloses a hydraulic system with a pump with load sensing control such that increased damping is applied to the control system near the standby or minimum displacement condition
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/DUSTIN T NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3745 October 9, 2025