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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 11/11/2025 and 03/16/2026 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
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) 1,6 and 8-9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over SCHAR (US 4039092 A) in view of SHUMAKER (US 3729102 A) and KURTZ et al. (US 20210130123 A1).
Regarding Claim 1, Schar teaches a transfer vehicle, comprising:
a vehicle body (base of 2);
a rotating mechanism (11, 5) comprising an annular track (5) vertically arranged above the vehicle body (see Fig. 1), a crawler belt (chain of 5) arranged along an end surface of the annular track (see Fig. 1), and a first driving device (15) connected to the crawler belt (see Fig. 1); wherein the crawler belt is rotatable around the annular track when driven by the first driving device (Fig. 1; column 3 lines 43-45);
a plurality of material receiving rods (7) arranged at intervals on a side of the rotating mechanism (see Fig. 1), wherein each material receiving rod comprises an inner rod (7) and an outer rod (18, under BRI the examiner is interpreting the outer rod as the spool of a coil that is received on the inner rod) sleeved on the inner rod (see Fig. 6), and the inner rod is connected to the crawler belt (column 4 lines 44-48; Fig. 1; Fig. 6); a pushing device to unload items onto a cart (see Fig. 3, column 4, lines 56+).
Schar does not teach a docking auxiliary mechanism arranged beside a docking station on the side of the rotating mechanism, comprising a pushing device the pushing device comprises a push-pull rod and a second driving device, and a rear end of the push-pull rod is connected to the second driving device; when the material receiving rod rotates to the docking station, the second driving device drives a front end of the push-pull rod to push the outer rod to move horizontally together, so that the outer rod moves to the target docking position to receive materials to be transferred; however Schar does teach placing a full bobbin onto a rod manually or with any suitable device but does not teach the specific transfer device (column 4, lines 44-48)
Schar does not teach the docking auxiliary mechanism comprises a positioning device, wherein the positioning device is configured to determine an orientation of a target docking position and a control mechanism electrically connected to the vehicle body and the positioning device respectively, and configured to control movement of the vehicle body and adjust a position of the vehicle body according to the orientation of the target docking position so that the docking station is aligned with the target docking position, however Schar does teach stopping the vehicle at a predetermined location based on a control device (column 4, lines 22+)
Shumaker teaches a device loading and unloading spools with a material receiving rod comprising an inner rod (REEL) and an outer rod (SPOOL) a pushing device, the pushing device comprises a push-pull rod (26) and a second driving device (12), and a rear end of the push-pull rod is connected to the second driving device (Fig. 1); the second driving device drives a front end of the push-pull rod to push the outer rod to move horizontally together (Fig. 2; Column 2 lines 40-50), so that the outer rod moves to the target docking position to receive materials to be transferred (Fig. 2; Column 2 55-65));
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the rods of Schar with the pushing device of Shumaker so when the material receiving rod rotates to the docking station, the second driving device drives a front end of the push-pull rod to push the outer rod to move horizontally together, for the purpose of being able to load and remove fully or empty yarn spools.
Kurtz teaches a vehicle body (102) with rods (104) for loading and unloading bobbins([0056], [0057]) to a cart (620) with a positioning device (140), wherein the positioning device is configured to determine an orientation of a target docking position ([0056]) and a control mechanism ([0085]) electrically connected to the vehicle body and the positioning device respectively ([0059]), and configured to control movement of the vehicle body and adjust a position of the vehicle body according to the orientation of the target docking position so that the docking station is aligned with the target docking position([0060]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the vehicle body of Schar with the control system of Kurtz so the vehicle can be autonomously driven to align with the docking position removing the effort needed to manually move the vehicle into position.
Regarding Claim 6, Schar as modified above teaches the transfer vehicle of claim 1, wherein the docking auxiliary mechanism comprises a first box body (Schar box between 1 and 3’), the pushing device and the positioning device are arranged in the first box body (Schar Fig. 5), and the first box body is arranged between the vehicle body and the rotating mechanism (Fig. 5).
Regarding Claim 8, Schar as modified above teaches the transfer vehicle of claim 1, wherein a first connecting column is provided between inner circles of the annular track (Schar 3; Fig. 1), and the first connecting column is connected to the vehicle body through a second connecting column (Schar 4; Fig. 1).
Regarding Claim 9, Schar as modified above teaches the transfer vehicle of claim 1, wherein the first driving device is arranged in a second box body (Schar 1) between the vehicle body and the rotating mechanism (Schar Fig. 6).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-5, and 7 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Regarding Claim 2, Schar as modified above does not teach “the front end of the push-pull rod corresponds to a position of the lug boss, and the second driving device drives the front end of the push-pull rod to extend horizontally and push the lug boss, to drive the outer rod to move horizontally.” As seen in Fig. 3 of Shumaker, the push-pull rod couples at a position outside of the spool and does not correspond to a position of a lug boss.
Claims 3 and 5 are dependent on claim 2 and therefore allowable
Claim 4 is dependent on claim 3 which is dependent on claim 2 and is therefore allowable
Regarding Claim 7, Schar as modified above does not teach the transfer vehicle of claim 6, wherein a mounting groove is arranged on a side of the first box body close to a front end of the outer rod, the positioning device is arranged on a first inclined surface of the mounting groove, the first inclined surface is arranged toward the front end of the outer rod.” As seen in Kurtz Fig. 7 the positioning device is on a material handling rod and is not arranged on a first inclined surface of a mounting groove.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Duerholz (DE 10008036 A1) and Matsui et al. (US 3687382 A) teach similar yarn transporting apparatuses.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ADARSH NEUPANE whose telephone number is (571)272-8816. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 8:00am-5:00pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, ERNESTO SUAREZ can be reached at (571) 270-5565. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/A.N./Examiner, Art Unit 3655
/KAITLIN S JOERGER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3655
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