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 § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claims 1-2 and 4-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Gutjahr et al. (“Gutjahr”; US 2014/0139061).
Regarding claim 1: Gutjahr discloses an electric machine (2, Fig. 1) comprising a stator (46) and a conductor support (32) arranged at an axial end of the stator, wherein the conductor support comprises a ring-shaped sealing section (34) and a conductor support section (36), wherein the sealing section has a first seal (38) axially facing the stator and a second seal (40) axially facing away from the stator, and wherein the first seal is in contact with a sealing element (26) arranged on the stator and sealing the stator against a radially adjacent air gap (56), and at least sections of the second seal (40) are in contact with at least one cover (18) that at least partially surrounds at least one of the conductor support section (36) and the axial end (7) of the stator (as shown in Fig. 1).
Regarding claim 2: Gutjahr discloses the second seal (40) is one of:
in contact with a cover element (18) covering the conductor support section and at least a section of the axial end of the stator (see Fig. 1); and
in contact with a section of the cover element surrounding the conductor support section and with at least one section of at least one of a housing and a bearing shield of the electric machine.
Regarding claim 4: Gutjahr discloses the first seal (38) and the second seal (40) are at least one of ring-shaped and arranged in a-respective ring-shaped grooves of the sealing section (paragraph 0053, “depression”).
Regarding claim 5: Gutjahr discloses the first seal and the second seal are O-rings (paragraph 0053).
Regarding claim 6: Gutjahr discloses at least one of the conductor support section and the sealing section consists of an electrically insulating plastic material (in this case the sealing section is a plastic material, paragraph 0053).
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 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gutjahr, in view of Meyer et al. (“Meyer”; EP 1 271 747 A1, English translation attached).
Regarding claim 3: Gutjahr discloses the stator has at least one stator winding (inherent), but does not explicitly disclose wherein a wet space is sealed at the axial end of the stator via the sealing element and the sealing section of the conductor support, and wherein the stator windings and at least one conductor arranged on the conductor support are disposed within the wet space.
However, Meyer discloses a wet space (2’, Fig. 1) is sealed at the axial end of the stator via the sealing element and the sealing section of the conductor support, and wherein the stator windings and at least one conductor arranged on the conductor support are disposed within the wet space (as shown in Fig. 1, second to last full paragraph of page 3 of the English translation).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the stator of Gutjahr to have the wet space of Meyer in order to adequately cool the components.
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gutjahr, in view of Stallone et al. (“Stallone”; US 2013/0069458).
Regarding claim 9: Gutjahr discloses the conductor support section (36), but does not explicitly disclose the conductor support section has at least one phase connection.
However, Stallone discloses disclose the conductor support section (10, paragraph 0038) has at least one phase connection (11, Fig. 1).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the conductor support section of Gutjahr to have the phase connection of Stallone in order to allow multiphase power to be output.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7 and 8 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.
The prior art of record, alone or in combination does not explicitly teach, suggest, or render obvious, at least to the skilled artisan the electric machine of claim 7, specifically comprising:
the conductor support section has a plurality of radially adjacent receiving sections, and wherein at least one busbar is arranged in each of the receiving sections, in the context of the other components in the claim.
Claim 8 is allowable due to its dependency on claim 7.
The prior art of record, alone or in combination does not explicitly teach, suggest, or render obvious, at least to the skilled artisan the conductor support of claim 11, specifically comprising:
a conductor support section extending radially outward from the ring-shaped sealing section and configured to support at least one busbar of the electric machine, in the context of the other components in the claim.
Claims 12-19 are allowable due to their dependency on claim 11.
Conclusion
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/SEAN GUGGER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2834