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 .
This action is in response to an application filed on 09/27/2024.
Claims 1-9 are pending for examination.
Drawings
New corrected drawings in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in this application because the blank boxes in Fig.1B and Fig.2 need to have a written description in the drawings. Applicant is advised to employ the services of a competent patent draftsperson outside the Office, as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office no longer prepares new drawings. The corrected drawings are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. The requirement for corrected drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Objections
Claim 2 recites the limitation "a linear motor" in line 2. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 3 recites the limitation "a linear motor" in line 2. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 7 recites the limitation "a linear motor system" in line 2, "a plurality of linear motors being arranged in a row and having a track” in line 4, “a segment boundary” in line 5, “a driving force” in line 6, “at least one position sensor” in line 7, “a control unit” in line 9, “a processing unit and a storage unit” in line 10-11. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitations in the claim.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 7 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claims 7 and 9 improperly combine two statutory classes, namely apparatus and method of using an apparatus. It is unclear to the examiner to determine if the claims should be treated as an apparatus claim (system claim) or a method claim as apparatus claims have different statutory requirements than that of method claims. It is unclear if the claim is infringed by the structure defined in claim 7 and 9 or when the method is performed (See MPEP 2173.05(p)) for track calibration of a linear motor system of claim 1. The suggestions would be to recite a system for track calibration for a linear motor system, the system comprising a control circuit to perform the method of claim 1 (re-written in independent form) or cancelling the system claims that depend on the method claim.
Conclusion
In view of the limitations the closest prior art as shown in the pto1449/Pto 896 including the prior works of the assignee/inventor does not explicitly describe or reasonably suggest or render obvious in combination with all the given limitations a method a method for track calibration of a linear motor system having at least one transport element, a plurality of linear motors being arranged in a row and having a track, wherein adjacent linear motors adjoin each other at a segment boundary and each of the linear motors is configured to apply a driving force for moving the transport element along the track and comprises at least one position sensor for detecting the position of the transport element as it travels along the track, and a control unit configured to control the linear motors to apply the driving force to the transport element, the control unit comprising a processing unit and a storage unit, the method comprising: controlling the linear motors to move the transport element along the track in a calibration run, determining position jumps at the segment boundaries of at least a part of the linear motors based on position feedback signals from the position sensors of the respective linear motor and its adjacent linear motors in the calibration run, generating an offset value and/or a gain value for at least the part of the linear motors from the determined position jumps, storing the offset values and/or the gain values in the storage unit as claimed and the subject matter of the claims appears to be allowable if the rejections under 35 U.S.C. 112 can be overcome.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
(US 2015/0028098 A1): A system for tracking position and identification of a moving element on a conveyor system having a track, the system including: a machine readable medium provided to one of the moving element or the track, wherein the machine readable medium is configured with at least two channels with a predetermined phase difference therebetween; a sensor provided to the other of the moving element or the track, wherein the sensor is configured to read the at least two channels; and a controller configured to receive data from the sensor and determine a position and/or identification of the moving element on the track based on the phase difference (see [Abstract]).
US 20150268122 A1: A method for force calibration, force computation and force limitation of iron core linear motors by detecting interfering influences during the operating of the sled, wherein a winding current measured in the linear motor is used as value for these interfering forces, and the sled of the linear motor with all add-ons but without application forces over a desired travel area with a one-time calibration and, in the process, at least one interfering current value and at least one position value are recorded and stored by at least one current and position sensor per travel interval, wherein the interfering current value represents the sum of the interfering forces and, in the later application operation, the saved data record of interfering current and position values is interpolated and used as compensation value for computing the force-proportional application current of the linear motor (see [Abstract]).
A linear motor system includes a discontinuous linear motor and motor control device. The discontinuous linear motor includes a mover and a plurality of individual motors spaced from each other along a movement path of the mover. Each of the individual motors functions as an armature on a primary side of one independent linear motor. A sensor, arranged to act as a linear scale, is disposed for each individual motor and detects a position of the mover. The motor control device includes a plurality of individual motor control units and a multiple unit controller to comprehensively control the individual motor control units. The individual motor control units control the individual motors disposed in curved path sections, and each of the individual motor control units includes a curved-line correspondence corrector to correct a detection value obtained from the sensor according to a relationship between a curved line of the path and a position of the sensor (see [Abstract]).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GABRIEL T AGARED whose telephone number is (571)270-1981. The examiner can normally be reached 8-5 (Mon- Thur).
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Eduardo Colon-Santana can be reached at (571) 272-2060. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/GABRIEL AGARED/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2837
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