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 Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 11/18/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Regarding the argument that paragraph [0048] provides definiteness and clarity to the clause, “wherein the polypropylene foam is exposed at a rear end of the blade trailing edge”.
The Examiner has reproduced paragraph [0048] below,
“On the one hand, in the embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 3A and 3B, foam 260a is caused to flow inside a mold in a direction from main body portion 230 toward the rear end of blade trailing edge 240 during the hot-pressing, and a part of foam 260a is discharged
from the rear end of blade trailing edge 240 to the outside of blade 200(outside sheet 250a), as in the description for step 2 below. From the viewpoint of reducing the amount of the part of foam 260a, which becomes unnecessary for the formed blade 200 due to this discharge, the following configuration is preferred: the shape of foam 260a when viewed in the vertical direction is smaller than the shape of blade 200, in particular, the width of the
foam260a in the front-rear direction (width of blade 200 in the moving direction) at a part thereof to become blade trailing edge 240 is smaller than the width ("X" in FIG. 3A) of blade trailing edge 240 to be formed.”
The Examiner respectfully notes that the specification only details that, “foam 260a is caused to flow inside a mold in a direction from main body portion 230 toward the rear end of the blade trailing edge 240 during the hot-pressing, and a part of foam 260a is discharged” and merely requires that foam is discharged during the process and does not require the foam to be “exposed at a rear end of the blade trailing edge” and still renders the claim unclear.
Regarding the argument JP ‘518 does not teach “a polypropylene that is fiber-reinforced”
The Examiner respectfully notes that JP ‘518 in paragraph [0020] “As the matrix resin used for the CFRP which is the skin material 2, a thermosetting resin or a thermoplastic resin can be used.” and goes on to teach specific materials. Additionally, JP ‘518 teaches in paragraph [0021] that, “As the core material 3, it is necessary to use a porous resin body having a bulk density smaller than that of the skin material 2 in order to achieve weight reduction while maintaining rigidity. The porous resin body has a structure in which the main component is made of resin and a large number of voids are provided inside the structure. The void may be a foamed foaming agent, or a syntactic core containing many hollow glass beads. As the resin, a thermosetting resin, a thermoplastic resin, or the like can be used.” and gives examples of what JP ‘518 consider to be “a thermosetting resin or thermoplastic resin” to include polypropylene. A person of ordinary skill in the art would know that a thermoplastic resin can be used in the carbon fiber reinforced resin and that JP ‘518 further indicates that polypropylene is a thermoplastic resin and should be considered as a suitable material for said carbon fiber reinforced resin as well as the core material as claimed by the applicant.
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 is 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, "wherein the polypropylene foam is exposed at a rear end of the blade trailing edge." It is unknown what the applicant considers to be 'exposed' as it relates to the structure of the blade itself; exposed only appears in the specification in 84 "Each resin-embedded blade was cut to expose its cross section, and the exposed cross section was roughly polished by using TEGRAMIN-20 polisher...' which is a reference to a testing scheme and not the actual structure of the blades (see 182-198)". Additionally, the Examiner notes that in Fig. 2B, 3B, 4B, and 5B the blade trailing edges are closed, and therefore renders the claim unclear to a person of ordinary skill in the art.
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.
Claims 1-2, 5-7, and 9-11 (as well as they are understood by the Examiner) are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kang et al. (KR 201800667765 A) in view of JP 5228518 B2 (JP ‘518).
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Regarding claim 1, Kang et al. discloses a blade (100) comprising:
a main body portion (see annotated Fig. 3 above); and a blade trailing edge (102) that is thinner than the main body portion (Fig. 3) and integrally formed with a rear end (The blade is one piece construction) of the main body portion, wherein
the trailing edge includes a skin material (102a, 102b) and a core material (101), the skin material containing a resin that is fiber-reinforced ([0006] "Phenolic resin propeller", [0040] "carbon fiber skin"), the core material containing a foam ([0040] "the core material 101, which is a foam material") filing an inside of the skin material (Fig. 3).
