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 1-6, 8 and 12-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wetzig (U.S. Publication No. 20180328810) in view of Winkler et al. (U.S. Publication No. 20230324252).
Regarding claim 1, Wetzig teaches a leak detection device for detecting a gas leak in a test specimen, the leak detection device comprising: a port for receiving the test specimen or that is connected to a test chamber (Fig.1, 14) holding the test specimen (Fig.1, 12), a gas conduction path (Fig.1, 34) defined between the port and a valve (Fig.1, 36) for selectively closing the gas conduction path, a compressor pump (Fig.1, 16 and paragraph 34) arranged in the gas conduction path, wherein the compressor pump has an inlet connected to the port and an outlet; and a compression volume (Fig.1, 20) arranged in the gas conduction path between the outlet of the compressor pump (Fig.1, 16 and paragraph 34) and the valve (Fig.1, 36).
Wetzig is silent about the compressor pump compresses gas from the port into the compression volume when the valve is closed, wherein the compression volume is connected to a gas pressure sensor for measuring the pressure inside the compression volume.
Winkler teaches the compressor pump (Fig.1, 2) compresses gas from the port into the compression volume (Fig.1, 3) when the valve (Fig.1, 4) is closed (Paragraphs 38-39), wherein the compression volume is connected to a gas pressure sensor (Fig.1, 5) for measuring the pressure inside the compression volume (Paragraphs 38-39).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Wetzig’s system to have a pressure sensor measure the pressure inside Wetzig’s volume 20 because using a pressure sensor and a fixed reference volume allows one to detect leaks with much higher sensitivity and immunity to environmental noise than standard gauge.
Regarding claim 2, the combination of Wetzig and Winkler teaches all the features of claim 1 as outlined above, Winkler further teaches wherein the gas pressure sensor is configured for integral measurement of a total pressure change according to the pressure rise method or the pressure drop method and/or for measurement of a partial pressure change of at least one test gas according to the partial pressure rise method or the partial pressure drop method (Paragraphs 38-39).
Regarding claim 3, the combination of Wetzig and Winkler teaches all the features of claim 1 as outlined above, Wetzig further teaches wherein the compression volume is smaller than a volume of the test chamber or a volume of the test specimen (As shown in Fig.1, the buffer volume 20 is smaller than the test chamber 14).
Regarding claim 4, the combination of Wetzig and Winkler teaches all the features of claim 3 as outlined above, Wetzig further teaches wherein the compression volume is at most half as large as the volume of the test chamber or the volume of the test specimen (As shown in Fig.1, the buffer volume 20 is smaller than a half of the test chamber 14).
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Wetzig and Winkler teaches all the features of claim 1 as outlined above, Wetzig further teaches wherein the compression volume has a larger cross-section in the longitudinal direction of the gas conduction path than the gas conduction path, so that the compression volume is larger than a volume in a section of the gas conduction path that is as long as the compression volume (As shown in Fig.1, the buffer volume 20 is smaller than the test chamber 14).
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Wetzig and Winkler teaches all the features of claim 1 as outlined above, Wetzig further teaches wherein the compression volume has a temperature stabilizing device that is configured to stabilize the temperature inside the compression volume (Paragraphs 38-39, any chamber material intrinsically has a temperature-stabilizing effect).
Regarding claim 8, the combination of Wetzig and Winkler teaches all the features of claim 1 as outlined above, Wetzig further teaches wherein the compressor pump is at least one selected from the group consisting of: a vacuum pump, a diaphragm pump, a roots pump, and a turbomolecular pump (Paragraphs 36-38).
Regarding claim 12, the combination of Wetzig and Winkler teaches all the features of claim 1 as outlined above, Wetzig further teaches a method for detecting a gas leak in a test specimen using a leak detection device according to claim 1, the method comprising the following steps: delivering a gas from the test chamber or from a test specimen, with the compressor pump, from the port along the gas conduction path into the compression volume so that the gas in the compression volume has a higher pressure than a pressure in the test specimen or a pressure in the test chamber (Paragraphs 33-38).
Wetzig is silent about delivering the gas while the valve is closed and measuring the gas pressure inside the compression volume; determining a temporal change in the measured gas pressure inside the compression volume; and evaluating whether the test specimen comprises a leak based on the determined change in the measured gas pressure.
