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 .
Election/Restrictions
Claims 1-14 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 1/21/2026.
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group II, claims 15-20 in the reply filed on 1/21/2026 is acknowledged.
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 15-16 and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gabre et al. [US2019/0176262, “Gabre”] in view of Hauck [US2018/0161914, “Hauck”].
Gabre discloses ultrasonic system, comprising: an ultrasonic power supply (104) (paragraph 0018); an ultrasonic stack (102) connected to the ultrasonic power supply (paragraph 0017); an actuator (120) configured to movably support the ultrasonic stack and configured to press the ultrasonic stack against a work piece at a load (paragraph 0019); and a controller (114) for operating the actuator to apply a load on the ultrasonic stack against a workpiece at startup (paragraph 0019). Gabre discloses a controller for operating the power supply at start up but does not explicitly disclose a stored resonance and phase for the load applied.
Hauck discloses an ultrasonic system. Hauck discloses an ultrasonic power supply controlled by a controller based on set weld parameters (paragraph 0011), and Hauck discloses the parameters include resonant frequency and phase (paragraph 0014).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention to modify the system of Gabre to include stored resonance and phase parameters as taught by Hauck in order to improve the control and the precision of the system.
With respect to claim 16, Gabre discloses the controller has a memory (116) that stores scanned resonance and phase data for the ultrasonic system at different operating loads and at start-up of the ultrasonic stack the controller determines a resonance and phase from the memory for operation of the ultrasonic power supply according to the corresponding load applied to the workpiece (paragraph 0018).
With respect to claim 19, Gabre discloses all of the structure required by the system for the load applied to the workpiece to be considered predetermined.
With respect to claim 20, Gabre discloses the ultrasonic stack includes a converter (106) and a horn (110) (paragraph 0017).
Claims 17 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gabre, Hauck, and further in view of Ou et al. [US2021/0346977, “Ou”].
Gabre as modified discloses ultrasonic system. Applicant is referred to paragraph 5 for a detailed discussion of Gabre as modified. Gabre fails to disclose a load sensor.
Ou discloses an ultrasonic system including a load sensor for sensing a load applied to the workpiece by the ultrasonic stack (paragraph 0018, 0020, 0053).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention to modify the system of Gabre by including a load sensor as taught by Ou in order to improve the operation of the system and resulting quality of the weld formed by the ultrasonic system.
With respect to claim 18, the combined teachings of Gabre, Hauck and Ou would include all of the structure required of a controller that receives a load signal from the load sensor and activates the ultrasonic stack at a stored resonance and phase at start-up that corresponds to the load signal.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANIEL MCNALLY whose telephone number is (571)272-2685. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5.
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/DANIEL MCNALLY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1746
DPM
March 7, 2026