DETAILED ACTION
This is the first office action on the merits with reference to the above identified patent application filed on 08 July 2024. Claims 1 – 8 are pending and currently being examined.
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
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 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(s) 1 and 5 – 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lin (Chinese Patent CN 211777940 U, Machine Translation provided) in view of Ning (Chinese Patent CN 215566444 U, Machine Translation provided).
In Re Claim 1, Lin discloses a high-pressure diaphragm compressor (Translation, Page 1, Line 5; Figure 3), wherein the high-pressure diaphragm compressor comprises a gas-side diaphragm head (1, 17) and an oil-side diaphragm head (2) which are sequentially disposed in an axial direction; a diaphragm (15) and an oil distribution disc (not labeled, it is located axially between 15 and 2 in Figure 3) are disposed between the gas-side diaphragm head (1, 17) and the oil-side diaphragm head (2), the diaphragm (15) and the oil distribution disc (not labeled, it is located axially between 15 and 2 in Figure 3) are clamped between the gas-side diaphragm head (1, 17) and the oil-side diaphragm head (2)(Translation, Page 5, Lines 21 – 25), and a gas-side diaphragm cavity (“air cavity”) and an oil-side diaphragm cavity (“oil cavity”) are respectively formed between the diaphragm (15) and the gas-side diaphragm head (1,17) as well as between the diaphragm (15) and the oil distribution disc (not labeled, it is located axially between 15 and 2 in Figure 3)(Translation, Page 5, Lines 28 – 29); an oil cylinder hole (inside 16) is provided in the oil-side diaphragm head (2), a piston (not labeled; Translation, Page 8, Line 1) is disposed in the oil cylinder hole (Translation, Page 3, Lines 47 – 49).
Lin does not disclose that the piston may be separated from the piston rod.
However, Figures 1 – 3 of Ning discloses a piston rod (3) disposed below the piston (2); and an upper end of the piston rod (3) abuts onto a lower end of the piston (2) and the piston (2) may be separated from the piston rod (3)(Translation, Page 1, Lines 32 – 33), and a lower end of the piston rod (3) is connected with a compressor crank-connecting rod mechanism (5; Translation, Page 3, Lines 18 – 19).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed the invention to connect the piston of Lin detachably to a connecting rod as taught by Ning for the purpose of reducing the influence of the manufacturing and installation errors of the piston, the cylinder where the piston is located, the piston rod and the power part of the piston rod, and ensuring smooth operation under low manufacturing precision (Translation of Ning, Page 2, Lines 16 – 18).
In Re Claim 5, the combined references above disclose all the limitations of Claim 1, and Ning discloses that the piston (2) is a piston ring seal structure (23; Figure 1; Translation, Page 4, Lines 18 – 19).
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Annotated Figure 3 of Lin
In Re Claim 6, the combined references above disclose all the limitations of Claim 1, and Lin discloses that an oil cylinder sleeve mounting cavity (see black shaded rectangle in the annotated figure above) is disposed in the oil-side diaphragm head (2), an oil cylinder sleeve (16) is disposed in the oil cylinder sleeve mounting cavity, and an inner hole of the oil cylinder sleeve (16) forms the oil cylinder hole (in which the piston reciprocates to move the oil – Translation, Page 8, Lines 14 – 16).
In Re Claim 7, the combined references above disclose all the limitations of Claim 1, and Figure 3 of Lin discloses that the gas-side diaphragm head (1, 17) comprises a gas-side cylinder cover (1) and a gas distribution disc (17), the gas distribution disc (17) is located below the gas-side cylinder cover (1) as depicted, the diaphragm (15) and the gas distribution disc (17) are clamped between the gas-side cylinder cover (1) and the oil distribution disc (not labeled, it is above 2 and below 15), and the gas-side diaphragm cavity (“air cavity”) and the oil-side diaphragm cavity (“oil cavity”) are respectively formed between the diaphragm (15) and the gas distribution disc (17) as well as between the diaphragm (15) and the oil distribution disc (not labeled, it is above 2 and below 15).
Claim(s) 2 – 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lin (Chinese Patent CN 211777940 U, Machine Translation provided) in view of Ning (Chinese Patent CN 215566444 U, Machine Translation provided) and further in view of Taite (US Patent 2,959,131 A).
In Re Claims 2 and 4, Lin and Ning disclose all the limitations of Claim 1, but they do not disclose an oil supplementing pipeline.
However, Taite discloses a hydraulic-side diaphragm cavity (16; Figures 1, 2) that is connected with a low-pressure oil pump (“separate feed pump”; a pump capable of pumping water is also capable of pumping oil and does not structurally distinguish over the prior art) through an fluid supplementing pipeline (the means that supplies “makeup” fluid); the low-pressure oil pump can adjust a fluid supplementing amount according to a pressure in the oil-side diaphragm cavity (one skilled in the art would appreciate that when there is leakage – the pressure goes down, when the makeup fluid is supplied – the pressure goes back up); and a one-way valve (“a non-return valve”) is disposed on the oil supplementing pipeline, and an opening (inlet to the non-return valve) of the one-way valve faces the low-pressure oil pump (since the fluid flows from the pump through the non-return valve), wherein an energy accumulator (“hydraulic accumulator operating at 2000 p.s.i.”) is further disposed on the oil supplementing pipeline; and the energy accumulator is located between the one-way valve and the low-pressure oil pump (since the fluid flows from the pump through the accumulator and the non-return valve) (Column 2, Lines 21 – 28).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed the invention to add a fluid supplementing pipeline comprising a low-pressure oil pump, an energy accumulator and a one-way valve as taught by Taite to the oil-side diaphragm cavity of Lin / Ning for the purpose of providing makeup oil in the event of leakage.
In Re Claim 3, the combined references above disclose all the limitations of Claim 2, and although Ning does not specifically disclose the type of pump, the claimed pumps are well known in the art.
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed the invention to incorporate the well-known claimed pumps as the broadly disclosed pump of Ning in the apparatus of Lin / Ning because it is only a matter of substituting a broadly disclosed pump with a specifically disclosed pump, therefore the results of the substitution are predictable (MPEP 2141, Section III, Rationale B).
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lin (Chinese Patent CN 211777940 U, Machine Translation provided) in view of Ning (Chinese Patent CN 215566444 U, Machine Translation provided) and further in view of Adams (PG Pub US 20210148352 A1).
In Re Claim 8, Lin and Ning disclose all the limitations of Claim 1, but they do not disclose an overflow valve / pipeline.
However, Figure 2 of Adams discloses an oil-side diaphragm cavity (23) that is connected to an overflow valve (34) through an oil overflow pipeline (33)(paragraphs [0112], [0124]). Note that Adams also discloses an oil supplementing pipeline (5, 38).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed the invention to add the overflow pipeline / valve as taught by Adams to the oil-side diaphragm cavity of Lin / Ning for the purpose of providing protection in the event of an overpressure emergency.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DNYANESH G KASTURE whose telephone number is (571)270-3928. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Thu, 7:30 AM to 6:00 PM.
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/D.G.K/Examiner, Art Unit 3746
/ESSAMA OMGBA/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3746