However, Kang et al. does not explicitly disclose "a polypropylene that is fiber-reinforced" or "a foam of a polypropylene"
JP '518 teaches in the field of fiber-reinforce resin composites, "As the matrix resin used for the CFRP which is the skin material 2, a thermosetting resin or a thermoplastic resin can be used.", "The porous resin body has a structure in which the main component is made of resin and a large number of voids are provided inside the structure. The void may be a foamed foaming agent, or a syntactic core containing many hollow glass beads. As the resin, a thermosetting resin, a thermoplastic resin, or the like can be used. For example, as the thermosetting resin, there are epoxy resin, phenol, unsaturated polyester resin, vinyl ester resin, etc., and as the thermoplastic resin. Polyolefin resins such as polypropylene, polyurethane resins [0019]" (emphasis added)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the fiber-reinforced blade of Kang et al. to have the matrix resin be a polypropylene that is fiber reinforced and the foam material to be polypropylene, as both references are in the same field of endeavor, and one of ordinary skill would appreciate that the polypropylene material is suitable as both the matrix resin ([0018]) and the foam core material [0019]; additionally one of ordinary skill would appreciate the art recognized suitability for an intended purpose of the polypropylene material taught by JP '518 (see MPEP 2144.06).
Regarding claim 2, the combination of Kang et al. and JP '518 teach all of claim 1 as above,
wherein the blade trailing edge has a thickness of 0.3 mm or more and 10.0 mm or less (Kang et al., Fig. 3, [0031]; Fig. 3 shows the trailing edge thickness as 4 sheets, each sheet is 0.19 mm, and therefore the trailing edge thickness is 0.76 mm).
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Kang et al. and JP '518 teach all of claim 1 as above,
wherein in a difference between the melting point of the thermoplastic resin contained in the skin material and a melting point of the polypropylene constituting foam in the core material is within 10°C (the Examiner notes that the fiber-reinforced blade created by the combination of Kang et al. and JP '518 have both a polypropylene skin and a polypropylene core, and therefore have the same melting point).
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Kang et al. and JP '518 teach a flying object (Kang et al.; 10, Fig. 1) comprising the blade according to claim 1 as above.
Regarding claim 7, Kang et al. discloses a method for producing a blade (100), the blade including a main body portion (See annotated Fig. 3 above), and a trailing edge (102) that is thinner than the main body portion and integrally formed with a rear end of the main body portion (See annotated Fig. 3 above), a skin material (102a, 102b) containing the fiber-reinforced resin ([0040]), and a foam filling inside of the skin material (See Fig. 3, [0040]).
However, Kang et al. does not explicitly teach, "a fiber-reinforced polypropylene" "a polypropylene foam" or "configured to hold the polypropylene foam from a top and bottom of the polypropylene foam; and forming the blade including the trailing edge by hot-pressing the polypropylene foam and the fiber-reinforced polypropylene, wherein the blade trailing edge of the formed blade includes a skin material and a core material, the skin material containing the fiber-reinforced polypropylene, the core material containing the polypropylene foam filing an inside of the skin material."
JP '518 teaches in the field of fiber-reinforce resin composites, "As the matrix resin used for the CFRP which is the skin material 2, a thermosetting resin or a thermoplastic resin can be used.", "The porous resin body has a structure in which the main component is made of resin and a large number of voids are provided inside the structure. The void may be a foamed foaming agent, or a syntactic core containing many hollow glass beads. As the resin, a thermosetting resin, a thermoplastic resin, or the like can be used.. For example, as the thermosetting resin, there are epoxy resin, phenol resin, unsaturated polyester resin, vinyl ester resin, etc., and as the thermoplastic resin.. Polyolefin resins such as polypropylene, polyurethane resins [0019]" (emphasis added)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the fiber-reinforced blade of Kang et al. to have the matrix resin be a fiber-reinforced polypropylene and the foam material to be polypropylene, as both references are in the same field of endeavor, and one of ordinary skill would appreciate that the polypropylene material is suitable as both the matrix resin ([0018]) and the foam core material [0019]; additionally one of ordinary skill would appreciate the art recognized suitability for an intended purpose of the polypropylene material taught by JP '518 (see MPEP 2144.06).
