DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claims 1-14 are pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
Claim 14 recites limitation “A computer program comprising computer program code, …”. A computer program per se, is not directed to one of the statutory categories, Gottschalk v. Benson, 409 U.S. at 72, 175 USPQ at 676-77. See MPEP § 2106(I).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1-3 and 13-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Masuch et al (X-ray Inspection Battery Cell, 2022) in view of Fujimaki (US20230236139A1).
Regarding claim 1, Masuch teaches a method for determining a position of electrode sheets in an electrode/separator assembly (ESA),
(Masuch, Figs. 3, 4; "the goal is to develop an online 100% X-ray inspection of the AC overhang of a large-format ESC for automotive applications after the stacking process", [Section 4.1, p9]; "an atline CT in the corner region of the ESC is an established method to measure the relative, safety-critical anode-cathode (AC) overhang", [Section 3.2, p6]; Masuch discloses a method for determining positions of electrode sheets, anodes and cathodes, in an assembled ESC (electrode-separator compound), which is the claimed ESA. The method uses X-ray/CT measurements to determine electrode positions and AC overhang, squarely teaching the preamble)
the electrode sheets including at least two components, namely a substrate and a bilateral coating of the substrate,
(Masuch, Fig. 3; "The anode is a copper foil coated on both sides with graphite. The cathodes consist of an aluminum substrate coated on both sides with lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxides.", [Section 4.1, p9]; anode sheets as a copper foil substrate with graphite bilateral coating, and cathode sheets as an aluminum substrate with LNMC bilateral coating => the claimed two-component structure. Fujimaki; Fig. 3; "each of the positive electrode sheets 21 includes a positive electrode foil 22 made of aluminum, and positive electrode layers 23 a and 23 b having the same thickness, which are formed one on each side of the positive electrode foil 22 ... each of the negative electrode sheets 25 includes a negative electrode foil 26 made of copper, and negative electrode layers 27 a and 27 b having the same thickness, which are formed one on each side of the negative electrode foil 26", [0030]; the substrate (electrode foil) and bilateral coating (electrode layers on each side) structure for both types of electrode sheets)
the electrode sheets comprising at least one first and one second type of electrode sheets, the method comprising:
(Masuch, Fig. 3; "The ESC with a height of approx. 10 mm is built up from 62 separators, 31 anodes and 30 cathodes ... The anode is a copper foil coated on both sides with graphite. The cathodes consist of an aluminum substrate coated on both sides with lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxides.", [Section 4.1, p9]; two types of electrode sheets: anodes (first type) and cathodes (second type), both present in the ESC. Fujimaki; "positive electrode sheets 21 and negative electrode sheets 25 are stacked alternately with separators 29 interposed therebetween", [0029]; this confirms the two-type structure: positive electrode sheets (first or second type) and negative electrode sheets (the other type))
optically imaging each electrode sheet, at least in regions, in one or multiple image regions;
(Masuch; "A camera is often used in the process to measure the position of the electrodes inline after they have been deposited.", [Section 3.2, p5-6]; "camera-based optical methods are used to determine coating defects on the surface", [Section 3.1, p5]; during the stacking process, a camera, i.e., an optical imaging device, is used inline to image electrode sheets to measure their position after deposition. This directly teaches optically imaging electrode sheets during or before assembly)
determining at least one region of a geometry of the substrate and at least one region of a geometry of the bilateral coating of the substrate based on the optical image;
(Masuch; "A camera is often used in the process to measure the position of the electrodes inline after they have been deposited.", [Section 3.2, p5-6]; " The quality of the cut edges is a quality criterion and is conventionally determined inline by inline optical methods", [Section 3.1, p5]; optical/camera methods are used to determine geometric properties (position, cut edge quality) of electrode sheets; given Masuch's explicit disclosure of the electrode sheet as a substrate with bilateral coating (Fig. 3; "The anode is a copper foil coated on both sides with graphite. The cathodes consist of an aluminum substrate coated on both sides with lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxides.", [Section 4.1, p9]), determining the geometry of both the substrate and its bilateral coating from optical images is rendered obvious. Fujimaki further teaches that both components (foil and layers) are recognized as distinct geometric regions of each electrode sheet (Fig. 3, [0030]), motivating separate geometric determination of each)
indexing each electrode sheet so that an assignment of each electrode sheet and the geometries determined therefor from the optical images in the ESA take place;
