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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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 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.
Claim(s) 1-7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nagashima et al. (# US 2009/0258196) in view of Mandel et al. (# US 2013/0049284).
Nagashima et al. discloses:
1. A liquid ejecting device (see Abstract; see figure: 3-6) comprising:
an electrostatic attracting belt configured to transport a medium ([0179]-[0188]; element: 151, figure: 4);
a printing unit configured to discharge a liquid to the medium ([0054]; [0166]-[0173]) transported by the electrostatic attracting belt to perform printing (figure: 4);
a transport unit configured to transport the medium to the electrostatic attracting belt ([0188]);
an inverting unit configured to: enable a plurality of the media to stay; invert upside down the medium including a first surface on which printing is performed by the printing unit, such that a second surface that is opposite from the first surface is disposed so as to be opposed to the printing unit ([0188]-[0191]); and
transport the medium to the transport unit again ([0187]-[0193]); and
a control unit ([0181]-[0182]).
Nagashima et al. explicitly did not discloses:
a control unit configured to determine a transport velocity of the medium in the inverting unit and the number of the staying media that stay in the inverting unit, on a basis of information concerning a printing duty of the liquid discharged on the first surface.
Mandel et al. teaches to have a control unit configured to determine a transport velocity of the medium in the inverting unit and the number of the staying media that stay in the inverting unit, on a basis of information concerning a printing duty of the liquid discharged on the first surface ([0010]; the method of substrate media handling in a printer, the method including conveying a substrate media through a marking zone of the printer using a first media transport having a first drive unit, the first media transport having a first motion encoder operatively connected therewith. A first signal is output from the first motion encoder, dependent upon the motion of the first media transport, to a motion controller. The media substrate is passed from the first media transport to a second media transport having a second drive unit to convey the substrate media away from the marking zone. The second media transport has a second motion encoder operatively connected therewith, which outputs a second signal dependent upon the motion of the second media transport. The first and second signals are compared with a control unit, which outputs a control signal that is dependent upon the comparison to the second drive unit, commanding the second drive unit to drive the motion of the second media transport with substantially the same surface velocity as the first media transport).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the invention to modify the ejection device of Nagashima et al. by the aforementioned teaching of Mandel et al. in order to have the high quality double sided printing apparatus.
2. The liquid ejecting device according to claim 1, wherein when the printing duty of the liquid discharged on the first surface is less than a threshold value, the control unit determines the number of the staying media to be a first number of staying-media, and when the printing duty of the liquid discharged on the first surface is greater than the threshold value, the control unit determines the number of the staying media to be a second number of staying-media greater than the first number of staying-media ([0055]-[0056]; [0188]-[0193]).
3. The liquid ejecting device according to claim 1, wherein print data when printing is performed consecutively on a plurality of the media includes information concerning the printing duty of the liquid discharged on the first surface of each of the media, and the control unit inputs the information concerning the printing duty of the liquid discharged on the first surface of each of the media before printing starts, and determines the number of the staying media before printing starts (see Examples).
4. The liquid ejecting device according to claim 1, wherein when printing is performed consecutively on a plurality of the media, the control unit ([0166]-[0182]) is configured to, after printing starts, input information concerning the printing duty of the liquid discharged on the first surface of a next medium of the media on which printing is performed next, and after printing starts, the control unit changes the number of the staying media determined before printing starts (see Examples).
5. The liquid ejecting device according to claim 2, wherein the control unit calculates a transport period in the inverting unit on a basis of a transport velocity of the medium in the inverting unit, and when the transport period exceeds a predetermined period of time, the control unit determines the number of the staying media to be the first number of staying-media regardless of the printing duty of the liquid discharged on the first surface ([0181]-[0182]).
6. The liquid ejecting device according to claim 5, wherein the control unit determines the predetermined period of time on a basis of at least one of an environment where the liquid ejecting device is installed, a type of the medium, and information concerning a margin of the medium set at a time of performing printing ([0181]-[0182]).
7. The liquid ejecting device according to claim 2, wherein the control unit determines the threshold value on a basis of at least one of an environment where the liquid ejecting device is installed, a type of the medium, and information concerning a margin of the medium set at a time of performing printing ([0181]-[0182]).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
(1) Hirai et al. (# US 2023/0079381) discloses a liquid ejecting device includes a liquid ejecting portion configured to eject liquid from a nozzle, a closed space forming portion having a porous member inside thereof, and configured to form a closed space in which the nozzle opens, an discharging portion configured to discharge the liquid in the closed space forming portion, and a control portion configured to, when an amount of the liquid ejected from the liquid ejecting portion into the closed space forming portion reaches a prescribed value, cause the discharging portion to discharge the liquid in the closed space forming portion, wherein the control unit decreases the prescribed value as the number of stops increases, the number of stops being the number of times the liquid ejecting portion is stopped for a prescribed time or longer at a position other than a closed position where the closed space is formed (see Abstract).
(2) Kamiyanagi et al. (# US 2016/0039203) discloses a liquid discharging apparatus includes: a recording head that includes M numbers of the discharging units; a drive unit that drives the discharging unit; a residual vibration detecting unit that detects residual vibration occurring in the discharging unit; and a determining unit that determines a state of discharge of the liquid in the discharging unit on the basis of a detection result. The determining unit is capable of performing the determination in two or more determination modes, and determines at least one of one or a plurality of target discharging units that is to be a target of the determination during a determination time period, and a drive discharging unit that the drive unit is to drive so as to determine the state of discharge of the liquid in the target discharging unit from the M numbers of discharging units depending on the determination mode (see Abstract).
(3) Tachibana et al. (# US 2016/0065753) discloses control in consideration of the type of a sheet to be used as a cover sheet in a case where a book bound product is generated by switching back sheets each having an image printed, inverting the sheets and folding the inverted sheets (see Abstract).
(4) Robustelli et al. (# US 2024/0399763) discloses a printing apparatus includes a transport unit configured to transport a medium in a first direction, a carriage configured to move in a second direction intersecting the first direction, a first printing unit held by the carriage, and a second printing unit held by the carriage, the second printing unit being arranged at least one of a position further upstream and a position further downstream than a position of the first printing unit, a length of the second printing unit in the first direction is shorter than a length of the first printing unit in the first direction, and the second printing unit is caused to be available in a multi-pass mode (see Abstract).
(5) Shimada (# US 2024/0253376) discloses a printing system includes a first printing section configured to print by ejecting ink from a first printing section onto the surface of a medium; a second printing section that is provided downstream of the first printing section in the transport direction of the medium and that is configured to print by ejecting ink onto the rear surface of the transported medium; and a control section, wherein when printing on both surfaces of the medium, the control section determines which of first print data and second print data is to be printed first at the first printing section and later at the second printing section, based on the print duties of the first print data to be printed on the first surfaces, which is one surface of the medium, and the second print data to be printed on the second surfaces, which is the other surface of the medium (see Abstract).
(6) Ono (# US 2017/0253035) discloses a printing apparatus includes a medium transport mechanism that transports a recording medium in a transport direction, a print head that ejects a liquid onto the recording medium, a printing section that performs printing by ejecting a liquid from the print head onto the recording medium based on print data, and a controller that controls a suspension and a resumption of a printing operation at a dividing position that has been designated in the print data (see Abstract).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MANISH S SHAH whose telephone number is (571)272-2152. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00am-4:00pm.
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MANISH S. SHAH
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2853
/Manish S Shah/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853
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