DETAILED ACTION
Claim Amendments Status
This office action is responsive to the amendment filed on 01/22/2026. As directed by the amendment: claim(s) 34 has/have been cancelled, and no new claim(s) has/have been added. Thus, claims 25-33 & 35-44 are presently pending in this application.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim(s) 25-26 & 29-30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over SAKURAYAMA (JP 2020037912 A) in view of Klingbeil et al. (US 11635046 B1).
Re claim 25, SAKURAYAMA ‘912 discloses a control system 1 (fig. 1) for an internal combustion engine 100, the control system 1 comprising:
a temperature sensor 125 (fig. 1) configured to measure an exhaust temperature from a cylinder of the internal combustion engine 100;
a NOx sensor 121 (fig. 1; “Each NOx sensor 121 is provided at a connection portion between the exhaust port of the corresponding cylinder and the exhaust manifold 130, detects the NOx emission amount of the corresponding cylinder, and transmits a signal indicating the detection result to the ECU 200.”) configured to measure an exhaust NOx amount from the cylinder; and
a controller (ECU 200; fig. 1) operably connected to the temperature sensor 125 and the NOx sensor 121, the controller 200 configured to:
receive the measured exhaust temperature from the temperature sensor 125 (“The exhaust gas temperature sensor 125 detects the temperature of the exhaust gas flowing through the exhaust pipe 131, and transmits a signal indicating the detection result to the ECU 200.”) and the measured exhaust NOx amount from the NOx sensor 121;
calculate a current combustion performance (estimation of EGR cooler efficiency) of the cylinder based on the measured exhaust temperature and the measured exhaust NOx amount;
determine whether to adjust one or more of a plurality of operational parameters; and
control the one or more of the plurality of operational parameters based on the current combustion performance (“The ECU 200 determines whether the EGR cooler efficiency has decreased by detecting the increase in the NOx emission amount. Specifically, ECU 200 determines whether or not the amount of NOx emission detected by at least one of the plurality of NOx sensors 121 has exceeded threshold value Eth. In this determination, the plurality of NOx emission amounts respectively detected by the plurality of NOx sensors 121 may be compared with a threshold value Eth, or may be detected by a specific NOx sensor 121 among the plurality of NOx sensors 121. Only the NOx emission amount may be compared with the threshold value Eth.”).
SAKURAYAMA ‘912 teaches the invention as essentially claimed. However, SAKURAYAMA fails to teach, either explicitly or implicitly, the engine system further comprising a knock sensor coupled to one of an intake manifold, an exhaust manifold, a cylinder head, or an engine block, and communicatively coupled to the controller and configured to measure engine knock, wherein the controller is configured to adjust the one or more operational parameters based on the measured engine knock and, for one or more of the plurality of cylinders, the measured exhaust temperature and the measured exhaust NOx amount.
However, the patent to Klingbeil ‘046 teaches a method and systems for active air fuel ratio control for controlling emissions and a likelihood of engine knocking during combustion in a multi-fuel engine, wherein the engine system further comprising a knock sensor 173 (fig. 2) coupled to an engine block (i.e., coupled to the cylinders), communicatively coupled to the controller 12 and configured to measure engine knock, wherein the controller 12 is configured to adjust the one or more operational parameters based on the measured engine knock and, for one or more of the plurality of cylinders, the measured exhaust temperature and the measured exhaust NOx amount. Klingbeil specifically teaches in col. 23, lines 19-33 & col. 23, line 56 thru col. 24, line 8 the following:
“At step 416, the method includes determining if knock is detected at one or more cylinders of the engine. Knock may be monitored by knock sensors coupled to the cylinders and a magnitude of a signal, the signal proportional to a vibration or sound level observed at the cylinders, may be transmitted to the controller and compared to a threshold knock signal level. The threshold knock signal level may, as one example, be a signal magnitude corresponding to a calibrated vibration/sound level indicative of knock. As another example, the threshold knock signal level may represent a signal level approaching the calibrated level indicative of knock, e.g., within a margin of the calibrated level indicative of knock, thereby enabling adjustments to the substitution rate, injection timing, and/or EGR flow to be made before knock occurs.”; and
“[a]n EGR flow rate may further influence the injection timing. In one embodiment, a first fuel injection timing and/or a second fuel injection timing may be delayed in response to EGR flowing to the engine. A magnitude of the delay may be proportional to the EGR flow rate. For example, injection timing may be delayed in response to EGR flow due to an increase in the intake manifold temperature. Injection timing may be advanced in response to EGR flow in another example, as EGR may help reduce the likelihood of knock and reduce NOx emissions which may allow for advanced injection timing. Thus, the first fuel injection timing and the second fuel injection timing may be more delayed as the EGR flow rate increases. As such, the substitution ratio may be decreased in addition to adjusting the injection timing if modifying the injection time alone does not mitigate knock. The method returns to step 416 to confirm if knock is detected at the remaining cylinders. A timeline showing example adjustments to engine settings and resulting changes to AFR and substitution ratio are shown in FIG. 5.”.
