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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Deng et al. (US 2020/0212747 A1).
RE claim 1, Deng teaches a stator (Fig.1 and ¶ 47, 48) of an electric motor, the stator comprising:
a cylindrical stator core 100 extending in an axial direction between a first end surface 110 and a second end surface 120;
a plurality of slots 132 provided on an inner peripheral surface 131 of the stator core 110 and arranged along a circumferential direction, each of the slots 132 extending along the axial direction; and
a plurality of coils 140 wound in a distributed manner on the slots 132, each of the coils being constituted by a plurality of coil segments 140,
wherein when a number of the slots is n and a number of magnetic poles of a rotor is P, a relationship of n = 6p is satisfied (N=48 slots, pole number = 8, see ¶ 8, 50, 66),
the coil segments are arranged in each of the slots 132 such that a plurality of layers is constituted along a radial direction (Fig.2),
in each of the coils, a start point (142, 148) and an end point (153, 155, 157) are provided on the first end surface side 110 of the stator core 110,
in an outermost layer and an innermost layer in the radial direction within the slot 132, two coil segments located in a same layer are connected to each other (¶ 18, 52, 56. E.g.: S31L6 to S25L6), and
a section that is displaced in the radial direction between the outermost layer and the innermost layer includes an oblique wave winding section (Figs.2, 3, 8) in which a direction of displacement in the circumferential direction and the radial direction on the first end surface side and a direction of displacement in the circumferential direction and the radial direction on the second end surface side continuously coincide with each other (see abstract, ¶ 52, 64, Fig.3, 8).
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Deng in view of Koshiba et al. (JP 2017184558 A, the machine translation of which has been provided).
RE claim 4/1, Deng has been discussed above. Deng does not teach the coils are 2Y or 4Y type parallel wiring; and each start point of each coil of a same phase from among the coils is located spaced apart by 12q + 1 (q being a natural number) slots.
Koshiba teaches the coils are 2Y or 4Y type parallel wiring (Fig.3); and each start point of each coil of a same phase from among the coils is located spaced apart by 12q + 1 (q being a natural number) slots (Figs.2, 4), doing so provide a stator capable of reducing height of coil end (see abstract).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Deng by having the coils are 2Y or 4Y type parallel wiring; and each start point of each coil of a same phase from among the coils is located spaced apart by 12q + 1 (q being a natural number) slots, as taught by Koshiba, for the same reasons as discussed above.
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Deng in view of Lambourne et al. (US 2019/0260252 A1).
RE claim 5/1, Deng has been discussed above. Deng does not teach the coil segment located on the innermost layer in the radial direction within the slot is constituted by a litz wire.
Lambourne suggests that Litz wire is generally easier to manipulate than solid rectangular metal wire (¶ 9).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Deng by having the coil segment located on the innermost layer in the radial direction within the slot is constituted by a litz wire, as suggested by Lambourne, for the same reasons as discussed above.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2 and 3 are 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.
RE claim 2/1, the prior-art does not teach, inter alia, in each of the coils, the section that is displaced in the radial direction between the outermost layer and the innermost layer within the slot further includes an overlapping winding section in which a direction of displacement in the circumferential direction on the first end surface side and a direction of displacement in the circumferential direction on the second end surface side are mutually inverted.
Claim 3 is allowable for its dependency on claim 2.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THOMAS TRUONG whose telephone number is (571)270-5532. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9AM-6PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Seye Iwarere can be reached at (571) 270-5112. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/THOMAS TRUONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2834
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