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 .
Status
This Office Action is in response to the remarks and amendments filed on 6/11/2026. Claims 1-20 remain pending for consideration on the merits.
This Office Action contains a New Grounds of Rejection. Since this new grounds of rejection did not result from an amendment to the claims, this Office Action is being made non-final to afford the applicant the opportunity to respond to the new grounds of rejection.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, “when viewed in an extending direction of the rotational axis, the rotational plane has an overlapping part with both the first portion and the second portion of the heat exchanger assembly” must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Claim Objections
Claim 18 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 18 depends from itself. For examination purposes, claim 18 is interpreted to depend from claim 11. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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) 1 and 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Abastari et al (US 20110127019).
Regarding claim 1, Abastari teaches an air conditioner outdoor unit (10), comprising: a cabinet (11), which has an air inlet (X into X) and an air outlet (25a), an airflow channel (X) being formed between the air inlet and the air outlet, and a side wall (14) of the cabinet having a first inner side face (14 left) and a second inner side face (14 right) arranged opposite to each other (fig. 1); an axial flow fan (24), which is arranged inside the airflow channel (fig. 1); and a heat exchanger assembly (21), which is arranged inside the airflow channel (fig. 1); wherein in a direction of a rotational axis of the axial flow fan (fig. 1), the axial flow fan and the heat exchanger assembly are sequentially arranged (fig. 1); the heat exchanger assembly comprises a first portion (21 along 14 left, fig. 2) and a second portion (21 along 14 right, fig. 2), the first portion is arranged to extend along the first inner side face (figs 1-2), and the second portion is arranged to extend along the second inner side face (figs. 1-2); a rotational plane (fig. 1, paragraph 0026) is defined by the axial flow fan, which is a plane swept by 360° around the rotational axis (rotation of 24 along vertical X, fig. 1, paragraph 0026) by a radius axis (vertical X, fig. 1) between the outmost point of a blade (24) of the axial flow fan and the rotational axis; and when viewed in an extending direction of the rotational axis (fig. 1), the rotational plane has an overlapping part (annotated fig. below) with both the first portion and the second portion of the heat exchanger assembly (annotated fig. below).
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Regarding claim 11, Abastari teaches the air conditioner outdoor unit is configured as a fan unit (26) and a heat exchanger unit (14 and 21), and the cabinet comprises a first housing (26) and a second housing (14) that are detachably connected (16 and 17, paragraph 0024); the fan unit comprises the first housing and the axial flow fan arranged inside the first housing (fig. 1), and the heat exchanger unit comprises the second housing and the heat exchanger assembly arranged inside the second housing (fig. 1).
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) 12-15, 17-18, 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Abastari as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Moraes et al (US 20110174013).
Regarding claim 12, Abastari teaches the first housing comprises a first side wall portion (25) arranged around the rotational axis, which is configured in a cylindrical configuration with upper and lower openings (into 25 and 25a) along the rotational axis; the upper opening of the first side wall portion is configured as the air outlet (25a with X), and the lower opening of the first side wall portion is configured to receive air after heat exchange with the heat exchanger assembly (X through 21 into 22) but fails to explicitly teach the fan unit comprises a grille, which is installed at the upper opening of the first side wall portion, a back side of the grille faces an internal space defined by the first side wall portion, and the axial flow fan is installed on a lower side of the grille.
However, Moraes teaches the fan unit comprises a grille (36), which is installed at the upper opening of the first side wall portion (fig. 10d), a back side of the grille faces an internal space defined by the first side wall portion (fig. 10d), and the axial flow fan is installed on a lower side of the grille (fig. 12) to provide a condenser that is lighter and less expensive condensers capable of comparable capacities with greater efficiency and smaller and more flexible installation footprints.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person skilled in the art before the effective filing date to modify the air conditioner outdoor unit of Abastari to include the fan unit comprises a grille, which is installed at the upper opening of the first side wall portion, a back side of the grille faces an internal space defined by the first side wall portion and the axial flow fan is installed on a lower side of the grille in view of the teachings of Moraes to provide a condenser that is lighter and less expensive condensers capable of comparable capacities with greater efficiency and smaller and more flexible installation footprints.
Regarding claim 13, the combined teachings teach the first side wall portion comprises multiple support portions (94 of Moraes), which are arranged at the upper opening of the first side wall portion, and which are configured to jointly support the grille; and the multiple support portions are located in a same first plane (fig. 10b of Moraes), which is perpendicular to the rotational axis (fig. 10b of Moraes); the first plane is lower than an upper edge of the first side wall portion to form a concave space (fig. 10d of Moraes), and the grille is accommodated in the concave space and fixedly installed on the multiple support portions (fig. 10d of Moraes).
Regarding claim 14, the combined teachings teach the fan unit comprises an air guide ring (36 of Moraes), an inner wall (inner wall of 11a of Muramatus) of the air guide ring encloses an air guide channel (air through 36 of Moraes, vertical X through Abastari) with upper and lower openings (fig.3 of Moraes), and an edge of the upper opening of the air guide ring is formed with multiple upper installation portions (80d and 90 of Moraes); and the first side wall portion comprises multiple support portions (80b of Moraes), which are arranged at the upper opening of the first side wall portion (fig. 10a-d of Moraes); lower sides of the multiple support portions are correspondingly fixed to the multiple upper installation portions respectively (fig. 10a-d of Moraes), and upper sides of the multiple support portions are configured to jointly support the grille (fig. 10a-d of Moraes).
