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 Interpretation
Claim limitations in this application are given their broadest reasonable interpretation consistent with the specification. The term “on an arbitrary side” is expressly defined in the specification as referring to “the left side, right side, front side, or rear side of an object; or being at an arbitrary position adjacent to the object; or being directly or indirectly connected to the object” (Spec. ¶[0028]). The phrase “airflow channels … connected in series” is expressly defined as a design in which “the outlets of the airflow channels of a condenser A are aligned with or connected to the inlets of the airflow channels of a condenser B” (Spec. ¶[0035]), and the specification states there may be an interval S between adjacent series-connected condensers (Spec. ¶[0036]). Accordingly, condensers arranged one behind another in the airflow direction, with or without a spacing between them, such that air passes through them in sequence, are “horizontally arranged” with airflow channels “connected in series” under the broadest reasonable interpretation consistent with the specification. Consistent with claims 6 and 7 read together, “first main-channel aluminum tube” and “second main-channel aluminum tube” are nominative labels distinguishing the two header tubes of each condenser and do not require a particular position or function. Consistent with the specification, the “channel” of the air circulation unit is the air passage provided in the cabinet back door in which the fan is disposed, the fan being positioned so that its air input side or air output side faces the airflow channels of the condenser unit (Spec. ¶[0033]).
While all wherein clauses have been fully considered and are treated as limiting, functional recitations (e.g., “in order for a thermal conduction medium … to receive heat,” “to enable air circulation,” “configured to receive the thermal conduction medium … and dissipate heat”) are given weight to the extent they impose structural requirements on the claimed apparatus; prior art structure capable of performing the recited function satisfies such recitations. See MPEP 2114.
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 1, 2, and 5–9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Didymiotis (US 2013/0126142 A1, “Didymiotis”) in view of Taras (US 2016/0290730 A1, “Taras”).
Regarding claim 1, Didymiotis discloses a rear-door heat dissipation system, comprising: a heat dissipation cabinet provided therein with an active heat source device (blade racks 140 housing heat-generating electronic equipment, each provided with a rear door heat exchanger 142; ¶¶[0002], [0025], FIGS. 1, 3), the heat dissipation cabinet being further provided with a cabinet back door on an arbitrary side of the heat dissipation cabinet (the rear door heat exchanger 142 is hinged to the rack 140 and is openable to provide access to the rear of the rack, its rear panel 226 being perforated by perforations 228 to enable air to pass through; ¶[0031], FIG. 3); at least one condenser unit provided on the cabinet back door … in order for a thermal conduction medium in the at least one condenser unit to receive heat from an airflow passing through the at least one condenser unit (the door carries the heat exchanger through which coolant — water or R134a refrigerant, the latter in biphase condition in the microchannels — receives heat from the air passing through the door; ¶¶[0039], [0040]). Didymiotis’s exchanger core — the assembly of headers 402, 404 and microchannel extrusions 406 with fins 412, carried on the door 142 — corresponds to a condenser of the claimed condenser unit, the condenser having a circulation tube system comprising a first main-channel aluminum tube, a second main-channel aluminum tube, and a plurality of aluminum flat tubes each having one end in communication with the first main-channel aluminum tube and an opposite end in communication with the second main-channel aluminum tube (upper upstream header 402 and lower downstream header 404 (also numbered 414), with a multiplicity of elongate extrusions 406 — flat bars about 20 mm long and 2 mm wide in cross-section — substantially parallel to one another, having upper ends in fluid communication with the interior of the upper header 402 and lower ends in fluid communication with the interior of the lower header 404; the headers and extrusions are all made of aluminium; ¶¶[0032], [0035], [0038], FIGS. 4–6a), wherein an airflow channel is formed between each two adjacent said aluminum flat tubes to enable air circulation, and each said airflow channel is provided therein with an aluminum fin (each extrusion 406 is oriented so that its straight sides are generally parallel to the direction of flow of air through the exchanger, and aluminium U-shaped fins 412 extend transversely of and in thermal contact with the extrusions along their full length, the fins of adjacent extrusions interdigitating; ¶¶[0034], [0036]–[0038], FIG. 7); and a heat dissipation device in communication with the circulation tube systems and configured to receive the thermal conduction medium in the circulation tube systems and dissipate heat from the thermal conduction medium received (coolant distribution unit 200 whose heat exchanger 212 transfers heat from the door’s secondary coolant circuit 214 to a primary coolant circuit 210; each rear door heat exchanger receives coolant from the upstream side 216 and returns it to the downstream side 