In view of this teaching, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have modify the engine control system of SAKURAYAMA, such that the engine control system further takes into account engine knocking detected by knock sensors for the adjustment of the one or more operational parameters, and for the measured exhaust gas temperature and the measured exhaust NOx amount, as clearly suggested and taught by Klingbeil, in order to mitigate engine knocking which would otherwise decrease/lower engine’s overall operating efficiency.
Re claim 26, modified SAKURAYAMA ‘912 further teaches wherein the controller 200 is configured to determine whether to adjust the plurality of operational parameters including at least one of an air-fuel ratio, a fuel composition, an exhaust gas recirculation fraction, a spark timing value, an injection duration and an injection pressure, a timing of a valve opening or closing event, or a geometric compression ratio. (“[w]hen it is determined that the EGR cooler efficiency has decreased below the reference value Cth by the above-described decrease determination processing, the ECU 200 increases the EGR gas flow rate and attaches to the metal surface of the heat exchange unit of the EGR cooler 142. Remove PM. Specifically, the ECU 200, when the EGR valve 144 is open, sets the intake air amount to each cylinder so that the intake air amount becomes a predetermined value G1 larger than that during normal use (when it is not determined that the EGR cooler efficiency has decreased). The process of increasing the fuel injection amount (main injection amount) is continued for a predetermined time T1 (for example, about several minutes). This process is the EGR cooler regeneration process. By this EGR cooler regeneration processing, the EGR gas flow rate is increased, and PM attached to the metal surface of the heat exchange part of the EGR cooler 142 is blown off by the EGR gas. As a result, the EGR cooler efficiency recovers to a value close to the initial value C0 (see FIG. 2 described above). As a result, the NOx emission amount is also reduced to a value close to the initial value E0.”).
Re claim 29, modified SAKURAYAMA ‘912 further teaches wherein the controller 200 (fig. 1) is configured to adjust at least one of an overall internal combustion engine air-fuel ratio or an overall internal combustion engine exhaust gas recirculation fraction in response to the measured exhaust temperature and the measured exhaust NOx amount (“First, the ECU 200 obtains the NOx emission amount detected by the NOx sensor 121 (step S10), and determines whether the NOx emission amount is larger than the threshold value Eth (step S12). In this determination, as described above, the plurality of NOx emissions detected by the plurality of NOx sensors 121 may be compared with the threshold value Eth, or a specific one of the plurality of NOx sensors 121 may be used. Only the NOx emission amount detected by the NOx sensor 121 may be compared with the threshold value Eth.”, and “ECU 200 according to the present embodiment determines that the EGR cooler efficiency has decreased when the NOx emission amount detected by NOx sensor 121 exceeds threshold value Eth, and increases the main injection amount. An EGR cooler regeneration process for increasing the EGR gas flow rate is performed. Thereby, PM attached to the heat exchange section of the EGR cooler 142 can be blown off by the EGR gas. As a result, it is possible to recover the aged EGR cooler efficiency and reduce the NOx emission.”).
Re claim 30, modified SAKURAYAMA ‘912 further teaches wherein the controller 200 is configured to determine a target combustion performance (threshold value Eth) based on engine operating conditions; compare the current combustion performance to the target combustion performance; and control the one or more of the plurality of operational parameters based on the comparison of the current combustion performance and the target combustion performance (see disclosure above).
