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 is the first action on the merits of application 18/907,645. Claims 1-4 are currently pending.
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.
Claims 1-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP H0624520 A (Kamiide) in view of DE 102022000113 A1 (Pfaff).
Regarding claim 1, Kamiide teaches:
A stacker crane comprising:
a carrier section (8) configured to travel on a track (“traveling rail,” page 2 of the attached machine translation, last paragraph, lines 2-3);
a mast (12) provided upright on the carrier section;
a carriage (1) provided so as to be capable of being raised and lowered with respect to the mast; a raising and lowering motor (20) configured to raise and lower the carriage;
a traveling motor (traveling motor is within drive unit B) configured to cause the carrier section to travel;
a control machine (A) configured to drive at least one of the raising and lowering motor and the traveling motor; and
a regeneration resistor (16) configured to consume regenerative energy caused when at least one of the raising and lowering motor and the traveling motor carries out regeneration operation,
the mast having at least a first portion (lower portion) and a second portion (upper portion) disposed on the first portion and coupled to the first portion,
the control machine (A) being fixed to the first portion.
Kamiide does not teach:
the regeneration resistor being fixed to the second portion.
However, Pfaff teaches:
A stacker crane, and
A braking resistor (4) and energy store (5), fixed to the second (upper) portion of the mast (1).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to arrange the regeneration resistor of Kamiide above the control machine as taught by Pfaff with a reasonable expectation of success to save space in the traveling direction of the carrier section. The arrangement of the components of Kamiide creates a large footprint of the carrier with the control machine on one side of the masts and the drive and regeneration resistor extending in the opposite direction on the other side of the masts. Pfaff teaches a stacked configuration that minimizes space requirements along the traveling direction.
Regarding claim 2, Kamiide further teaches:
comprising a plurality of the masts (11, 12) disposed so as to be adjacent to each other when seen in plan view from a direction perpendicular to a floor surface (figure 1).
Kamiide does not teach:
the control machine and the regeneration resistor being disposed between the plurality of the masts.
However, Pfaff teaches:
the control machine (including 3) and the regeneration resistor (4, 5) being disposed between the plurality of the masts (side walls of tower 1).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to arrange the control machine and regeneration resistor of Kamiide between the masts as taught by Pfaff to further reduce the footprint of the carrier to allow for movement in narrow locations. On page 5, paragraph 9, lines 1-4 Pfaff notes, “Other components required in the control cabinet, such as connection devices, in particular I/O terminals, at least one controller and/or one supply module, in particular a 24V supply module, can preferably also be arranged in the interior of the tower 1 and the mobile part can therefore be made shorter in the direction of movement.” Containing the components within the tower/between vertical sidewalls or masts allows the carrier or mobile part to be shorter in the movement direction.
Regarding claim 3, Pfaff further teaches:
wherein the control machine and the regeneration resistor are, between the plurality of the masts, fixed to one of the plurality of the masts (page 3, last two lines through page 4, line 3, “In an advantageous embodiment, the switch cabinet has two side wall parts, in particular side wall parts designed as sheet metal parts, of the switch cabinet, each of the side wall parts being connected to the frame, another side wall part, in particular a side wall part designed as a sheet metal part, of the control cabinet is connected to the two side wall parts”).
Regarding claim 4, Kamiide further teaches:
further comprising a housing (10) accommodating the regeneration resistor, the housing having a vent (17) causing an outside of the housing and an inside of the housing to communicate with each other.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHELLE M MUDWILDER whose telephone number is (571)272-6068. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 11:00 am - 7:30 pm.
US-10815054-B2, US-20220073284-A1, US-20230211948-A1, JP-2000355405-A, JP-2001287807-A, WO-2016094923-A2, WO-2023184882-A1, and KR-102286398-B1 are cited to show stacker crane arrangements with means for handling regenerative energy and/or configurations with controls arranged between masts. US-20220402737-A1 is cited to show a stacker crane with distinct vertical portions connected by coupling structures.
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/M.M.M./Examiner, Art Unit 3654
/ANNA M MOMPER/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3619
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