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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 01/30/2026 has been entered.
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.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JPS6078233 U in view of Tatsuda (USpgpub 20020094900).
Regarding claim 1, JPS 6078233 discloses a double rotation indexing device having two sets of rotation indexing units, where a number of sets of the rotation indexing units provided in the double rotation indexing device is only two (seen in fig.2 and fig.3; there is a two indexing device set up),
each of the rotation indexing units comprising:
a main shaft (31) rotatably supported in a frame (seen in figures) and having one end side to which a rotation target member (rotary table 3) is attached; and
a drive transmission mechanism (various shafts/gears) configured to transmit rotation of an output shaft of a drive motor to the main shaft,
the drive transmission mechanism including:
a drive shaft (44) configured to being be rotationally driven by the drive motor (42);
a disk-shaped driven member (gear 43) attached to the main shaft; and
a drive member (worm 45) provided on the drive shaft and having a spiral groove (it’s a worm gear and thus would have said groove) formed to engage directly or indirectly with the driven member,
the drive shafts of both rotation indexing units being connected by a connecting member (46), and
the drive motor being connected to an end portion (seen in fig.3), on an opposite side to the connecting member side, of the drive shaft of one rotation indexing unit,
wherein the other end side of the drive shaft in one rotation indexing unit is connected to the other end side of the drive shaft in an other rotation indexing unit (seen in fig.3).
JPS ‘233 fails to explicitly disclose the type of bearings supporting the shafts and in particular the drive shaft being supported on one end side by the frame via a bearing holder having a built-in thrust bearing and being supported on an other end side by the frame via a radial bearing.
Tatsuda teaches and/or suggests, within the same field of double indexing units, the concept of utilizing a drive shaft being supported on one end side by the frame via a bearing holder (fig.1, 30) having a built-in thrust bearing (fig.1, 28) and being supported on an other end side by the frame via a radial bearing (fig.1, 28; as clearly seen in fig.1, the bearings closest to coupling 20 are both radial bearings). Tatsuda further teaches the bearings to both shafts of the double indexing unit as seen in fig.1.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the drive shaft assemblies disclosed in JPS ‘233 to utilize the bearing arrangement as taught/suggested in Tatsuda in order to provide the predictable results of adequately supporting the loads on the shafts and distributing said load appropriately. The bearings also would provide support and make the assembly as a whole robust and sturdy, in addition, the use of said bearings is common knowledge in the art.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THOMAS C DIAZ whose telephone number is (571)270-5461. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am-6pm.
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/THOMAS C DIAZ/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3617
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