Claim(s) 27-28, 31-33 & 35-44 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over SAKURAYAMA ‘912 in view of Klingbeil ‘046 as applied to claims 25-26 & 29-30 above, and further in view of Peters et al. (US 20130186376 A1).
Re claims 27-28, modified SAKURAYAMA ‘912 teaches the invention as essentially claimed including wherein the cylinder is one of a plurality of cylinders of the internal combustion engine (fig. 1), each of the plurality of cylinders having a respective NOx sensor 121 (fig. 1; “Each NOx sensor 121 is provided at a connection portion between the exhaust port of the corresponding cylinder and the exhaust manifold 130, detects the NOx emission amount of the corresponding cylinder, and transmits a signal indicating the detection result to the ECU 200.”), and a single exhaust gas temperature sensor 125 (fig. 1). SAKURAYAMA further explicitly teaches wherein the controller 200 is configured to control the current combustion performance of each of the plurality of cylinders to balance a collective combustion performance among the plurality of cylinders.
However, modified SAKURAYAMA fails to teach that each of the plurality of cylinders having a respective exhaust gas temperature sensor. In other words, SAKURAYAMA only teaches a single exhaust gas temperature sensor 125 in the engine control system.
However, the patent application to Peters ‘376 teaches that it is conventional in the art of engine control systems for managing engine operating conditions, such as EGR and combustion temperatures, etc…, to provide the engine with multiple exhaust gas temperature sensors 182 (fig. 1), in that, wherein each of the plurality of cylinders comprises a respective exhaust temperature sensor 182. Peters ‘176 further explicitly discloses:
“[0022] The engine system 100 further includes a temperature sensor 182 and a pressure sensor 183 disposed in the exhaust gas recirculation system 160 upstream of the first valve 164 and the second valve 170. As described below with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3, the first and second valves 164 and 170 may be adjusted based on temperature measured by the temperature sensor 182 and/or pressure measured by the pressure sensor 183. In some embodiments, each of the engine cylinders may include a separate temperature sensor and/or pressure sensor such that there are a plurality of temperature sensors and/or pressure sensors. In other examples, the engine system may include a plurality of temperatures sensors disposed downstream of the exhaust valve of each of the engine cylinders and only one pressure sensor, or vice versa.”.
In view of this teaching, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have modified the engine control system of SAKURAYAMA, such that each of the plurality of cylinders comprises a respective exhaust gas temperature sensor, as clearly suggested and taught by Peters, in order to effectively determine engine component condition, such as degradation, in addition to perform engine emissions and EGR control, while allowing enhanced engine overall operating efficiency.
With regards to claim(s) 31, the claim(s) is/are commensurate in scope with claim(s) 27 & 25, and is/are rejected for the same reasons as set forth above.
In regards to claim 32, modified SAKURAYAMA teaches wherein each cylinder of the plurality of cylinders comprises an exhaust manifold or an exhaust port configured to receive an exhaust gas (see fig. 1 of SAKURAYAMA and fig. 1 of Peters), the temperature sensor 182 (see Peters’ fig. 1) and the NOx sensor 121 (see SAKURAYAMA’s fig. 1) being coupled to the exhaust manifold 130 (see SAKURAYAMA’s fig. 1) or the exhaust port to measure the exhaust temperature and the exhaust NOx amount of the exhaust gas.
In regards to claim 33, modified SAKURAYAMA teaches wherein the controller 200 (fig. 1 of SAKURAYAMA) is configured to receive information relating to the plurality of operational parameters including (i) an exhaust gas recirculation fraction of an exhaust gas recirculation system of the internal combustion engine, (ii) a spark timing value of an ignition system of the internal combustion engine, (iii) an injection duration and an injection pressure of a fuel injection system of the internal combustion engine, (iv) a timing of a valve opening or closing event of a cam of the internal combustion engine, (v) an air-fuel ratio of the internal combustion engine, (vi) a geometric compression ratio of one or more of the plurality of cylinders of the internal combustion engine, and (vii) a fuel composition, and wherein the controller is configured to receive information relating to each of the plurality of operational parameters to evaluate the combustion of the internal combustion engine. Note, these operational parameters are conventional and well-known in the art of internal combustion engine control systems to one having ordinary skill in the art, as these are conventional operating parameters, as well as many others, that engine control systems utilize to perform exhaust emissions and EGR controls to fully enhance engine’s overall operating efficiency.
