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 .
35 USC 103 rejections
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, 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over WO 2022/096822 (Joret) in view of U.S. 2022/0341373 (Conete).
Regarding independent claim 1, Joret discloses an assembly for a turbine engine having a longitudinal axis (X), comprising: an exhaust cone (18, figure 3) comprising an annular wall, an exhaust casing 17 arranged upstream of the exhaust cone (18), and a connection flange (36) arranged longitudinally between the exhaust casing and the exhaust cone (18), the connection flange (36) comprising an annular portion (38) which is fixed to the exhaust casing, and connection tabs (39) extending longitudinally downstream from the annular portion, the connection tabs (39) being distributed circumferentially around the longitudinal axis (X), each connection tab (39) being connected to the annular wall (33) of the exhaust cone (18), and a plurality of sealing members (61, note figure 16 below), each sealing member (61) sealing closed a space circumferentially delimited between a first connection tab (39) and a second connection tab (39) which are circumferentially successive and longitudinally delimited between the annular portion (38) of the connection flange (36) and the annular wall (33) of the exhaust cone (18). Joret does not disclose that each sealing member comprising an external plate adapted to be partly applied in the radial direction against a radially outer face of each among the first connection tab and second connection tab; in other words, the tabs are on top of the seals. Conete is relied upon to disclose an exhaust cone of a gas turbine comprising connection tabs 111, a sealing panel 27 is on top of the tabs 111 (figure 4, paragraph 89). It would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the claimed invention was filed to put the seals on top of the tabs in Joret as taught by Conete for the purpose of sealing the tabs from outside debris.
PNG
media_image1.png
605
716
media_image1.png
Greyscale
Regarding claim 12, after the seal is relocated on top of the tabs in the gas turbine of Joret as taught by Conete, then the seal bears against the annular wall of the exhaust cone.
Allowable Subject Matter and Reasons for Allowance
Claims 2-11 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.
In claim 2, the recitation of “wherein the external plate (70) comprises; an external sealing wall (71),a first external side tab (76), and a second external side tab (77), the external sealing wall (71) being arranged circumferentially between the first and second connection tabs (50), the first external side tab (76) and the second external side tab (77) respectively extending circumferentially from a first circumferential end and a second circumferential end of the external sealing wall (71) which are circumferentially opposite one another, the first external side tab (76) and the second external side tab (77) each being, in whole or in part, applied in the radial direction respectively against the radially outer face of the first connection tab (50) and the radially outer face of the second connection tab (50)”, as within the context of the claimed invention as disclosed and within the context of the other limitations present in claim 2, is neither disclosed by a single prior art reference nor rendered obvious by a combination of prior art references. Thus, claim 2 and its dependent claims are allowable.
Prior Art of Record
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US 2023/0407816, Tesson, Shteyman, and US 2010/0102144 disclose exhaust cones of gas turbines comprising connections tabs and seals.
Conclusions
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the Examiner should be directed to Examiner Nguyen whose telephone number is (571) 272-4861. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday--Thursday from 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Mark Laurenzi, can be reached on (571) 270-7878.
The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free).
/HOANG M NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3746
HOANG NGUYEN
PRIMARY EXAMINER
ART UNIT 3746
Hoang Minh Nguyen
4/17/2026
Prosecution Insights