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.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) was submitted on 09/17/2024. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because there are various numbering labels that are merely presented without pointing to the specific locations in Figure 1. For example, numbers 100, 104, 106 and 110 are merely shown in the Figure but do not point to the specific locations or structures in Figure 1. Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Objections
Claims 6, 11-12 and 14 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 6 states “wherein the at least one monitoring sensor is further configured to be activated to sense the at least one strength development quantity from the concrete by a reader, by a hopper injector, or manually by an operator before the spraying, when the at least one monitoring sensor is added among the concrete stored in a concrete hopper, or by a sprayer injector, when the at least one monitoring sensor is added among a flow of concrete during the spraying”. This should be written as “wherein the at least one monitoring sensor is further configured to be activated to sense the at least one strength development quantity from the concrete by a reader, by a hopper injector, or manually by an operator before the spraying; wherein the at least one monitoring sensor is added among the concrete stored in a concrete hopper, or by a sprayer injector, wherein the at least one monitoring sensor is added among a flow of concrete during the spraying”.
Claims 11 and 12 state in various instances “detection sensor”. For consistency purposes, it should be written as “monitoring sensor”.
Claim 14 states “at least following steps of”. This should be written as “at least the following steps of”.
Claim 14 states “by the each monitoring sensor”. This should be written as “by each monitoring sensor”.
Appropriate correction is required.
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 1-4 and 6-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Pouria et al. (EP 3236258; hereinafter “Pouria”; cited in the IDS filed on 09/17/2024).
Regarding claim 1, Pouria teaches a monitoring system (Figure 2) for monitoring a strength development ([0025, 0030]) of sprayed concrete (shotcrete is performed by spraying concrete on a desired surface; [0032]), comprising:
a sprayer ([0032]) for spraying the concrete ([0032]) on a target surface ([0032]),
at least one monitoring sensor (SMAK; [0018-0024]) for sensing at least one strength development quantity ([0021, 0025-0026, 0028, 0030, 0046]) from the concrete ([0021, 0025-0026, 0028, 0030, 0046]),
a communicator (portion of the PED that communicates with the SMAK wirelessly; [0016, 0019, 0024, 0037-0038, 0041]) for receiving at least one sensed strength development quantity-related information wirelessly ([0016, 0019, 0024, 0037-0038, 0041]) from the at least one monitoring sensor ([0016, 0019, 0024, 0037-0038, 0041]), and
a processor (processing portion of the PED; [0037]) for processing the at least one received strength development quantity-related information ([0037]) to represent the development of the strength of the concrete ([0037]),
wherein the sprayer ([0032]) is further configured to spray the at least one monitoring sensor (SMAK; [0032]) on the target surface ([0032]) so that the at least one monitoring sensor (SMAK) is among the sprayed concrete ([0032]) after the sprayer has been provided with the at least one monitoring sensor ([0032]).
Regarding claim 2, Pouria teaches wherein the sprayer ([0032]) is further configured to spray (shotcrete is performed by spraying concrete on a desired surface; [0032]) the at least one monitoring sensor (SMAK) among a flow of the concrete (flow of concrete through the hose; [0032]).
Regarding claim 3, Pouria teaches a sensor injector (the SMAK sensor is placed in the concrete prior to being deployed through the hose and sprayed onto a surface; the user will add the SMAK when the concrete is being mixed prior to being sprayed [0032, 0035]) that is configured to inject the at least one monitoring sensor ([0032, 0035]) among the concrete to be sprayed ([0032, 0035]).
Regarding claim 4, Pouria teaches wherein the sensor injector comprises an operator manually injecting the at least one received monitoring sensor (SMAK) among the concrete in the concrete hopper (the SMAK sensor is placed in the concrete prior to being deployed through the hose and sprayed onto a surface; the user will add the SMAK when the concrete is being mixed prior to being sprayed [0032, 0035]).
Regarding claim 6, Pouria teaches wherein the at least one monitoring sensor (SMAK) is further configured to be activated to sense the at least one strength development quantity from the concrete by a reader ([0025, 0033]); wherein the at least one monitoring sensor (SMAK) is added by a sprayer injector (the SMAK sensor is placed in the concrete prior to being deployed through the hose and sprayed onto a surface; the user will add the SMAK when the concrete is being mixed prior to being sprayed [0032, 0035]), wherein the at least one monitoring sensor (SMAK) is added among a flow of concrete during the spraying ([0032]).