With regards to claim(s) 35, the claim(s) is/are commensurate in scope with claim(s) 29, and is/are rejected for the same reasons as set forth above.
With regards to claim 36, modified SAKURAYAMA teaches wherein the internal combustion engine is one of a spark-ignited engine, a pilot-ignited engine, a compression-ignited engine, a dual fuel engine, a port-injected hydrogen fueled engine, a direct-injected hydrogen fueled engine, a hydrogen fueled engine, a natural gas fueled engine, a propane fueled engine, or an ammonia fueled engine.
With regards to claim(s) 37, the claim(s) is/are commensurate in scope with claim(s) 25, and is/are rejected for the same reasons as set forth above.
With regards to claim(s) 38, the claim(s) is/are commensurate in scope with claim(s) 25, 27 & 30-31, and is/are rejected for the same reasons as set forth above.
With regards to claim(s) 39, the claim(s) is/are commensurate in scope with claim(s) 25 & 27-28, and is/are rejected for the same reasons as set forth above.
With regards to claim(s) 40, the claim(s) is/are commensurate in scope with claim(s) 25, 27, 31, 33 & 37, and is/are rejected for the same reasons as set forth above.
With regards to claim(s) 41, the claim(s) is/are commensurate in scope with claim(s) 32, and is/are rejected for the same reasons as set forth above.
With regards to claims 42-44, SAKURAYAMA, as modified by Peters and Klingbeil, teaches wherein the internal combustion engine is a dual fuel engine configured to receive a mixture of a first fuel and a second fuel, and wherein determining whether to adjust one or more of the plurality of operational parameters comprises determining whether to adjust the fuel composition, the fuel composition corresponding to a ratio of the first fuel to the second fuel in the mixture; further comprising adjusting the fuel composition to attain a target combustion performance; and wherein determining whether to adjust one or more of the plurality of operational parameters comprises determining whether to adjust the ratio of the first fuel, the first fuel including hydrogen, to the second fuel, the second fuel including natural gas or ammonia, in the mixture.. Specifically, Klingbeil explicitly teaches in col. 5, lines 43-54 the following:
“(20) The one or more fuel storage tanks of the fuel tender may have a structure suitable for storing a specific type of fuel. In one embodiment, the fuel storage tank may be adapted for cryogenic storage of liquefied natural gas (LNG). As another embodiment, the fuel storage tank may store a fuel in a liquid state at ambient temperature and pressure, such as diesel or ammonia. In yet another embodiment, the fuel storage tank may store a fuel as a compressed gas, such as hydrogen or natural gas. In each instance, the fuel tender may be equipped with various mechanisms and devices for storage of the particular fuel. Further details of the fuel tender are shown further below, with reference to FIG. 3.”.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 01/22/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. First of all, Applicant argues that SAKURAYAMA ‘912 in view of Peters ‘376 and Klingbeil ‘046 fails to teach, disclose or suggest the combination of elements in each of amended independent claims 31 and 38 (and apparently claim 25 as well, based on the similar amendments). Secondly, Applicant has failed to provide any explicitly reasoning as to why and/or how, at least in view of Klingbeil ‘046, the references fail to teach the combination of elements, which now include the knock sensor and the controls based on the measured engine knock. The Examiner respectfully disagrees with the assertion.
It is duly noted that the reference, Klingbeil ‘046, has been introduced to provide the explicit teachings as to why a person of ordinary skill in the art (POSITA) would also include an engine knock sensor and controls utilizing the measured engine knock (see the rejections above, specifically see claims 25 and 27, as well as others). Specifically, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have modify the engine control system of SAKURAYAMA, such that the engine control system further takes into account engine knocking detected by knock sensors for the adjustment of the one or more operational parameters, and for the measured exhaust gas temperature and the measured exhaust NOx amount, as clearly suggested and taught by Klingbeil, in order to mitigate engine knocking which would otherwise decrease/lower engine’s overall operating efficiency.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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HUNG Q. NGUYEN
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3747
/HUNG Q NGUYEN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3747