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.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities:
On page 2, line 1 and [0012], line 2, change “exist” to –exit--.
Appropriate correction is required.
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) 1-3, 9 and 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Otake et al (JP 2020085367) in view of Wada (JP 2012132607). Otake et al discloses a heat treatment system (SEE Figure 1) including a first supply device (46); a first heat treatment furnace (16); a first recovery device (52); a second supply device (56); a second heat treatment furnace (14); and a second recovery device (42), wherein the first supply device (46) is disposed near the second recovery device (42) and configured to supply a treatment object to a saggar (18) conveyed from the second recovery device, the first heat treatment furnace comprises: an entrance (16a) disposed near the first supply device and through which the saggar supplied with the treatment object by the first supply device is conveyed into the first heat treatment furnace; an exit (16b) through which the entered saggar is conveyed out of the first heat treatment furnace; a heat treatment unit (inherent, the inside of a furnace is a heat treatment unit) disposed between the entrance and the exit of the first heat treatment furnace, and configured to heat-treat the treatment object (powder) supplied in the saggar while the saggar is conveyed from the entrance to the exit of the first heat treatment furnace; and a first conveyor (22) configured to convey the saggar in a first direction, the first direction being a direction from the entrance to the exit of the first heat treatment furnace (Figure 1), the first recovery device (52) is disposed near the exit (16b) of the first heat treatment furnace (16) and configured to recover the treatment object that has been heat-treated in the first heat treatment furnace from the saggar, the second supply device (56) is disposed near the first recovery device (52) and configured to supply a new treatment object to the saggar from which the treatment object has been recovered by the first recovery device, the second heat treatment furnace (14) comprises: an entrance (14a) disposed near the second supply device and through which the saggar supplied with the treatment object by the second supply device is conveyed into the second heat treatment furnace; an exit (14b) through which the entered saggar is conveyed out of the second heat treatment furnace; a heat treatment unit (inherent, the inside of a furnace is a heat treatment unit ) disposed between the entrance and the exit of the second heat treatment furnace, and configured to heat-treat the treatment object supplied in the saggar while the saggar is conveyed from the entrance to the exit of the second heat treatment furnace; and a second conveyor configured to convey the saggar from the entrance to the exit of the second heat treatment furnace in a second direction opposite to the first direction, the second recovery device (42) is disposed near the exit of the second heat treatment furnace (14) and configured to recover the treatment object that has been heat-treated in the second heat treatment furnace from the saggar (18). Otake et al further discloses that each of the first heat treatment furnace (16) and the second heat treatment furnace (14) has structure (26, 28, 36, 38) for handling the saggars outside of the heat treatment unit and that these structures are common in the art, no detail is given about the structure. Wada teaches a heat treatment tunnel oven (11) which include substitution chambers (16a & 16b) formed to be sealingly partitioned to the oven (SEE [0013]) at the inlet and exit ports; said substitution chambers include insulated sealing doors (15a, 15b) thus isolating the substitution chamber from the heating furnace and the outside atmosphere. It 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 subject matter pertains to have similarly included substitution chambers including the insulated sealing doors (15a, 15b) as was commonly known in the art and taught by Wada between the heat treatment unit of a corresponding heat treatment furnace and the exit of the corresponding heat treatment furnace of Otake et al and arrived at the applicants claimed invention for the purpose of isolating the heat treatment unit of the corresponding heat treatment furnace from outside of the exit of the corresponding heat treatment furnace for maintaining distinction between the environments. In re claim 2, Otake et al as modified by Wada would meet the limitations of the claimed invention since it would be common knowledge in the art for the doors 15a, 15b of Wada to have a contact surface between the heat treatment unit and the substitution unit which are pressed in order for a seal to be established (SEE [0013] of Wada); Wada further incorporates a vacuum exhaust pump (22a). In re claim 3, the combined teaching of Otake et al as modified by Wada would meet the limitations of the claimed invention since a seal constituted of a fiber-based seal material is not novel and is well known in the art and could be readily incorporated by a person having ordinary skill in the art according to known methods. In re claim 9, the combined teaching of Otake et al as modified by Wada would meet the limitations of the applicants claimed invention since each of the first heat treatment furnace (16) and the second heat treatment furnace (14) of Otake et al would further comprises an entrance-side substitution unit (16a as taught by Wada) disposed between the heat treatment unit of a corresponding heat treatment furnace and the entrance of the corresponding heat treatment furnace, and configured to isolate the heat treatment unit of the corresponding heat treatment furnace from an outside of the entrance of the corresponding heat treatment furnace, and the entrance-side substitution unit comprises doors (15a as taught by Wada) constituted of a heat insulating material and configured to be opened and closed, and disposed between the heat treatment unit and the entrance-side substitution unit of the corresponding heat treatment furnace and between the entrance-side substitution unit and the entrance of the corresponding heat treatment furnace. In re claim 10, the combined teaching of Otake et al as modified by Wada would result in an atmosphere substitution structure (16a & 16b as taught by Wada) disposed in a heat treatment furnace (16 of Otake et al) further including a heat treatment unit (inside the furnace of Otake et al) and configured to maintain atmosphere in an internal space of the heat treatment unit (as provided by the sealing doors of Wada), wherein the heat treatment furnace (of Otake et al) comprises: an entrance 16a) through which a saggar supplied with a treatment object is conveyed into the heat treatment furnace; the heat treatment unit configured to heat-treat the treatment object supplied in the saggar that has been conveyed through the entrance; an exit (16b) through which the saggar supplied with the treatment object that has been heat-treated by the heat treatment unit is conveyed out of the heat treatment furnace; and a conveyor (22) configured to convey the saggar from the entrance to the exit, the atmosphere substitution structure (16a, 16b as taught by Wada) comprises: a substitution chamber disposed between the heat treatment unit and the exit; a first door (15a) disposed between the substitution chamber and the heat treatment unit; and a second door (15b) disposed between the substitution chamber and the exit, wherein each of the first door and the second door is constituted of a heat insulating material (known in the art, SEE [0013] of Wada).
