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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Objections
Claims 2 and 6 are objected to because of the following informalities: in Claim 2, the limitation “said tube body” should read “said tubular body” for consistency with the rest of the claim language; and in Claim 6 line 6, the limitation “the mounted seat” should read “the mounting seat” for consistency with the rest of the claim language. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Hoopes (US 1,733,263).
Regarding Claim 1, Hoopes discloses (Figures 1-2 and 9-10) a mold moving device adapted for a forged product forming machine (pg. 1 lns 1-2), comprising: a base unit (framework 10); a transmission mechanism (assembly of shafts/gears P3-12 and gears M1/M2) disposed on said base unit; and a plurality of pressing molds (dies F2); a guiding member (assembly of shaft P13 and indexing cam H4) rotatably mounted to said base unit, and including a tubular body portion (indexing cam H4) that is driven by said transmission mechanism to rotate, and that has an outer peripheral surface formed with a plurality of guiding grooves (tracks H5), and two ends axially opposite to each other, each of said guiding grooves extending between said ends of said tubular body portion in a serpentine manner (clearly seen in Figure 1); and a mold seat (dial F) including a rotary shaft (shaft H1) that is rotatably mounted in said base unit, a rotating member (assembly of plate H2 and cam rollers H3) that is coaxially connected to one end of said rotary shaft (pg. 4 lns 106-108), that faces said guiding member, and that includes a disk body portion (plate H2) and a plurality of projecting rods (cam rollers H3) protruding from said disk body portion toward said guiding member in directions parallel to said rotary shaft, and angularly spaced apart from each other (clearly seen in Figures 1-2), and a carrying member (circular body F1) that is coaxially connected to another end of said rotary shaft; said pressing molds detachably mounted on said carrying member (pg. 3 lns 108-116) and angularly spaced apart from each other (clearly seen in Figure 10); and when said guiding member rotates, said guiding grooves respectively engage selected ones of said projecting rods in a manner where said selected ones of said projecting rods respectively slide along said guiding grooves, thereby driving said disk body portion to rotate via movement of said selected ones of said projecting rods (pg. 4 lns 111-121).
Regarding Claim 2, Hoopes discloses (Figures 1-2) a rotational axis (axis through shaft P13) of said tube body portion (indexing cam H4) of said guiding member is perpendicular to and is not coplanar with a rotational axis (axis through shaft H1) of said disk body portion (plate H2) of said rotating member (clearly seen in figures).
Regarding Claim 3, Hoopes discloses (Figure 9) said rotary shaft (shaft H1) of said mold seat (dial F) has a shaft body portion having one end co-rotatably connected to said disk body portion (plate H2) of said rotating member (pg. 4 lns 106-107), and a plurality of driving teeth (teeth of gear G10) protruding from another end of said shaft body portion toward said carrying member (gear G10 is operatively coupled to shaft H1 and has teeth that extend towards circular body F1); and said carrying member (circular body F1) includes a seat body (tube G4) fastened to said shaft body portion (tube G4 is operatively coupled with shaft H1), a plurality of driven teeth (teeth of gear G9) extending from said seat body toward said shaft body portion and engaging said driving teeth (pg. 4 lns 71-72), and a bearing head portion (backing plunger F5) extending from said seat body in a direction opposite to said driven teeth, said pressing molds (dies F2) being detachably mounted on said bearing head portion (pg. 3 lns 108-112; Figure 9 clearly shows dies F2 mounted on backing plunger F5 via backing pin R1).
Regarding Claim 4, Hoopes discloses (Figures 1 and 9) said base unit (framework 10) includes a main seat body defining a through slot (opening visible on either side of dial housing F10 in Figure 1), and a bushing (dial housing F10) rotatably disposed in said through slot, and surrounding and covering said rotary shaft (shaft H1) and at least a portion of said carrying member (circular body F1; Figure 9 shows dial housing F10 surrounding circular body F1).
Regarding Claim 5, Hoopes discloses (Figure 1) said transmission mechanism includes a power source (pg. 6 lns 123-125 and pg. 7 lns 20-22: flywheel P1 is set in motion by an external power source and thereby powers the machine), a driving shaft (cross-shaft P2) rotatably mounted to said main seat body of said base unit (framework 10) and connected to be driven by said power source to rotate (pg. 7 lns 20-22), a driving gear (pinion P3) co-rotatably connected to said driving shaft, a driven shaft (shaft P13) rotatably mounted to said main seat body and co-rotatably connected to said tubular body portion (indexing cam H4) of said guiding member (pg. 7 lns 18-19), and a driven gear (spur gear P12) meshing with said driving gear (pg. 6 ln 129 - pg. 7 ln 15: pinion P3 and spur gear P12 indirectly mesh via gears M1/M2, cross-shaft P4, bevel gears P5/P6, main cam shaft 40, bevel gears P8/P9, shaft P10, and spur gear P11) and co-rotatably connected to said driven shaft (pg. 7 ln 15) such that said guiding member is rotated through engagement between said driven gear and said driving gear during rotation of said driving shaft (pg. 7 lns 18-22: when flywheel P1 is set in motion, shaft P13 carrying indexing cam H4 will be driven to rotate via engagement of all the gears therebetween).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6 and 7 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, and to correct the objection to Claim 6 set forth in this Office action. The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding Claim 6, prior art fails to teach, alone or in combination, a mold moving device adapted for a forged product forming machine, comprising a base unit and a mold seat including a rotary shaft and a carrying member coaxially connected to one end of said rotary shaft, wherein said base unit includes a main seat body defining a through slot and a bushing rotatably disposed in said through slot, wherein said main seat body further defines a mounting space in spatial communication with said through slot, and said base unit further includes a mounting seat detachably mounted in said mounting space, and a portion of said carrying member that is not surrounded by said bushing is rotatably received in said mounting seat. In US 1,733,263 to Hoopes, which is considered to be the most relevant prior art, the base unit (framework 10) does not include a mounting seat detachably mounted within a mounting space formed by the framework. Further, the carrying member (circular body F1) is completely surrounded by the bushing (dial housing F10), so there is no portion that is not surrounded by the bushing which could be received in a mounting seat if the base unit was modified to include one. One skilled in the art would not be motivated to modify the mold moving device disclosed by Hoopes to include these features; therefore, Claim 6 is allowable.
Claim 7 would be allowable by virtue of its dependence upon Claim 6.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TERESA A GUTHRIE whose telephone number is (571)270-5042. The examiner can normally be reached M/Tu/Th, 10-6 ET.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Christopher Templeton can be reached at (571) 270-1477. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/TERESA A GUTHRIE/Examiner, Art Unit 3725
/Christopher L Templeton/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3725
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