(Masuch; "the completeness can also be checked by tracking the electrodes in the stacking process and subsequently measuring the thickness of the entire ESC.", [Section 4.4, p13]; tracking/indexing individual electrode sheets during the stacking process, i.e., maintaining an assignment between each electrode sheet and its position in the ESC. "Tracking the electrodes in the stacking process" functionally corresponds to indexing each sheet so that its identity and geometries are assignable in the assembled ESA. The formal step of recording and assigning optically-determined geometries to each indexed sheet is an obvious extension of Masuch's tracking concept to a person having ordinary skill in the art)
stacking the electrode sheets to form an ESA;
(Masuch; "In the stacking process the ESC is built up.", [Section 3.2, p5]; "It is initially manufactured using a single-sheet stacking process.", [Section 4.1, p9]; stacking electrode sheets (anodes, cathodes, separators) to form an ESC, the claimed ESA. Fujimaki; "positive electrode sheets 21 and negative electrode sheets 25 are stacked alternately with separators 29 interposed therebetween", [0029]; this further confirms the stacking step)
computed-tomographically capturing at least one of the two components of the electrode sheets of the first type in the ESA and at least one of the two components of the electrode sheets of the second type in the ESA in a computed-tomographic image;
(Masuch; Fig. 4; "an atline CT in the corner region of the ESC is an established method to measure the relative, safety-critical anode-cathode (AC) overhang.", [Section 3.2, p5]; "The CT is performed with an accelertion voltage of 200 kV… A total of 8280 images are taken and a scan time of around 28 min is needed. The resolution is 25 μm voxel.", [Section 4.2, p10]; "the copper substrate and not the graphite coating is responsible for the absorption of the radiation.", [Section 4.4, p12]; COMMENTS: CT of the assembled ESC captures electrode data for both anodes (first type: the copper substrate component is CT-captured) and cathodes (second type). The copper substrate dominating X-ray absorption for anodes confirms the substrate (one of the two anode components) is captured by CT. Fujimaki; "analyzing the power storage device by X-ray CT analysis using irradiation of an X-ray to obtain an X-ray absorbed amount at each of a plurality of positions in the power storage device", [0007]; "a large X-ray absorbed amount is obtained at each position of the positive electrode layers of the positive electrode sheets, so that the peak appears clearly", [0014]; Fujimaki teaches CT of the assembled battery (ESA), and that the positive electrode coating (electrode layers, i.e., the coating component of the second type/cathode) is CT-captured with a large, clear absorbed-amount peak)
determining a geometry of the particular captured component, at least in regions, based on the computed-tomographic image;
(Masuch, Fig. 4c; "The position of the electrode edges is analyzed in various slice planes and merged into a linear function. By intersecting each electrode edge in the x0- and y0-directions, the relative vertices are calculated.", [Section 4.2, p10]; determining the geometry (edge position, vertices, spatial extent) of the CT-captured electrode components from the CT image. Fujimaki, Figs. 5-6; " identifying a foil position of an electrode foil through which the specific imaginary line passes ", [Abstract]; "fitting to determine an approximate curve that changes to fit a change in the on-path X-ray absorbed amount in a fitting region… estimating the foil position of the single electrode foil from the on-path position corresponding to the single peak", [0007]; determining the geometry (foil position) of the CT-captured electrode foil components from the CT absorbed-amount data, reinforcing this limitation)
aligning the particular geometries from the optical images with the geometries of the electrode sheets in the ESA determined from the computer-tomographic image; and
(Masuch, Fig. 7f; "The measurement data from CTs and coordination radiographies are directly compared ... This relative comparison of the measurement results from the CTs and coordination radiography results in a summed measurement accuracy of ±50 μm ± 15 μm = ±65 μm.", [Section 4.4, p14]; comparing and aligning measurement data obtained from optical/radiographic imaging with data obtained from CT of the same assembled ESC, the geometric data from two imaging modalities are registered to each other. Extending this comparison/alignment to pre-stacking optical image geometries aligned with post-stacking CT geometries (using Masuch's own tracking/indexing concept, "the completeness can also be checked by tracking the electrodes in the stacking process and subsequently measuring the thickness of the entire ESC.", [Section 4.4, p13]) would be obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, especially since Masuch already uses both camera imaging and CT on the same sample)
determining a position of the substrate of each electrode sheet and its bilateral coating, the position of non-captured components in the computed-tomographic image being determined from the aligned geometries of the optical image, so that a position of all components of the electrode sheets of the ESA is determined in the ESA.
