And 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 .
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 2, and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 10 as being unpatentable over JP H07112705 B2 (hereinafter Hideo).
Regarding claim 1, Hideo discloses a device for recovering and re-injecting excess powder, the device comprising: one or more powder transfer lines configured to transfer powder supplied from a powder supplier (Fig. 2, Nos. 84-85); a loading chamber configured to load the powder transferred through a first connecting pipe connected to the powder transfer lines (Fig. 2, Nos. 22-24); a storage hopper configured to store the loaded powder transferred by opening an opening/closing valve disposed at a lower end of the loading chamber (Fig. 2, No. 2); a powder weigher disposed on each side or one side of the loading chamber or the storage hopper (Figs. 2 & 3, No. 10); a rotary valve connected to a lower end of the storage hopper and configured to normally discharge the powder stored in the storage hopper (Fig. 2, No. 8); a micro-rotary valve disposed at the storage hopper and configured to recover the powder exceeding a target supply amount (Fig. 2, No 5, pg. 6, final paragraph); a recovery chamber connected to the micro-rotary valve and configured to store the recovered powder (Fig. 2, No. 33); and a controller configured to control the rotary valve and the micro-rotary valve (Fig. 1, No. 6).
Regarding claim 2, Hideo discloses the device of claim 1, further wherein the controller (Fig. 1, No 6) operates the rotary valve (Fig. 1, No. 8) when an amount of the powder weighed by the powder weigher (Fig. 1, No. 10) is equal to the target supply amount and operates the micro-rotary (Fig. 1, No. 5) valve when the amount of the powder weighed by the powder weigher exceeds the target supply amount (pg. 3, 3rd full paragraph).
Regarding claim 11, Hideo discloses a method of recovering and re-injecting excess powder (pg. 4, final paragraph), the method comprising: a powder transfer step of transferring powder through one or more powder transfer lines (Fig. 2, Nos. 83-85), loading the power into a loading chamber (Fig. 2, No. 22-24), and transferring the loaded powder to a storage hopper (Fig. 2, No. 2); a powder weighing step of weighing the powder transferred to the storage hopper through a powder weigher disposed at the storage hopper (Fig. 2, No. 10); a comparison step of comparing, by a controller, an amount of the weighed powder with a preset target supply amount in order to determine whether the weighed powder exceeds the preset target supply amount (abstract); and a recovery step of discharging and recovering excess powder into the recovery chamber through the micro-rotary valve when the amount of the weighed powder exceeds the preset target supply amount (Fig. 2, Nos. 33, 27-29).
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 3-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hideo in view of KR 20220159132 A (Hereinafter Hong).
Regarding claim 3, Hideo discloses the device of claim 1, but does not disclose vacuum valves or lines.
Hong discloses a first vacuum line connected to a second connecting pipe connected to the storage hopper (Fig. 1, No 143); a second vacuum line connected to an upper portion of the recovery chamber; an air line connected to the upper portion of the recovery chamber and an end of the second vacuum line (Fig. 1, No 143); a first vacuum valve disposed on the first vacuum line (Fig. 1, No 144); a second vacuum valve disposed on the second vacuum line (Fig. 1, No 263); and an air valve disposed on the air line (Fig. 1, Nos. 114 and 214), wherein the controller controls operation of the first vacuum valve of the first vacuum line to transfer the powder to the storage hopper, controls operation of the second vacuum valve of the second vacuum line to recover the powder into the recovery chamber, and controls operation of the air valve of the air line to re-inject the powder into the storage hopper (Fig. 2, No. 460).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the device of Hideo with the valves of Hong. The motivation would be that firstly, both deal with the conveyance and measuring of powdery substances. Secondly, the addition of Hong’s valves and lines would allow for more precision when conveying the powder, in addition to preventing overload.
Regarding claim 4, Hideo and Hong disclose the device of claim 3. Furthermore, placing valves on the side of hoppers is well-known and routine outlet/inlet creation technique used to provide more inlets or outlets to allow gravity to assist with pneumatic conveyors. Such techniques are taught in the ordinary powder conveyance arts. A person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the filing of the application would have been motivated to place the micro-rotary valve on the side surface of a hopper as a design choice yielding predictable results. The substitution of a valve on the upper portion or lower portion of a hopper involves routine, conventional design and fabrication steps and would have been made with a reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding claim 5, Hideo and Hong disclose the device of claim 3. Hideo also discloses an air filter configured to filter air introduced through the air line is disposed in the recovery chamber (Fig. 1, Nos. 112, 113, 212 and 213).
Claims 6 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hideo in view of EP 3711510 A1 (Hereinafter Ferrie).
Regarding claim 6, Hideo discloses the device of claim 2. Hideo also discloses that a controller controls the micro rotary valve for discharge of excess powder (Fig. 1, No. 6), but does not disclose wherein the controller compares a cumulative number of operation cycles for with a preset number of operation cycles to determine whether the cumulative number of operation cycles exceeds the preset number of operation cycles. Hideo further discloses that the controller controls the micro-rotary valve to re-inject the powder recovered in the recovery chamber into the storage hopper through a recovery and re-injection line (Fig. 1, No. 6), but not when the cumulative number of operation cycles of the micro-rotary valve for discharge of excess powder exceeds the preset number of operation cycles. Ferrie discloses the counting and comparing controller [0027].
Regarding claim 12, Hideo discloses a method of claim 11. Hideo does not disclose a comparison step of comparing, by the controller, a cumulative number of operation cycles of the micro-rotary valve for discharge of excess powder with a preset number of operation cycles to determine whether the cumulative number of operation cycles exceeds the preset number of operation cycles. Hideo also discloses a re-injection step of re-injecting, by the controller, the powder recovered in the recovery chamber into the storage hopper through a recovery and re-injection line (Fig. 2), but not when the cumulative number of operation cycles of the micro-rotary valve for discharge of excess powder exceeds the preset number of operation cycles. Ferrie does disclose a method involving these steps using a counting and comparing controller [0027].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the device of Hideo with the counting/comparing controller of Hong. The motivation would be to keep track of the use of the valves, as keeping track of their use would make knowing when maintenance or repair was required much simpler.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-10 and 13-17 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AMARI JADAN MEDDLING whose telephone number is (571)272-8178. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-5.
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/GENE O CRAWFORD/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3651
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