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 .
Detail Action
The Applicant has elected Invention I (claims 1-8, 10-16, and 18) drawn to a manufacturing process for a spherical copper powder without travers; Claims 9 and 12 have been cancelled; Claims 23-26 have been withdrawn as non-elected claims; Claims 1-8, 10-16, and 18 remain for Examination, wherein claim 1 is an independent claim.
Claim Objections
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities: the “a.”, “b.”, and “c.” in the instant claim should be amended as “a)”, “b)”, and “c)”, or “a,”, “b,”, and “c,”.
Proper amendment is necessary.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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 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 1-8, 10-16, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tang et al (CN 104874806 A, listed in IDS filed on 7/24/2024, with on-line translation, thereafter CN’806) in view of Zhao et al (CN 101174689 A, listed in IDS filed on 7/24/2024, with on-line translation, thereafter CN’689).
Regarding claim 1, CN’806 teaches a manufacturing process for ultra-low oxygen content copper spherical powder with the process steps (1) preparing superfine copper oxide powder; (2) the superfine copper oxide powder or superfine pure copper powder and carbon powder or mixed with ceramic material powder uniformly, (3) the mixed powder is heated and reduced in a reducing atmosphere and then high-temperature heat treatment and cooling and solidifying into the copper melt, (4) removing the carbon material powder or ceramic material powder to obtain ultra-low oxygen content copper spherical powder. (Abstract and claims of CN’806), which reads on all of the essential process steps including a) mixing a copper oxide powder with a carbon source to obtain a mixture, b) heating to obtain spherical copper powder; and c) separating copper powder from carbon to obtain spherical copper powder as recited in the instant claim. CN’806 provides example to heating the mixture at temperature 650 oC for 30 min. to obtain copper spherical powder. (par.[0022] of CN’806), which reads on the heating parameters as claimed in the instant claim. CN’806 does not specify applying an inert atmosphere as claimed in the instant claim. CN’689 teaches a manufacturing process of micron-level granule Cu-contained material. (Abstract, Fig.2, and claims of CN’689). CN’689 specify forming mixture including oxide of cuprum (CuO or Cu2O) with carbon powder and heating at temperature 800oC under flowing of argon gas atmosphere (working example 3 of CN’689). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to apply an inert atmosphere for obtaining the copper spherical powder from the disclosure of CN’689 in the process of CN’806 since both CN’806 and CN’689 teaches the same manufacturing process to reduce mixture of copper oxide and carbon powder to obtain copper spherical powder as claimed the throughout whole disclosing range.
Regarding claims 2-4, CN’689 provides example with coarse copper powder of 200 meshes as raw material into a tubular furnace, and introducing air, oxidizing 3h to obtain copper oxide powder at 550 ℃, and then by mechanical crushing to 5 microns to 12 microns (par.[0011] and [0021] of CN’689), which reads on the claimed limitations as claimed in the instant claims.
Regarding claims 5-6 and 8, CN’689 provides example to form mixture of copper oxide with 400 nm of graphite powder and ratio of 1:1 to copper oxide, (par.[0021] of CN’806), which reads on the claimed limitations as claimed in the instant claims.
Regarding claims 7 and 10, CN’806 indicates including ceramic material powder including carbide ceramic, boride ceramic, oxide ceramic or nitride ceramic and their mixture powder. (par.[0012] of CN’806), which reads on the claimed optional coke (cl.7) or optional inert ceramic (cl.10).
Regarding claims 11 and 15, CN’806 provides example to heating the mixture at temperature 650 oC for 30 min. to obtain copper spherical powder. (par.[0022] of CN’806), which reads on claimed heating conditions as claimed in the instant claims.
Regarding claim 12, CN’689 specify forming mixture including oxide of cuprum (CuO or Cu2O) with carbon powder and heating at temperature 800oC under flowing of argon gas atmosphere (working example 3 of CN’689).
Regarding claims 13-14, CN’806 indicates the copper/graphite filled with mixed powder of crucible heating zone cooling. soaking copper/graphite mixed powder with water by ultrasonic cleaning to obtain copper micro-sphere (working example 1 of CN’806).
Regarding claims 16 and 18, CN’806 specify that the manufacturing method for spherical copper powder of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, the confirmation can be micron copper metal ball with low oxygen content, the oxygen content of the copper powder is 95 ppm (Figs. and working example 1 of CN’806).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JIE YANG whose telephone number is (571) 270-1884. The examiner can normally be reached on IFP.
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/JIE YANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1734
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