220 of the secondary circuit; ¶¶[0028], [0029], FIG. 2). Didymiotis does not expressly disclose that each said condenser unit comprises a plurality of condensers, wherein the condensers are horizontally arranged and the airflow channels of the condensers are connected in series, nor an air circulation unit provided on the cabinet back door and corresponding in position to the condenser unit. Taras discloses a flattened-tube finned heat exchanger 20 comprising a first tube bank 100 and a second tube bank 200, each bank having a first manifold and a second manifold with a plurality of flattened heat exchange tube segments extending longitudinally between and connecting the manifolds in fluid communication (¶¶[0019]–[0021]), the second tube bank disposed behind the first tube bank and downstream with respect to the airflow A, with each heat exchange tube segment 106 of the first bank directly aligned with a respective tube segment 206 of the second bank and the leading edges 208 of the second bank spaced from the trailing edges 110 of the first bank by a desired spacing G (¶[0025], FIG. 2); a heat exchanger “having any number of tube banks is within the scope of the invention” (¶[0019]); and a fan configured to provide an airflow across the first tube bank and the second tube bank sequentially (¶¶[0008], [0029]: the air “first passes transversely across the … surfaces … of the first tube bank 100, and then passes transversely across the … surfaces … of the second tube bank 200”). It is noted that both Didymiotis and Taras are directed to increasing the heat-exchange capacity of flattened-tube, finned heat exchangers presenting a constrained face area to a fan-driven airflow. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the rear-door heat exchanger of Didymiotis as a plurality of such exchangers (tube banks) arranged one behind the other in the airflow direction, with a fan providing the airflow across the banks in sequence, as taught by Taras, because Taras teaches that the multiple-bank arrangement with inter-bank fluid coupling “yields superior heat exchange performance” (¶[0031]) — a benefit directly responsive to the need, acknowledged by Didymiotis, for “an increasing amount of cooling” as the operational capacity of rack-mounted equipment grows (¶[0002]). In the combination, the condenser unit is constituted by the plurality of tube banks of Taras (heat exchanger 20; banks 100, 200), each tube bank corresponding to a claimed condenser, the unit being provided on the cabinet back door of Didymiotis with the fan corresponding in position to it.Regarding claim 2, Didymiotis in view of Taras renders obvious the rear-door heat dissipation system as applied to claim 1 above, wherein the number of the plurality of condensers in each said condenser unit is two or greater than two. Taras discloses that the heat exchanger 20 comprises at least a first tube bank 100 and a second tube bank 200 (¶[0019], FIGS. 1–2) — each corresponding to a claimed condenser as set forth in the rejection of claim 1 — and expressly states that “a heat exchanger 20 having any number of tube banks is within the scope of the invention” (¶[0019]). The combination set forth in the rejection of claim 1 therefore provides a condenser unit having two or more condensers.Regarding claim 5, Didymiotis in view of Taras renders obvious the rear-door heat dissipation system as applied to claim 2 above. Taras further discloses that at least one separation wall is provided in a main-channel tube such that the tube is divided into at least two cavities sequentially arranged in the downward direction. Specifically, Taras discloses that a baffle or partition 105 may be added in the second manifold 104 of the first tube bank 100, dividing the bank into a two-pass configuration in which fluid flows through a first, lower portion 106a of the tube segments and back through a second, upper portion 106b (¶[0020], FIG. 3a); Taras likewise discloses that the first manifold 202 of the second tube bank 200 “includes at least one baffle 105 such that the first manifold 202 is divided into a plurality of chambers, such as a chamber 203 and a chamber 205,” and that the second manifold 204 similarly includes at least one baffle 105 dividing it into chambers 207 and 209, the respective chambers fluidly feeding a first portion 206a and a second portion 206b of the tube segments (¶[0021], FIGS. 1, 4). As shown in FIGS. 3a and 4, the chambers created by the baffles 105 are arranged one above another along the manifold, the lower chambers feeding the lower portions 106a, 206a of tube segments and the upper chambers feeding the upper portions 106b, 206b. A baffle 105 within a manifold of Taras thus constitutes a separation wall dividing a main-channel tube into at least two cavities sequentially arranged in the downward direction. In the combination set forth in the rejections of claims 1 and 2, the manifolds of the tube banks constituting each condenser unit are so divided, Taras’s own purpose being to provide a multi-pass flow arrangement within the exchanger (¶¶[0006], [0020]) as part of the cross-counterflow circuiting that “yields superior heat exchange performance” (¶[0031]).Regarding claim 6, Didymiotis in view of Taras renders obvious the rear-door heat dissipation system as applied to claim 5 above, wherein the input of the circulation tube systems of each of the plural condenser units is provided at a said first main-channel aluminum tube, and the output of the circulation tube systems