(Fujimaki; "foil positions dnf (e.g., dnf 1 to dnf 7) of the negative electrode foils 26, having a different polarity from the positive electrode foils, are each estimated. Specifically, based on a pair of the foil positions dpf (e.g., a pair of the foil position dpf 1 and the foil position dpf 2) identified on adjacent two of the positive electrode foils 22, a foil position dnf (e.g., dnf 1) of the negative electrode foil 26 located between those adjacent positive electrode foils 22 is estimated.", [0039]; "it may be relatively difficult to identify the negative electrode foil position of the negative electrode foil, e.g., sandwiched between two negative electrode layers, from the positions of the negative electrode layers of the negative electrode sheet at which the X-ray absorbed amount is detected as a small value.", [0015]; the core principle: positions of non-CT-visible electrode components are determined from supplemental data about CT-visible components. Fujimaki uses CT-captured foil positions to estimate the non-visible foil positions. Using the richer and more precise pre-stacking optical geometry data (which captures all components, including those invisible to CT, as taught by Masuch's camera imaging) to determine non-captured component positions is an obvious refinement over Fujimaki's approach, achieving full positional determination of all electrode sheet components in the ESA)
In summary, Masuch discloses that in CT imaging of the assembled ESC, "the copper substrate and not the graphite coating is responsible for the absorption of the radiation", [Section 4.4, p12], for anodes, and that "inner cathode edges are only visible with low contrast", [Section 4.4, p12], leaving the graphite coating of anodes and the aluminum substrate of cathodes not clearly captured in CT. Fujimaki addresses exactly this type of problem (low CT visibility of certain electrode components), disclosing that CT-invisible electrode foil positions can be estimated from CT-captured component positions.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate the teachings of Fujimaki into the system or method of Masuch in order to achieve full determination of all electrode sheet component positions in the assembled ESC, including those components not clearly captured by CT. The combination is further motivated by Masuch's own teaching of camera inspection during stacking and CT of the assembled ESC, and Masuch's suggestion of "tracking the electrodes in the stacking process", [Section 4.4, p13], making the formal use of pre-stacking optical geometry data aligned with post-stacking CT data a logical and predictable extension. The combination of Masuch and Fujimaki also teaches other enhanced capabilities.
Regarding claim 2, the combination of Masuch and Fujimaki teaches its/their respective base claim(s).
The combination further teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein, in the case of electrode sheets of the first type, the coating of the electrode sheet is not captured by computed tomography, and in the case of electrode sheets of the second type, the substrate is not captured by computed tomography.
(Masuch, Fig. 6; "the copper substrate and not the graphite coating is responsible for the absorption of the radiation.", [Section 4.4, p12]; for the first type (anode = copper foil + graphite coating), the coating (graphite) is NOT responsible for CT absorption, i.e., the graphite coating is NOT captured by CT, while the substrate (copper) IS captured). Fujimaki, Figs. 3-4; "each of the positive electrode layer 23 a and 23 b includes a positive active material containing transition metal elements, such as LiNi⅓Co⅓Mn⅓O2, and thus has a higher X-ray absorption coefficient than the positive electrode foil 22.", [0030]; "a large X-ray absorbed amount is obtained at each position of the positive electrode layers of the positive electrode sheets, so that the peak appears clearly", [0014]; for the second type (cathode/positive electrode sheet = aluminum foil + LiNi-oxide coating), the coating (positive electrode layers) has HIGHER X-ray absorption than the aluminum substrate (foil) => the coating IS captured clearly by CT. By contrast, the aluminum foil substrate has lower absorption and is not distinctly captured, exactly teaching that for second-type electrode sheets, the substrate is NOT captured by CT)
Regarding claim 3, the combination of Masuch and Fujimaki teaches its/their respective base claim(s).
The combination further teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein each electrode sheet has the bilateral coating in an active region, and the substrate of the electrode sheets being uncoated at least in a contacting region.