Regarding claim 7, Pouria teaches wherein the communicator (PED; [0025, 0033]) is further configured to activate the at least one detection sensor (SMAK; [0025, 0033]) to sense the at least one strength development quantity ([0021, 0025-0026, 0028, 0030, 0046]) from the concrete ([0021, 0025-0026, 0028, 0030, 0046]).
Regarding claim 8, Pouria teaches wherein each monitoring sensor (SMAK) is further configured to transmit the strength development quantity-related information wirelessly ([0019, 0037]).
Regarding claim 9, Pouria teaches wherein each monitoring sensor (SMAK) is further configured to generate the strength development quantity-related information ([0021, 0025-0026, 0028, 0030, 0046]) on the grounds of the at least one strength development quantity ([0025, 0028, 0043, 0045, 0052]), which comprises a temperature (temperature measurement is used to determine the concrete strength the use of curves; [0025, 0028, 0043, 0045, 0052]), and the processor is further configured to use the strength development quantity-related information received from the at least one monitoring sensor together with a strength development information to determine the strength development of the concrete (temperature measurement is used to determine the concrete strength the use of curves, i.e. strength development information; [0024-0025, 0028, 0037, 0043, 0045-0046, 0052]).
Regarding claim 10, Pouria teaches wherein the processor is further configured to represent the determined strength development of the concrete by a display to inform the strength of the sprayed concrete on the target surface (display of the PED is used to present the summary projections; [0016, 0038, 0084]; Figure 4).
Regarding claim 11, Pouria teaches wherein each monitoring sensor (SMAK) is further configured to sense a displacement of said monitoring sensor (pressure sensor measurement is used to determine the depth of the SMAK sensor within the concrete; [0044, 0056]) and to transmit the sensed displacement information of said monitoring sensor wirelessly ([0016, 0019, 0024, 0037-0038, 0041]), when the communicator is further configured to receive the transmitted displacement information of said monitoring sensor wirelessly from said monitoring sensor ([0016, 0019, 0024, 0037-0038, 0041]).
Regarding claim 12, Pouria teaches the processor is further configured to determine a thickness of a layer of the concrete (depth; [0042-0044, 0038, 0056]) on the grounds of the received displacement information of said detection sensor ([0044, 0056]).
Regarding claim 13, Pouria teaches wherein the communicator (portion of the PED that communicates with the SMAK wirelessly; [0016, 0019, 0024, 0037-0038, 0041]) and the processor (processing portion of the PED; [0037]) belong to a reader (PED; [0016, 0019]).
Regarding claim 14, Pouria teaches a monitoring method for monitoring a strength development ([0025, 0030]) of sprayed concrete (shotcrete is performed by spraying concrete on a desired surface; [0032]) by the monitoring system according to claim 1 (See the rejection of claim 1 above), comprising at least following steps of:
spraying, by the sprayer ([0032]), the concrete ([0032]) on the target surface ([0032]),
sensing, by each monitoring sensor (SMAK), the at least one strength development quantity from the sprayed concrete ([0021, 0025-0026, 0028, 0030, 0043, 0045-0046, 0052]),
receiving, by the communicator (portion of the PED that communicates with the SMAK wirelessly; [0016, 0019, 0024, 0037-0038, 0041]), the at least one sensed strength development quantity-related information ([0016, 0019, 0024, 0037-0038, 0041]) wirelessly from the at least one monitoring sensor ([0016, 0019, 0024, 0037-0038, 0041]), and
processing, by the processor (processing portion of the PED; [0037]), the at least one received strength development quantity-related information ([0037]) to represent the development of the strength of the concrete ([0037]),
wherein the at least one monitoring sensor (SMAK; [0032]) is sprayed, by the sprayer ([0032]), on the target surface ([0032]) after the sprayer has been provided with the at least one monitoring sensor ([0032]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 5 is 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.
In claim 5, the specific limitations of "wherein the sensor injector comprises a sprayer injector that is attached to the sprayer and configured to inject the at least one monitoring sensor among a flow of concrete during the spraying" in combination with the remaining limitations as claimed are neither anticipated nor made obvious over the prior art made of record.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANTHONY W MEGNA FUENTES whose telephone number is (571)272-6456. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 8AM-4PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Laura Martin can be reached at 571-272-2160. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/ANTHONY W MEGNA FUENTES/Examiner, Art Unit 2855
/LAURA MARTIN SWEENEY/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2855
Prosecution Insights