Regarding claim 15, the combined teachings teach the second housing comprises a second side wall portion (14 of Abastari) arranged around the rotational axis, which is configured in a cylindrical configuration (fig. 1 of Moraes) with upper and lower openings along the rotational axis (fig. 1 of Abastari); a bottom wall (12 of Abastari) is installed at the lower opening of the second side wall portion, and the bottom wall supports the heat exchanger assembly (fig. 1 of Abastari); the upper opening of the second side wall portion corresponds to the lower opening of the first side wall portion (fig. 1 of Abastari).
Regarding claim 17, the combined teachings teach a housing wall of the first housing is recessed toward the internal cylindrical space to form multiple groove portions (80b, 80d of Moraes), each of the groove portions having a groove bottom wall (bottom of 80b of Moraes) along the recessed direction, a first groove wall (lower portion of 80b of Moraes) connected to a lower side of the groove bottom wall, and a second groove wall (80a of Moraes) connected to an upper side of the groove bottom wall; and the first housing is installed onto the second housing from top to bottom (paragraph 0040 of Moraes), and an upper end of the second housing is inserted into the lower opening of the first housing and is configured as a bearing surface to bear the first groove walls of the multiple groove portions (fig. 1, paragraph 0041 of Moraes).
Regarding claim 18, the combined teachings teach a lower edge of the first housing is provided with multiple first fixing holes (unnumbered holes, fig. 10a-d of Moraes), the upper end of the second housing is provided with multiple second fixing holes (unnumbered holes, fig. 10a-d of Moraes), and the multiple first fixing holes are respectively fixed to the multiple second fixing holes in a one-to-one correspondence (unnumbered holes, fig. 10a-d of Moraes).
Regarding claim 20, the combined teaching teach an HVAC apparatus (10 of Moraes), wherein the HVAC apparatus comprises the air conditioner outdoor unit according to claim 1 and an indoor unit (16 of Moraes), and the indoor unit and the air conditioner outdoor unit are communicated through a gas pipe (18 of Moraes) and a liquid pipe (18 of Moraes) to form a refrigerant circulation system (fig. 1 of Moraes); and the air conditioner outdoor unit comprises a compressor (12 of Moraes), the heat exchanger assembly, and a gas-liquid separator (26 of Moraes); one end of the heat exchanger assembly is connected to an exhaust port of the compressor (fig. 1 of Moraes), and the other end of the heat exchanger assembly is connected to the liquid pipe (fig. 1 of Moraes); one end of the gas-liquid separator is connected to an air return port of the compressor (fig. 1 of Moraes), and the other end of the gas-liquid separator is connected to the gas pipe (fig. 1 of Moraes).
Claim(s) 16, 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Abastari in view of Moraes as applied to claims 11-12, 15 above, and further in view of Muramatus et al (US 2019036075).
Regarding claim 16, the combined teachings teach the second side wall portion has a ventilation side wall (X through 14, fig. 1 of Abastari), which surrounds an outer side of the heat exchanger assembly (fig. 1 of Abastari) and which has multiple ventilation holes corresponding to the heat exchanger assembly (understood 14 would have multiple opening for air inlet, fig. 1 of Abastari); the fan unit drives external air to pass through the multiple ventilation holes and exchange heat with the heat exchanger assembly (fig. 1 of Abastari), and the air after heat exchange enters the fan unit from the heat exchanger unit and flows out from the air outlet (X through 25a, fig. 1 of Abastari); the partition covers the opening of the ventilation side wall (fig. 1 of Abastari), and the cover and the ventilation side wall are configured into a complete rectangular shape (fig. 1 of Abastari) but fails to explicitly teach wherein the air conditioner outdoor unit further comprises an electric control box assembly, which comprises a partition, a circuit board installed on the partition, and a cover connected to the partition and covering the circuit board; and the ventilation side wall has a rectangular shape and forms an opening at the corner.
However, Muramatsu teaches wherein the air conditioner outdoor unit further comprises an electric control box assembly, which comprises a partition (15), a circuit board (14c) installed on the partition, and a cover (fig. 3, the circuit board is covered) connected to the partition and covering the circuit board; and the ventilation side wall has a rectangular shape (fig. 3) and forms an opening at the corner (15b) to increase the flow rate of the air flowing through the cooling duct fast enough to sufficiently cool the heat sink (heat radiation member) by using the air flowing through the cooling duct.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person skilled in the art before the effective filing date to modify the air conditioner outdoor unit of the combined teachings to include wherein the air conditioner outdoor unit further comprises an electric control box assembly, which comprises a partition, a circuit board installed on the partition, and a cover connected to the partition and covering the circuit board; and the ventilation side wall has a rectangular shape and forms an opening at the corner in view of the teachings of Muramatus to increase the flow rate of the air flowing through the cooling duct fast enough to sufficiently cool the heat sink (heat radiation member) by using the air flowing through the cooling duct.
Regarding claim 19, the combined teachings teach the fan unit comprises an air guide ring (11a of Muramatus); an inner wall of the air guide ring (inner wall of 11a of Muramatus) encloses an air guide channel (arrows, fig. 3 of Muramatus) with upper and lower openings (arrows, fig. 3 of Muramatus), and an outer side of the air guide ring is provided with multiple side installation portions (unnumbered holes, fig. 10a-d of Moraes); the groove bottom wall of each of the groove portions is correspondingly provided with at least one installation hole (unnumbered holes, fig. 10a-d of Moraes), and the multiple side installation portions are respectively fixed to the multiple installation holes in a one-to-one correspondence (unnumbered holes, fig. 10a-d of Moraes).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ELIZABETH J MARTIN whose telephone number is (571)270-3840. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30-3:00 CT pm M-F.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jerry-Daryl Fletcher can be reached at (571) 270-5054. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ELIZABETH J MARTIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3763
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