JP '518 further teaches, "The above-described fiber reinforced resin wind turbine blade can be easily obtained at low cost by using the following molding die and manufacturing method. [0020]" which includes, "As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the molding die of the first aspect does not have the parting line 9 at the position where the cavity molds the blade leading edge 4. The parting line 9 is a step formed at the joint between the mold part and the mold part, that is, a parting line of the mold. As shown in FIG. 4, when the cavity has a parting line at the position where the blade leading edge is formed, when the upper and lower molds are closed and pressure molded, The skin material of the windmill blade is sandwiched (engaged) with the matrix resin at the joint of the mold parts, and after molding, it is formed as a burr on the surface of the windmill blade. Since burrs contain reinforcing fibers of the skin material, when removing burrs, the possibility of cutting the reinforcing fibers is very high. In particular, in the case of a molded product having a sandwich structure composed of a skin material and a core material, the core material is often molded by applying a compression force, and the skin material is more easily sandwiched. [0021]", and "As long as the wind turbine blade of the present invention can be manufactured, any of prepreg method (hot press method, autoclave method, etc.), resin injection method (resin transfer molding, RTM), filament wind method, pultrusion method, hand layup method, etc. [0029]"
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to manufacture the blade created by Kang et al. and JP '518 with the method as taught by JP '518, as both references are in the same field of endeavor, and one of ordinary skill would appreciate that, "The above-described fiber reinforced resin wind turbine blade can be easily obtained at low cost by using the following molding die and manufacturing method. [0020]".
Regarding claim 9, the combination of Kang et al. and JP '518 teach all of claim 7 as above. wherein, in the preparing, the prepared fiber-reinforced polypropylene foam has a decreased width in a front-rear direction of the blade trailing edge (Kang et al., Fig. 3 where the foam core follows an aerodynamic profile and decreases in width towards the trailing edge).
Regarding claim 10, the combination of Kang et al. and JP '518 teach all of claim 7 as above,
wherein: in the preparing, the prepared fiber-reinforced polypropylene has a shape such that the fiber-reinforced polypropylene extends and becomes larger at a front of the main body portion (Kang et al., Fig. 3 wherein the foam core follows an aerodynamic profile and is larger towards the front of the main body); and
in forming, the hot pressing is performed after a front of the extending fiber-reinforced polypropylene is wrapped around a front corner of the polypropylene foam (Kang et al., Fig. 3; there are no seams on the front portion of the fiber-reinforced polypropylene, and is therefore wrapped around there).
Regarding claim 11, the combination of Kang et al. and JP '518 teach all of claim 1 as above,
wherein the polypropylene foam is exposed at a rear end (Kang et al., Fig. 3; the Examiner notes that the blade of Kang et al. is 'exposed' in cross section in the same manner as disclosed in [0084] of the immediate specification) of the blade trailing edge.
Claim 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kang et al. and JP '518 as applied to claim 7 above, and further in view of Hayashida et al. (JP 2012071805 A).
Regarding claim 8, the combination of Kang et al. and JP '518 teach all of claim 7 as above.
However, the combination of Kang et al. and JP '518 do not teach or suggest, "wherein, in the forming, a surplus of the thermoplastic resin foam is allowed to flow in such a way that the surplus is discharged through a rear end of the blade trailing edge rather than through a front end of the main body portion, the thermoplastic resin foam being caused to flow the by hot-pressing"
Hayashida et al. teaches, in the field of molding thermoplastics, using a resin discharge tank and suction pump (not shown) to draw out supplied thermosetting resin and discharge the excess into the resin discharge tank [0030].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the method of creating a propeller blade as taught by Kang et al. and JP '518 to use the resin discharge tank and suction pump as taught by Hayashida et al. to "draw out the air originally present in the cavity 20a and create a vacuum state in the cavity 20a, or to draw out the supplied thermosetting resin composition and discharge the excess into the resin discharge tank [0030]."
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/R.C.C./Examiner, Art Unit 3745
/COURTNEY D HEINLE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3745