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 § 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 – 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Japanese patent document number JP 2009202764 A to Nakagaki et al. (hereinafter referred to as Nakagaki), in view of patent application publication US 2021/0114656 A1 to Paal et al. (hereinafter referred to as Paal).
Regarding claim 1, Nakagaki, discloses an electric crawler vehicle (walking snowblower 1) comprising:
a pair of left and right traveling crawlers (running sections 40L and 40R), each having a drive wheel (drive sprockets 42L and 42R), a traveling motor (motor body 106) that generates traveling power to be transmitted to the pair of left and right traveling crawlers;
a turning electric motor (left and right turning electric motors 33L and 33R) that generates turning power to be transmitted to the pair of left and right traveling crawlers; and
a differential mechanism (a pair of left and right differential mechanisms 103L and 103R) disposed in a power transmission path between the turning electric motor and each drive wheel of the pair of left and right traveling crawlers (Fig. 2).
Nakagaki does not disclose the traveling motor is a traveling electric motor. However, Paal discloses a tracked vehicle wherein drive motors are electric motors as an alternative to hydraulic motors (See Paragraphs [0019] – [0020]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to modify Nakagaki’s vehicle such that the driving motor is an electric motor, as taught by Paal, to increase the power efficiency of the crawler vehicle, as the electric motor is a recognizable alternative to the hydraulic motor.
Regarding claim 2, Nakagaki, modified by Paal, discloses the electric crawler vehicle (walking snowblower 1) according to claim 1, but they do not teach a maximum output of the turning electric motor is smaller than a maximum output of the traveling electric motor. However, recognizing limiting the maximum power output of an electric motor is directly related to limiting its energy consumption, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to modify Nakagaki such that a maximum output of the turning electric motor is smaller than a maximum output of the traveling electric motor, since it has been held that where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or workable ranges involves only routine skill in the art. This would be done to improve the energy efficiency of the crawler vehicle. In re Aller, 105 USPQ 233. Please note that in the instant application, the Applicant has not disclosed any criticality for the claimed limitation. See MPEP 2144.05 – II – Routine Optimization
Regarding claims 3 – 10, Nakagaki, modified by Paal, discloses the electric crawler vehicle (walking snowblower 1) according to claim 1,
[Claim 3] comprising a rotational speed sensor (detection sensors 250L and 250R, Abstract) that detects an actual rotational speed of the turning electric motor (left and right turning electric motors 33L and 33R; detect output rotational speed, Paragraph [0068]); and
a control unit (control device 270) that is capable of generating a command value for controlling a rotational speed of the turning electric motor, wherein the control unit (control device 270) is capable of determining that there is an abnormality when a difference between the rotational speed of the turning electric motor corresponding to the command value and an actual rotational speed detected by the rotational speed sensor is equal to or larger than a fixed value (Paragraph [0068]);
[Claim 4] wherein, after determining that there is the abnormality, the control unit (control device 270) stops rotation of the traveling electric motor (motor body 106; “wherein the control device controls the output rotation speed of the travel HST via the travel actuator so that the travel unit stops when the slewing operation position detection sensor detects an abnormal value”, Paragraph [0008]);
[Claim 5] further comprising an alarm unit (pair of pilot lamps 58L and 58R, Paragraph [0060]), wherein after determining that there is the abnormality, the control unit (control device 270) causes the alarm unit to issue an alarm of abnormality (Paragraph [0060]);
[Claim 6] wherein, after determining that there is the abnormality, the control unit (control device 270) is capable of rotating the turning electric motor in a rotational direction approaching a differential lock state (Paragraph [0016]);
[Claim 7] further comprising a display unit (pilot lamps 58L and 58R) that is configured to display information, wherein after determining that there is the abnormality, the control unit (control device 270) causes the display unit to display an instruction for prompting an operator to perform a turning operation (“pilot lamps 58L and 58R are provided in the control box 55 to illuminate and notify the operator if the electric motors 33L and 33R for turning malfunction or other malfunctions occur”, Paragraph [0060]);
[Claim 8] further comprising a display unit (pilot lamps 58L and 58R) that is capable of displaying information, wherein after determining that there is the abnormality, while causing the display unit to display that an abnormality has occurred, the control unit (control device 270) lowers the rotational speed of the traveling electric motor (motor body 106) such that the rotational speed of the turning electric motor (left and right turning electric motors 33L and 33R) becomes equal to or smaller than an allowable rotational speed (“the control device will switch to the third fail mode and first control the output rotation speed of the driving HST via the driving actuator to stop the driving unit”, Paragraphs [0016] and [0081] – [0094]);
[Claim 9] further comprising a left-side sensor and a right-side sensor (rotation operation position detection sensors 250L and 250R, Paragraphs [0058] and [0068]) that detect a rotational speed of a rotating shaft of each drive wheel (drive sprockets 42L and 42R) of the left and right traveling crawlers (running sections 40L and 40R), respectively (“a pair of left and right turning operation members 56L, 56R for manually operating the pair of left and right turning electric motors 33L, 33R”, Paragraph [0022]); and
[Claim 10] wherein the control unit (control device 270) is capable of determining that there is an abnormality when a difference between a rotational speed of the turning electric motor corresponding to the command value and a rotational speed detected by the left-side sensor or the right-side sensor is equal to or larger than a predetermined value (Paragraph [0067]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Felicia L Brittman-Alabi whose telephone number is (313)446-6512. The examiner can normally be reached M-F, 9-6.
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/Felicia L. Brittman-Alabi/ Examiner, Art Unit 3611
/VALENTIN NEACSU, Ph.D./ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3611
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