Winkler teaches delivering the gas while the valve is closed (Paragraphs 38-39) and measuring the gas pressure inside the compression volume; determining a temporal change in the measured gas pressure inside the compression volume; and evaluating whether the test specimen comprises a leak based on the determined change in the measured gas pressure (Paragraphs 38-39).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Wetzig’s system to have a pressure sensor measure the pressure inside Wetzig’s volume 20 because using a pressure sensor and a fixed reference volume allows one to detect leaks with much higher sensitivity and immunity to environmental noise than standard gauge.
Regarding claim 13, the combination of Wetzig and Winkler teaches all the features of claim 12 as outlined above, Winkler further teaches wherein the measured gas pressure is an absolute gas pressure in the form of a total pressure inside the compression volume or a partial pressure of a test gas component in a gas mixture contained in the compression volume, wherein the determined change in the gas pressure is a pressure rise (Paragraphs 38-39).
Regarding claim 14, the combination of Wetzig and Winkler teaches all the features of claim 3 as outlined above, the combination of Wetzig and Winkler is silent about wherein the compression volume is at most one-tenth as large as the volume of the test chamber or the volume of the test specimen.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to make the compression volume at most one-tenth as large as the volume of the test chamber or the volume of the test specimen, 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. In re Aller, 105 USPQ 233 (CCPA 1955).
Regarding claim 15, the combination of Wetzig and Winkler teaches all the features of claim 3 as outlined above, the combination of Wetzig and Winkler is silent about wherein the compression volume is at most one hundredth as large as the volume of the test chamber or the volume of the test specimen.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to make the compression volume at most one hundredth as large as the volume of the test chamber or the volume of the test specimen, 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. In re Aller, 105 USPQ 233 (CCPA 1955).
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wetzig (U.S. Publication No. 20180328810) in view of Winkler et al. (U.S. Publication No. 20230324252) and Baret et al. (U.S. Patent No. 6014892).
Regarding claim 9, the combination of Wetzig and Winkler teaches all the features of claim 1 as outlined above, the combination of Wetzig and Winkler is silent about wherein the gas conduction path is connected to a vacuum pump on a side of the valve opposite the compressor pump.
Baret teaches wherein the gas conduction path is connected to a vacuum pump (Fig.3, 3) on a side of the valve (Fig.3, 5) opposite the compressor pump (Fig.3, 2).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Wetzig’s system to have two pumps because having two pumps would provide Wetzig’s system to have wider pressure coverage and operational flexibility.
Claims 10-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wetzig (U.S. Publication No. 20180328810) in view of Winkler et al. (U.S. Publication No. 20230324252) and Bergquist et al. (U.S. Patent No. 5317900).
Regarding claim 10, the combination of Wetzig and Winkler teaches all the features of claim 1 as outlined above, the combination of Wetzig and Winkler is silent about wherein the compression volume comprises an absorber material or a getter as a filter to allow a test gas to be detected by the gas pressure sensor to block or bind gases other than the test gas.
Bergquist teaches wherein the compression volume comprises an absorber material or a getter as a filter to allow a test gas to be detected by the gas pressure sensor to block or bind gases other than the test gas (Column 6, lines 32-64).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Wetzig’s buffer volume to have a getter because it would increase accuracy of Wetzig’s leak detection.
Regarding claim 11, the combination of Wetzig and Winkler teaches all the features of claim 1 as outlined above, the combination of Wetzig and Winkler is silent about wherein the compressor pump or a further pump different from the compressor pump is gas-selective between the compression volume and the port so that a test gas to be detected by the gas pressure sensor is delivered into the compression volume and at least one gas different from the test gas is blocked or compressed less effectively.
Bergquist teaches wherein the compressor pump or a further pump different from the compressor pump is gas-selective between the compression volume and the port so that a test gas to be detected by the gas pressure sensor is delivered into the compression volume and at least one gas different from the test gas is blocked or compressed less effectively (Column 6, lines 32-64).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Wetzig’s pump to have a getter because it would increase accuracy of Wetzig’s leak detection.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 7 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.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: The primary reasons for allowance of dependent claim 7 is the inclusion of the specific limitations of “wherein the temperature stabilizing device comprises a heating device heating the compression volume, a cooling device cooling the compression volume and/or an insulating device insulating the compression volume from its external environment”, in combination of with all other recited (method steps/associated elements) in a leak detection device for detecting a gas leak in a test specimen.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to XIN Y ZHONG whose telephone number is (571)272-3798. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9 a.m. - 6 p.m..
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/XIN Y ZHONG/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2855
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