of each of the plural condenser units is provided at a said second main-channel aluminum tube. Taras discloses a single-pass arrangement in which fluid enters the tube bank at the second manifold 104, flows through the plurality of heat exchange tube segments 106 in the direction indicated by arrow 402, and exits at the first manifold 102 through an outlet 122 (¶[0020], FIG. 3) — the input thus being provided at one main-channel tube of the circulation tube system and the output at the other. Taras further discloses the same opposite-header circuit at the unit level: fluid enters the second tube bank 200 at chamber 203 of the first manifold 202 via inlet 221, passes through the tube segments to the second manifold 204, is coupled onward to the first tube bank 100, and exits at the opposite manifold 102 via outlet 122 (¶¶[0031], [0036]), so that the input of the unit’s circulation tube systems is at a first-type main-channel tube and the output at a second-type main-channel tube. As set forth in the Claim Interpretation section, “first” and “second” are nominative labels distinguishing the two header tubes of each condenser and do not require a particular position or function.Regarding claim 7, Didymiotis in view of Taras renders obvious the rear-door heat dissipation system as applied to claim 5 above, wherein the input and the output of the circulation tube systems of each of the plural condenser units are provided at a said first main-channel aluminum tube. Taras discloses a multi-pass arrangement in which, with the addition of a baffle or partition 105 in the second manifold 104, the tube bank 100 has a two-pass configuration: fluid enters at the second manifold 104, flows through a first, lower portion 106a of the heat exchange tube segments 106 to the first manifold 102 in the direction indicated by arrow 402, and returns through a second, upper portion 106b of the tube segments to the second manifold 104 and an outlet 122a (¶[0020], FIG. 3a) — the input and the output of the circulation tube system thus both being provided at the same main-channel tube (manifold 104, on opposite sides of the baffle 105). Taras discloses the same even-pass circuiting at the unit level, in which the refrigerant may enter the second tube bank at manifold 202, traverse the banks, and exit through outlet 122a at manifold 104 in the two-pass configuration (¶[0036]). As set forth in the Claim Interpretation section, “first” and “second” main-channel aluminum tubes are nominative labels distinguishing the two header tubes of each condenser and do not require a particular position or function; the same-header input and output of Taras’s FIG. 3a configuration therefore satisfies the claim.Regarding claim 8, Didymiotis in view of Taras renders obvious the rear-door heat dissipation system as applied to claim 1 above, wherein the air circulation unit comprises a channel provided in the cabinet back door and a fan provided in the channel. Didymiotis discloses that the cabinet back door defines a through-air passage: air urged from the blade rack 140 passes into the door, through the airflow channels of the exchanger core between the microchannel extrusions 406, and out through the rear panel 226, which is perforated by a multiplicity of perforations 228 “to enable air to pass through the rear door heat exchanger 142” (¶¶[0030]–[0031], [0036], [0039]) — the passage bounded within the door, from its rack-facing side to its perforated rear panel, constituting a channel provided in the cabinet back door. Taras discloses a fan configured to provide the airflow A across the first and second tube banks sequentially (¶¶[0008], [0029]). In the combination set forth in the rejection of claim 1, the fan of Taras is disposed in the air passage of the door of Didymiotis — i.e., a fan provided in the channel — positioned so that its air input side or air output side faces the airflow channels of the tube banks, the motivation being that of the claim 1 combination: the fan provides the airflow across the banks in sequence that Taras’s multi-bank arrangement requires (¶[0029]), moving the rack’s heated air through the exchanger and out of the door.Regarding claim 9, Didymiotis in view of Taras renders obvious the rear-door heat dissipation system as applied to claim 1 above, wherein the first main-channel aluminum tubes, the second main-channel aluminum tubes, and the aluminum flat tubes are formed by aluminum extrusion. Didymiotis discloses that each flat tube is an aluminum extrusion (“each extrusion is an aluminium extrusion and is elongate in cross-section”; ¶[0035]), and that the headers 402 and 414, the microchannel extrusions 406, and the fins 412 are all made of aluminium (¶[0038]). Taras discloses that the heat exchange tube segments including the discrete flow channels “may be formed using known techniques and materials, including, but not limited to, extruded or folded” (¶[0024]), and that each set of manifolds may “comprise separate chambers within an integral fabricated (e.g. extruded, drawn, rolled and welded) manifold assembly” (¶[0022]) — i.e., extrusion is a disclosed technique for forming the main-channel tubes as well as the flat tubes. In the combination, forming the aluminum headers and aluminum flat tubes of the door-mounted exchanger by extrusion is the express teaching of Didymiotis for the flat tubes and of Taras for the manifolds, Didymiotis’s stated purpose being a light-weight exchanger that is “cheaper to construct and easier to install” (¶[0038]).