(Masuch; "The anode is a copper foil coated on both sides with graphite. The cathodes consist of an aluminum substrate coated on both sides with lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxides.", [Section 4.1, p9]; "After building the ESC, the arrester tabs are welded to the single electrodes using the welding process.", [Section 3.2, p6]; Masuch teaches bilateral coating (coated on both sides) of electrode sheets, i.e., the "active region", and implies the existence of uncoated contacting regions (arrester tabs/electrode tabs that are welded, which by well-known battery manufacturing practice are uncoated portions of the substrate foil, constituting the "contacting region"). Fujimaki similarly teaches electrode sheets with layers on both sides of the foil (Fig. 3, [0030]), consistent with a bilateral coating in the active region)
Regarding claims 13 and 14, the combination of Masuch and Fujimaki teaches
a computer configured to control the components of the system via interfaces and to carry out the method according to claim 1.
(Masuch, Fujimaki, see comments on claim 1)
The combination further teaches:
... a system for determining quality and process parameters of an ESA, the system comprising:
(Masuch; "a novel X-ray inspection method is presented below using AC overhang as an example", [Section 4, p9]; “electrode-separator compound (ESC)”, [Section 1, p2]. Masuch describes the development of an inspection system for determining AC overhang quality parameters of assembled ESC/ESA)
an optical capture unit configured to take optical images of electrode sheets from a first side and a second side of the electrode sheet;
(Masuch; "A camera is often used in the process to measure the position of the electrodes inline after they have been deposited.", [Section 3.2, p5-6]; an inline camera unit for optical imaging of electrode sheets during the stacking process. Imaging from multiple sides (both sides of the electrode) is obvious for determining geometry of a bilateral coating)
an ESA stacking device configured to stack the electrode sheets to form an ESA, the system being configured to index each electrode sheet so that an assignment of each electrode sheet from the optical images in the ESA takes place;
(Masuch; "It is initially manufactured using a single-sheet stacking process.", [Section 4.1, p9]; "the completeness can also be checked by tracking the electrodes in the stacking process", [Section 4.4, p13]; a single-sheet stacking process device and tracking/indexing of electrode sheets during stacking)
a computer-tomographic imaging device configured to generate a three-dimensional image of the ESA stack;
(Masuch, Fig. 4; "The CT is performed with an accelertion voltage of 200 kV… a scan time of around 28 min is needed. The resolution is 25 μm voxel.", [Section 4.2, p10]; a CT system is used to generate 3D image data of the assembled ESC stack. Fujimaki similarly teaches " An X-ray CT analyzer XCT, which is used for determination of foil positions and calculation of inter-foil distances in the battery 10, includes, as shown in FIG. 2 , an X-ray source SX that emits X-rays in a conical shape from an X-ray focal point SXO, an X-ray detector DX that detects the X-rays emitted from the X-ray source SX, and a turntable RB rotatable around a rotation axis AX to rotate an object to be inspected, i.e., the battery 10 in the present example, which is placed on the turntable RB", [0026])
Claim(s) 6 and 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Masuch et al (X-ray Inspection Battery Cell, 2022) in view of Fujimaki (US20230236139A1) and further in view of Jung et al (US20220214164A1).
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Masuch and Fujimaki teaches its/their respective base claim(s).
The combination does not expressly disclose but Jung teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein a position of a blunt edge of the electrode sheet in the ESA is determined for each electrode sheet, at least on the basis of the aligned geometries of the optical image, the blunt edge corresponding to an edge of the electrode sheet opposite the contacting region.
(Jung, Figs. 3-4; "The low lighting unit 40 may irradiate light to a separator 11 that forms the bottom surface of the electrode assembly 10 to project the internal electrode 13 laminated in the form of a sandwich between the two separators 11 to the separator 11. A boundary line of the internal electrode, which is hidden by the separator, may be seen on an upper surface of the separator due to the lower lighting unit 40.", [0044]; "the control unit 50 may measure a distance d2 between one end of the internal electrode 13 and one end of the upper electrode 15 on the basis of the transmitted image information. The distance d2 may be a distance that is measured in a width direction. Also, a distance d3 may be measured in a length direction.", [0045]; back-illumination from the low lighting unit projects the full boundary line of the internal electrode including the edge opposite the electrode tab (=> the claimed "blunt edge") through the separator to the top camera. The control unit then measures "one end of the internal electrode" in both width (d2) and length (d3) directions from the optical image. The length-direction end "opposite the contacting region" => “the blunt edge”)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate the teachings of Jung into the modified system or method of Masuch and Fujimaki in order to determine blunt edge positions from the aligned optical image geometries of each electrode sheet. The combination of Masuch and Fujimaki and Jung also teaches other enhanced capabilities.
