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
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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) 1-3 and 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over XU et al. (2021/0301957) in view of Briand et al. (5,562,126).
XU et al. disclose a cryocooler comprising; a compressor (41); a cold head (20)(para. 27); and a first flexible hose (1) that connects the compressor to the cold head and that includes a conduit through which a working gas of the cryocooler flows and a braid externally mounted on the conduit (para. 30), wherein the braid includes a braided wire woven into a substantially tubular shape to cover the conduit. XU et al fails to disclose that a tensile stress that acts on the braided wire when the working gas flows through the conduit at a nominal pressure is about 85 N/mm2 or less. Briand et al. disclose a tensile strength of 70 to 80 N/mm2 (col. 4, lines 33-34). NOTE: Tensile strength is the maximum tensile stress a element can handle therefore the tensile strength meets the tensile stress limitation.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to utilize the tensile strength of Briand et al. braiding for the braided material of XU et al. in order to have a support layer that adequately supports a flexible conduit without allowing it to break but also allows freedom of movement of the inner conduit as taught by Briand et al.
Regarding claim 2, wherein the braid is configured such that the tensile stress that acts on the braided wire when the working gas flows through the conduit at the nominal pressure, is about 30 N/mm2 or more (col. 4, lines 33-34).
Regarding claim 3, wherein the compressor includes a delivery port for delivering the working gas, the cold head includes an intake port for receiving the working gas, and the first flexible hose connects the delivery port to the intake port as seen in Figure 1.
Regarding claim 7, the above rejection of claim 1 would meet the limitations in claim 7. The details of the corrugation gap are not necessary for the rejection since there is an “or” statement for the last section of claim 7.
Claim(s) 4 and 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over XU et al. in combination with Briand et al. as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of General Electric Company (WO2020/005300) and ORK Corporation (WO2001/023017).
XU et al. in combination with Briand et al. disclose all the features of the claimed invention except that wherein the compressor includes a collection port for collecting the working gas, the cold head includes an exhaust port for exhausting the working gas, the cryocooler further comprises a second flexible hose that connects the collection port to the exhaust port and that includes a conduit through which the working gas flows, and the conduit of the second flexible hose includes a corrugated inner surface that is exposed to the flow of the working gas , and an inter-corrugation gap on the corrugated inner surface is about 1 mm or less. General Electric Company discloses a delivery port from the compressor (206) and a collection port and the cold head/cryocooler (202) has an intake port and an exhaust port for the working gas as seen in Figure 10.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to utilize two separate line for the working gas to and from the cold head/cryocooler as taught by General Electric Company with the system of XU et al., the delivery system of the working gas of General Electric Company is a known alternative to sending and receiving the working gas from a compressor to a cold head. This system would allow for eliminating the switch valve and utilize less working technical elements (valve). This replaces one known delivery method with another known equivalent delivery method from a finite number of options.
ORK Corporation discloses an inter-corrugation gap on the corrugated inner surface is about 1 mm or less as seen in Figure 1 (translation page 6, para. 11).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to utilize an inter-corrugation gap on the corrugated inner surface of about 1 mm or less as taught by ORK Corporation with the system of XU et al., in order to have a tube that is of high flexibility and also allows for an increased thickness as taught by ORK Corporation.
Regarding claim 5, wherein the inter-corrugation gap on the corrugated inner surface is about 6 mm or less (page 6, para. 11 further indicates 0.3 mm or more range).
Claim(s) 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over XU et al. (2021/0301957) in view of ORK Corporation (WO2001/023017).
XU et al. disclose a cryocooler comprising; a compressor (41); a cold head (20)(para. 27); and a first flexible hose (1) that connects the compressor to the cold head and that includes a conduit through which a working gas of the cryocooler flows and a braid externally mounted on the conduit (para. 30), wherein the conduit includes a corrugated inner surface that is exposed to the flow of the working gas. XU et al. fail to disclose an inter-corrugation gap on the corrugated inner surface is about 1 mm or less.
ORK Corporation discloses an inter-corrugation gap on the corrugated inner surface is about 1 mm or less as seen in Figure 1 (translation page 6, para. 11).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to utilize an inter-corrugation gap on the corrugated inner surface of about 1 mm or less as taught by ORK Corporation with the system of XU et al., in order to have a tube that is of high flexibility and also allows for an increased thickness as taught by ORK Corporation.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CRAIG M SCHNEIDER whose telephone number is (571)272-3607. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8am-5pm.
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/CRAIG M SCHNEIDER/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3753
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