15. Claims 3, 4, and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Didymiotis in view of Taras, further in view of Lin et al. (US 2008/0216493 A1, “Lin”).
Regarding claim 3, Didymiotis in view of Taras renders obvious the rear-door heat dissipation system as applied to claim 2 above, including a condenser unit constituted by the plurality of tube banks of Taras provided on the cabinet back door of Didymiotis. The combination as applied to claim 2 does not expressly disclose that the number of the at least one condenser unit is plural, and the plural condenser units are sequentially arranged in a downward direction. Lin discloses a microchannel condenser 20 for cooling an electronic equipment cabinet 2 in which the condenser is subdivided into a plurality of microchannel slab modules 20A, 20B, 20C, each slab having its own inlet header 36A, 36B with a slab inlet 38A, 38B fed from a common inlet manifold 34 and its own slab outlet 46A, 46B returning to a common outlet manifold 48 (¶[0039], FIG. 3), such that refrigerant flows through each of the slabs independently “to control the amount of cooling” (¶[0035]); Lin further discloses that the slabs “can be mounted vertically as illustrated in FIG. 2” — an orientation consuming the vertical height of the cabinet 2, the slabs being arranged one above another along that height (¶[0035], FIG. 2) — and that “the number of microchannel slabs can vary from one to many slabs” depending on the heat dissipation requirements (¶[0038]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the condenser unit of the Didymiotis–Taras combination as a plurality of such units arranged sequentially in the downward direction along the cabinet back door, each independently fed as taught by Lin, because Lin teaches subdividing a cabinet-mounted microchannel condenser into a vertically arranged plurality of independently fed modules in order to control the amount of cooling and to scale the number of modules to the heat dissipation requirements (¶¶[0035], [0038]) — and because the plural units so arranged span the full height of the air outlet area of the door of Didymiotis, through which substantially all of the rack’s heated air passes (Didymiotis ¶¶[0031]–[0032]).Regarding claim 4, Lin discloses an inflow main duct and a return-flow main duct, wherein the inflow main duct is connected to at least one input of each unit and the return-flow main duct is connected to at least one output of each unit (inlet refrigerant line 32 providing refrigerant to inlet manifold 34, which is fluidicly coupled to the slab inlets 38A, 38B of each slab; slab outlets 46A, 46B flowing into outlet manifold 48 and outlet refrigerant line 50; ¶[0039], FIGS. 3, 5). In the combination, the manifolds of Lin feed the input and receive the output of the circulation tube systems of each condenser unit, for the reasons set forth in the rejection of claim 3.Regarding claim 10, Lin discloses that the thickness of the slab 20A can be about 0.78″ (20 mm) (¶[0044], FIG. 8), a value within the claimed range of 10 mm to 40 mm; Didymiotis’s extrusion depths of 16 mm, 20 mm, and 25.4 mm (¶¶[0035], [0042], [0043]) are corroborative. The specification of the instant application identifies no criticality in the claimed range, reciting exemplary values with the statement that “the present invention has no limitation in this regard” (Spec. ¶[0036]).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
US 2020/0363134 – gravity loop thermosyphon and heat dissipation device comprising the same.
US 20200224942 – parallel-connected condensation device
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ZHENGFU J FENG whose telephone number is (571) 272-2949. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Friday, 10AM - 6PM EST.
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/ZHENGFU J FENG/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2835 August 22, 2026
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