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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
Claim(s) 1, 5-6, 8, 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kamiyama (JP 2016179654)
Regarding claims 1, 10, a tempering device for tempering ink for an ink printer (Abstract) having: a fluid source (90) with a tempering fluid that is pre-tempered to a predetermined temperature and that is provided at an outflow (92) of the fluid source (Figures 2-3; Paragraphs 0028-0031, 0033-0035)
A regulating unit (88; flow rate adjusting section; Paragraphs 0043-0045; 0050, 0057; Figure 2) with an input that is connected via a fluid conduit with the outflow of the fluid source (Figure 2), a control unit (60) that controls a mass throughput of the supplied tempering fluid depending on a measured temperature of the ink to be tempered as a control variable, and with an output at which the tempering fluid is provided as a correcting variable (Figure 2; Paragraphs 0041-0042; 0050, 0055-0057; Abstract)
A heat exchanger (83) with a fluid loop and an ink loop that both are in thermal contact with one another but are physically separate from one another, for transfer of thermal energy from the fluid loop to the ink loop, wherein the fluid loop is connected with the regulating device in order to feed the fluid loop with the tempering fluid, and wherein the ink loop is connected with an ink reservoir (85) in order to feed the ink loop with ink to be tempered to a nominal temperature (Figure 2; Paragraphs 0030-0032; 0046-0057)
At least one temperature sensor (Paragraph 0057) that is arranged at or after the heat exchanger (installed in each of the head units) and is electrically connected with the regulating device, wherein the temperature sensor measures the temperature of the ink as a real value and feeds the real value back to the control unit of the regulating device in order to regulate the temperature of the ink to its desired temperature (Paragraph 0042, 0057)
Regarding claim 5, wherein the fluid source is fed with water from a domestic connection for refilling or filling of the fluid source with water (Paragraph 0039)
Regarding claim 6, wherein the fluid source has a temperature sensor to measure a temperature of the tempering fluid (Paragraphs 0044-0045)
Regarding claim 8, wherein the control unit of the regulating device has a controller and a controllable valve and the control unit is connected with the temperature sensor for measuring the ink temperature in order to control a volumetric flow per time of the tempering fluid depending on a real value of the ink and the difference relative to a desired nominal value, in order to bring the ink to operating temperature (Paragraph 0043-0057)
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) 2-4, 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kamiyama (JP 2016179654) in view of Horiba (JP 2022061731)
Regarding claim 2, Horiba discloses wherein the heat exchanger is a plate heat exchanger (Paragraph 0080)
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Horiba into the device of Kamiyama, for the purpose of suppressing a deterioration rate of components related to temperature control (Abstract)
Regarding claim 3, Horiba discloses wherein the fluid source has a heating element and/or a colling element as tempering elements, via which the tempering fluid is tempered to a predetermined fluid temperature (Paragraph 0024)
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Horiba into the device of Kamiyama, for the purpose of suppressing a deterioration rate of components related to temperature control (Abstract)
Regarding claim 4, Horiba discloses wherein the tempering fluid is water with possibly added additives (Paragraphs 0023-0024)
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Horiba into the device of Kamiyama, for the purpose of suppressing a deterioration rate of components related to temperature control (Abstract)
Regarding claim 7, Horiba discloses wherein at least one temperature sensor that measures the temperature of the ink within the ink conduit is arranged directly at an ink exit or after the ink exit of the heat exchanger (Paragraph 0021)
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Horiba into the device of Kamiyama, for the purpose of suppressing a deterioration rate of components related to temperature control (Abstract)
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kamiyama (JP 2016179654) in view of El-Shaer et al (U.S. Pub. 2018/0120864)
Regarding claim 9, ElShaer discloses it is known in the art to use a controller which is a PI controller and a valve which is a proportional valve (Paragraph 0026-0027)
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of El-Shaer into the device of Kamiyama, for the purpose of controlling the flow of fluid to achieve a consistent flow rate
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JASON S UHLENHAKE whose telephone number is (571)272-5916. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm.
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/JASON S UHLENHAKE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853 March 2, 2026
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