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 § 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.
Claim(s) 13-16 and 22-30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by NPL cite No 2 Konig et al. on IDS filed 11/26/2024.
In regard to claim 13 Konig etal. discloses: a method (10) for monitoring a plain bearing (50) of a wind turbine, a steam turbine or a compressor,(abstract and figure 1)wherein the method comprises at least the following steps: - detecting (12) a structure-borne-sound signal of the plain bearing (50) by means of a structure-borne-sound sensor (52); ("acoustic emission (AE) technique" in the document as a whole) - transforming (16) the detected structure-borne-sound signal into a time-frequency domain, in particular by continuous wavelet transform; (section 2.2.8) - identifying (18) anomalies in the transformed structure-borne-sound signal by means of an autoencoder; 3.3) - generating (20) anomaly data on the basis of identified anomalies. (section 3.3). For claims 14, 15 and 22 see Konig et al section 2.2.8. For claim 16 the digitization of the signal is inherent. For claims 23 and 24 see section 2.2.1. For claim 25 see section 2.2.1 Claims 29 and 30 follow from the above rejection.
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.
Claim(s) 17-21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Konig et al. in view of CN113158814 Foreign patent cite No 1 on IDS filed 11/26/2024.
The Reference to Konig discloses all fetures of the claimed invention, but for the specifics of the structure-bourne sound signals.
CN 1131814 discloses: a method (10) for monitoring a wind turbine, a steam turbine or a compressor where the method comprises at least the
following steps:
- detecting (12) a structure-borne-sound signal of the plain bearing (50) by means of a structure-borne-sound
sensor (52);
- transforming (16) the detected structure-borne-sound signal into a time-frequency domain, in particular by
continuous wavelet transform;
- identifying (18) anomalies in the transformed structure-borne-sound signal by means of an autoencoder;(step
- generating (20) anomaly data on the basis of identified anomalies. The frequencies and measurement intervals are considered design expediants. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to provide the device of Konig et al with specific structure borne sound signals as suggested by CN ‘814 in order to accurately measure the slide bearing.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RICHARD M CAMBY whose telephone number is (571)272-6958. The examiner can normally be reached M - F flex.
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/RICHARD M CAMBY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3661
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