Regarding claim 9, the combination of Masuch and Fujimaki teaches its/their respective base claim(s).
The combination Masuch, Fujimaki and Jung teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the position of the transitional edge comprises a position of the transitional edge for a first side of the bilateral coating and a second position of the transitional edge for a second side of the bilateral coating of the electrode sheet, the first and the second position of the transitional edge being determined at least on the basis of the aligned geometries of the optical image.
(Jung, Figs. 1-4; "a camera unit disposed above a central portion of the electrode assembly ... and a side lighting unit obliquely irradiating light onto each of both ends of the upper electrode", [0010]; "a low lighting unit disposed below the electrode assembly to irradiate light onto a bottom surface of the electrode assembly", [0011]; "The low lighting unit 40 may irradiate light to a separator 11 that forms the bottom surface of the electrode assembly 10 to project the internal electrode 13 laminated in the form of a sandwich between the two separators 11 to the separator 11.", [0044]; optical imaging uses simultaneous top-side illumination (side lighting units, revealing the upper surface => “first side of the bilateral coating” geometry) and bottom-side illumination (lower lighting unit projecting through the separator, revealing the lower surface => “second side of the bilateral coating” geometry), both captured in a single camera image from above. With this two-sided optical capture, the transitional edge position can be separately resolved for the first side (top illumination) and the second side (bottom back-illumination projection) of the bilateral coating. It would be obvious to incorporate Jung into Masuch and Fujimaki in order to determine the transitional edge positions for both sides of the bilateral coating from optical images)
Claim(s) 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Masuch et al (X-ray Inspection Battery Cell, 2022) in view of Fujimaki (US20230236139A1) and further in view of Seo et al (US20230223509A1).
Regarding claim 12, the combination of Masuch and Fujimaki teaches its/their respective base claim(s).
The combination does not expressly disclose but Seo teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the position of the transitional edge of the electrode sheets of the first type is determined only from the optical image, and/or wherein the position of the outer edge of the electrode sheets of the second type is determined only from the optical image.
(Seo, "vision sensing a shoulder portion of an anode; and stacking such that a cathode tab of a cathode sheet is located on the basis of a full width or a full length of the shoulder portion", [0142]; "there are provided an electrode and a method of manufacturing an electrode assembly based on a shoulder portion, the shoulder portion being solid as it is thicker than a conventional electrode tab and having no light reflection due to the application of active material, in order to change the cutting standard of the electrode in the lamination process, improve the alignment accuracy during stacking, and increase the effectiveness of ACOH (Anode Cathode Overhang) gap inspection.", [0111]; the shoulder portion, which defines the transitional edge between the active-material-coated region and the non-coated contacting region of the first type (anode) electrode sheet, is detected exclusively by "vision sensing," i.e., optical imaging alone, without any supplemental CT data. The position used for stacking and ACOH measurement comes only from the vision-sensed optical data. This directly teaches determining the position of the transitional edge of first-type electrode sheets "only from the optical image.")
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate the teachings of Seo into the modified system or method of Masuch and Fujimaki in order to determine the shoulder/transitional edge of CT-invisible components (the graphite coating of the anode, per Masuch and Fujimaki) from optical-only data. The combination of Masuch and Fujimaki and Seo also teaches other enhanced capabilities.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 4-5, 7-8 and 10-11 is/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 Claim(s).
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Claim(s) 4 and 5 recite(s) limitation(s) related to a contacting region which extends along a transitional edge near the active region using optical geometries; and a contacting region which forms an outer edge whose position is determined via aligned optical geometries. There are no explicit teachings to the above limitation(s) found in the prior art cited in this office action and from the prior art search.
Claim(s) (7, 11) and (8, 10) depend on claims 4 and 5, respectively.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JIANXUN YANG whose telephone number is (571)272-9874. The examiner can normally be reached on MON-FRI: 8AM-5PM Pacific Time.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Amandeep Saini can be reached on (571)272-3382. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272- 1000.
/JIANXUN YANG/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2662 5/30/2026
Prosecution Insights