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
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 1-3, 6-10, 13-17, and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Fisher (US 2006/0000228).
As to claim 1, Fisher discloses a cooling arrangement for a vehicle cabin (paragraph 3), and thus is capable of use with a cabin of an underground work machine, the cooling arrangement comprising:
one or more blowers 91 to generate an air flow;
first and second evaporators 15/23 arranged in separate coolant circuits to providing cooling to an air flow passing through each evaporator; wherein
the evaporators 15/23 can cool the air flows either independently of each other or simultaneously with each other (paragraph 26).
As to claim 2, the evaporators 15/23 of Fisher are arranged serially with each other in an airflow direction (Fig. 1).
As to claim 3, the evaporator 23 of Fisher is arranged downstream of evaporator 15 (Fig. 1).
As to claims 6-7, Fisher teaches a first compressor 10 powered by an internal combustion engine 12 and a second compressor 27 powered by an electrical energy source 25.
As to claims 8-10 and 13-14, the claims are anticipated by Fisher for the same reasons as discussed in the rejections above.
As to claims 15-17 and 19-20, Fisher discloses most of the claimed limitations as discussed in the rejections above, and also discloses a truck (which is capable of utilization as an underground work machine) inherently having a main frame and a cabin supported by the main frame (Fig. 3; paragraph 19).
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 4-5, 11-12, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fisher as applied in the rejections above, and further in view of Steele (US 2014/0223933).
As to claims 4-5, 11-12, and 18, Fisher does not explicitly teach a further heat exchanger and third coolant circuit as claimed. However, Steele teaches that it is known to use an additional circuit 17 cool an engine 16 and provide cabin heating via heat exchanger 17C which is in a common structure with and located downstream of an evaporator 15B (Fig. 1). Therefore it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to modify Fisher to incorporate a circuit as claimed and taught by Steele as a third circuit with a heat exchanger downstream of evaporators 15/23 because it would provide the capability to heat the vehicle cabin and maintain user comfort during cold ambient conditions.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JONATHAN BRADFORD whose telephone number is (571)270-5199. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00 - 4:00 ET.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jerry-Daryl Fletcher can be reached at (571)270-5054. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JONATHAN BRADFORD/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3763
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