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 . Claims 1-8 are pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-2 and 4-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Miura et al. (JP 4012828 B2).
PNG
media_image1.png
635
917
media_image1.png
Greyscale
Regarding claim 1, Miura discloses a rotor manufacturing method for manufacturing a rotor (10, fig. 9) in which a core plate (rotor core, annotated fig. 9A) extends in a radial direction with respect to a central axis (rotation axis of the rotor), a plurality of piece plates (core pieces, annotated fig. 9A) are arranged in a circumferential direction at positions spaced apart radially outward from the core plate (see annotated fig. 9A), a plurality of the core plates are laminated in a thickness direction (see the stacked laminated steel sheets in annotated fig. 9A; see also the title: “Method for producing laminated iron cores”), a plurality of each of the plurality of piece plates are laminated in the thickness direction (see annotated fig. 9A), and a plurality of magnets (magnets, annotated fig. 9A) are located between the core plate and the plurality of piece plates, a rotor manufacturing method comprising:
PNG
media_image2.png
473
926
media_image2.png
Greyscale
a punching step of punching a steel sheet to form a laminated steel sheet including the core plate, the plurality of piece plates, and a plurality of connecting portions each connecting each of the plurality of piece plates and the core plate in a radial direction (see claim 1 in the machine translated copy: “A method for manufacturing a laminated iron core, the method comprising: sequentially pressing a thin sheet material to manufacture a large number of assembled segment pieces formed of an assembly of segment pieces divided into a plurality of sections by slits, and upper and lower connecting pieces for connecting assembled segment piece laminates obtained by caulking and laminating the assembled segment pieces via caulking portions”, see also fig. 7, above);
a laminating step of laminating the laminated steel sheet in the thickness direction to form a laminated body (see fig. 9B and claim 1); and
a connecting portion removing step of removing the plurality of connecting portions from the laminated body (to create space for inserting magnets; see para [0022]: “Thereafter, unnecessary portions of the slits 123 of the collected segment pieces 111 stacked on the coupling piece 117 are collectively removed to form slit holes, the coupling piece 116 is disposed on the stacked collected segment pieces 111, and permanent magnets are inserted into the slit holes.”), and forming magnet arrangement spaces for arranging the plurality of magnets between the core plate and the plurality of piece plates (implied).
PNG
media_image3.png
449
648
media_image3.png
Greyscale
Regarding claim 2/1, Miura discloses the rotor manufacturing method according to claim 1, wherein the punching step includes a pushback step (see the push back step shown in fig. 8 for creating connecting portions, above) of performing a pushback process on the plurality of connecting portions (connecting portions, annotated fig. 7) with respect to the core plate and the plurality of piece plates, and the core plate and the plurality of piece plates are connected to each other in the radial direction by the plurality of connecting portions returned to original positions with respect to the core plate and the plurality of piece plates in the pushback step (implied for push back method).
Regarding claim 4/1, Miura discloses the rotor manufacturing method according to claim 1 further comprising a magnet arranging step of arranging the plurality of magnets in the magnet arrangement spaces formed by removing the plurality of connecting portions in the connecting portion removing step (see [0022]: “Thereafter, unnecessary portions of the slits 123 of the collected segment pieces 111 stacked on the coupling piece 117 are collectively removed to form slit holes, the coupling piece 116 is disposed on the stacked collected segment pieces 111,
and permanent magnets are inserted into the slit holes.”).
Regarding claim 5/1, Miura discloses the rotor manufacturing method according to claim 1, wherein the laminating step includes laminating a plurality of the laminated steel sheets adjacent to each other in a lamination direction while caulking in the thickness direction at a caulking position of the core plate and at a caulking position of each of the plurality of piece plates (see claim 1: “A method for manufacturing a laminated iron core, the method comprising:
sequentially pressing a thin sheet material to manufacture a large number of assembled segment pieces formed of an assembly of segment pieces divided into a plurality of sections by slits, and upper and lower connecting pieces for connecting assembled segment piece laminates obtained by caulking and laminating the assembled segment pieces via caulking portions”).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 3 is objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Claims 6-8 allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
The closet prior art is Miura et al. (JP 4012828 B2).
Regarding claim 6, Miura discloses a rotor comprising:
a rotor core (rotor core, annotated fig. 9) in a cylindrical shape (10, fig. 9) in which steel sheets (steel sheets, annotated fig. 9) are laminated in a thickness direction and which extends in an axial direction (see fig. 9B);
a plurality of core pieces (core pieces, annotated fig. 9) in each of which steel sheets are laminated in the thickness direction (see steel sheets in fig. 9) and each of which extends in the axial direction, the plurality of core pieces being arranged in a circumferential direction at positions spaced apart radially outward from the rotor core (see core pieces in fig. 9A); and
a plurality of magnets (magnets, annotated fig. 9) each of which extends in the axial direction and which are arranged in the circumferential direction between the rotor core and the plurality of core pieces (see fig. 9A),
wherein the rotor core includes, on a radially outer surface: a core outer surface (core outer surface, annotated fig. 9) extending in a circumferential direction along a radially inner surface of each of the plurality of magnets as viewed in the axial direction (see annotated fig. 9A);
each of the plurality of core pieces includes, on a radially inner surface: a piece inner surface (piece inner surface, annotated fig. 9) extending in the circumferential direction along a radially outer surface of each of the plurality of magnets as viewed in the axial direction (see annotated fig. 9A);
Miura does not disclose: the rotor core includes, on a radially outer surface, a core recess recessed radially inward with respect to the core outer surface; and each of the plurality of core pieces includes, on a radially inner surface a piece recess recessed radially outward with respect to the piece inner surface.
None of the prior art of record anticipates or in combination renders obvious the limitations of claim 6; hence, claim 6 is allowed.
Claims 7 and 8 are also allowed because they depend on claim 6.
As allowable subject matter has been indicated, applicant's reply must either comply with all formal requirements or specifically traverse each requirement not complied with. See 37 CFR 1.111(b) and MPEP § 707.07(a).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MASOUD VAZIRI whose telephone number is (571)272-2340. The examiner can normally be reached M-F, 8am-5pm EST..
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, the examiner’s supervisor, SEYE IWARERE can be reached on (571) 270-5112. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/MASOUD VAZIRI/Examiner, Art Unit 2834
/OLUSEYE IWARERE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2834
Prosecution Insights