Claim(s) 4-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Otake et al (JP2020085367) in view of Wada (JP 2012-132607) as applied to claims 1 and 2 above, and further in view of JPS 51-88408 (JPS ‘408). Otake et al in view of Wada disclose the applicants primary inventive concept as stated above including first and second heat treatment furnaces having substitution chambers at the entrance and exits of said furnaces wherein the substitution chambers include doors pressing the contact surfaces of the furnaces and the substitution chambers for sealing and establishing the environments between said furnaces and substitution chambers, but does not provide details on a pressing device which established contact between the sealing doors and the furnace heating structures. JPS ‘408 teaches a commonly known furnace door pressing structure for sealing pressing a door to establish and maintain the environments between the furnace and environments external to the furnace (SEE Figures 1 and 2). JPS ‘408 teaches a pressing portion (5) configured to contact the door (6); a cylinder (unnumbered structure adjacent portion 5 in Figures 1 & 2) disposed closer to the exit than the pressing portion is and configured to press the pressing portion; and a coupling portion (also shown at element 5 in Figures 1 & 2) configured to connect the pressing portion and the cylinder, and the pressing portion and the coupling portion are constituted of a heat-resistant material (well known, the structure would have to be heat resistant to function in the environment in which it is placed). It 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 subject matter pertains to have further modified the heat treatment system of Otake et al in view of Wada by incorporating the door sealing pressing device of JPS ‘408 and arrived at the applicants claimed invention for the purpose of improving the accuracy in adjusting the temperature and atmosphere of the sealed environments by having a movable seal structure. In re claim 5, the combined teaching of Otake et al as modified by Wada and JPS ‘408 would meet the limitations of the claimed invention since it has been held to be within the general skill of a worker in the art to select a known material on the basis of its suitability for the intended use as a matter of obvious design choice. In re claim 6, the combined teaching of Otake et al as modified by Wada and JPS ‘408 would meet the limitations of the claimed invention since it has been held to be within the general skill of a worker in the art since JPS ‘408 further provides a teaching which can be applied to each of the first heat treatment furnace and the second heat treatment furnace of a chain (4) connected to an upper end of the at least one of the doors (at 7) disposed in the substitution unit (of the teaching of Wada) and supporting the at least one of the doors. In re claim 8, the combined teaching of Otake et al as modified by Wada and JPS ‘408 would meet the limitations of the claimed invention since it has been held to be within the general skill of a worker in the art since JPS ‘408 further teaches with regards to the pressing portion a a shaft configured to wind up the chain by rotating the shaft in a third direction and wind down the chain by rotating the shaft in a fourth direction opposite to the third direction; and a drive device configured to rotate the shaft, the shaft is disposed above the chain so that its axis is horizontal and perpendicular to a conveying direction, and the door moves upward as the shaft winds up the chain and moves downward as the shaft winds down the chain (SEE element 3 of JPS ‘408). In re claim 8, the combined teaching of Otake et al as modified by Wada and JPS ‘408 would meet the limitations of the claimed invention since it has been held to be within the general skill of a worker in the art since the resulting door would be configured to be opened by moving downward (as per teaching of both Wada and JPS ‘408).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GREGORY A WILSON whose telephone number is (571)272-4882. The examiner can normally be reached M-F; 7:00am-4:30pm.
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/GREGORY A WILSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3762 September 18, 2026
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