DETAILED ACTION
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
2. The specification, the abstract and the drawings are all acceptable.
3. The Requirement for Restriction/Election mailed on 5/8/2026 has been withdrawn because Claims 1-10 essentially include the claim limitations of claims 11-20, thus claims 11-20 should be examined together with claims 1-10.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. 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 of this title, 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.
5. Claims 1, 4, 8, 11, 14, 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KR 2012 0134905A to Kwon, and in view of JP 2021 126327A to Makaino.
As to claim 1, Kwon teaches a washing machine (element 100), comprising: a drum (figure 1 element 115); a motor configured to rotate the drum (figure 1 element 130); an inverter circuit configured to drive the motor (figure 2 element 210); and a controller (figure 2 element 220) configured to control the inverter circuit based on a d-axis current command value and a q-axis current command value (figure 2 element lq_ref and ld_ref) and control the inverter circuit to perform a soft brake for a preset time and control the inverter circuit to perform a short brake based on an elapse of the preset time for decelerating the motor (paragraphs [0020]-[0022], [0033]-[0045] and [0048]-[0060]).
Kwon does not teach the braking of washing machine drum wherein while controlling the inverter circuit to perform the soft brake, the controller is configured to:
gradually change the d-axis current command value from ad-axis current value applied to the motor to a preset target d-axis current value, and gradually change the q-axis current command value from a preset value that is unrelated to a q-axis current value applied to the motor to a preset target q-axis current value.
Makaino teaches the braking of washing machine drum wherein while controlling the inverter circuit to perform the soft brake, the controller is configured to: gradually change the d-axis current command value from ad-axis current value applied to the motor to a preset target d-axis current value, and gradually change the q-axis current command value from a preset value that is unrelated to a q-axis current value applied to the motor to a preset target q-axis current value (see paragraphs [0017] and [0036]-[0046]).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the teachings of Makaino into Kwon since Kwon suggests a motor control system and Makaino suggests the beneficial use of controlling the inverter circuit to perform braking by using motor vector control (d-axis and q-axis) in the analogous art of motor control technology.
The motivation for this comes from the fact that Makaino teaches apparatus and method of controlling the inverter circuit to perform braking by using motor vector control which can be used to improve the motor control system disclosed by Kwon.
As to claim 4, Kwon in view of Makaino teaches the washing machine of claim 1, wherein, to control the inverter circuit to perform the short brake, the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors individually or collectively, further cause the washing machine to: open upper switching elements included in the inverter circuit, and close lower switching elements included in the inverter circuit(Kwon paragraph [0054] and fig. 2).
As to claim 8, Kwon in view of Makaino teaches the washing machine of claim 1, wherein, in a case where the inverter circuit is controlled to perform the soft brake, the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors individually or collectively, further cause the washing machine to: control the inverter circuit based on the d-axis current command value and the q-axis current command value, and wherein, in a case where the inverter circuit is controlled to perform the short brake, the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors individually or collectively, further cause the washing machine to: control a plurality of switching elements included in the inverter circuit regardless of the d-axis current command value and the q-axis current command value(Kwon paragraph [0048]- [0060] and figs. 3-5).
As to claim 11 it is rejected as the same reason as claim 1.
As to claim 14, it is rejected as the same reason as claim 4.
As to claim 18, it is rejected as the same reason as claim 8.
6. Claims 2-3, 12-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KR 2012 0134905A to Kwon in view of JP 2021 126327 to Makaino, and further in view of JP 2019 000329A to Hoshino.
As to claim 2, Kwon in view of Makaino teaches the washing machine of claim 1, wherein the preset target d-axis current value has a negative value, and wherein the preset target q-axis current value has a negative value or a positive value depending on a rotation direction of the motor(Hoshino paragraphs [0028], [0043] and [0061] – [0063]).
As to claim 3, Kwon in view of Makaino teaches the washing machine of claim 1wherein the preset value is 0 (Hoshino paragraph [0044] and fig. 3).
As to claim 12, it is rejected as the same reason as claim 2.
As to claim 13 it is rejected as the same reason as claim 3.
7. Claims 5, 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KR 2012 0134905A to Kwon in view of JP 2021 126327 to Makaino, and further in view of KR 2021 0101886A to Han.
As to claim 5, Kwon in view of Makaino teaches the washing machine of claim 1, wherein a deceleration section of the motor includes: a first deceleration section that decelerates a rotation speed of the motor from a first rotation speed to a second rotation speed during a spin-drying process, and a second deceleration section that decelerates the rotation speed of the motor from a third rotation speed greater than the first rotation speed to a fourth rotation speed less than the second rotation speed during the spin-drying process, and wherein a first preset target d-axis current value and a first preset target q-axis current value corresponding to the first deceleration section are equal to a second preset target d-axis current value and a second preset target q-axis current value corresponding to the second deceleration section(Han paragraphs [0121]-[0132]).
As to claim 15, it is rejected as the same reason as claim 5.
8. Claims 6-7, 16-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KR 2012 0134905A to Kwon in view of JP 2021 126327 to Makaino, and further in view of YANG-JIN SHIN ET AL: "A Study on the Change of Current Command for Control Stability in Transient Operation of Permanent Magnet Motor", PROCEEDINGS OF 2021 KIEE SUMMER CONFERENCE, 15 July 2021 (2021-07-15), pages 1133-1134, XP093125847.
As to claim 6, Kwon in view of Makaino teaches the washing machine of claim 1, wherein, to control the inverter circuit to perform the soft brake, the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors individually or collectively, further cause the washing machine to: determine a change rate of the d-axis current command value based on a difference between the d-axis current value applied to the motor and the preset target d-axis current value and the preset time, and change the d-axis current command value based on the change rate of the d-axis current command value(see the right column on page 1133 to the right column on page 1134 and figs. 2-6).
As to claim 7, Kwon in view of Makaino teaches the washing machine of claim 1, wherein, to control the inverter circuit to perform the soft brake, the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors individually or collectively, further cause the washing machine to: determine a change rate of the q-axis current command value based on a difference between the preset value and the preset target q-axis current value and the preset time, and change the q-axis current command value based on the change rate of the q-axis current command value(see the right column on page 1133 to the right column on page 1134 and figs. 2-6).
As to claim 16, it is rejected as the same reason as claim 6.
As to claim 17, it is rejected as the same reason as claim 7.
Allowable Subject Matter
9. Claims 9-10, 19-20 are objected to as being dependent upon the rejected base claims 1, 11, but could be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claims and any intervening claims for the following reasons: No prior art of record discloses the features as claimed in the noted claims.
10. The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter. The non-obvious features are:
In comparison with the closest prior art as cited in this Office action and any previous Office actions, no prior art of record discloses the following features as claimed in the following claim limitations:
As per claim 9: To perform the soft brake, the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors individually or collectively, further cause the washing machine to: calculate a current command vector corresponding to the d-axis current command value and the q-axis current command value, and gradually change a slope of the current command vector in a case where the inverter circuit is controlled to perform the soft brake.
As per claim 19: It is the same reason as claim 9.
Conclusion
11. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
USPN 8,179,068 to Yuuki discloses a motor control system.
12. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DAVID S LUO whose telephone number is (571)270-5251. The examiner can normally be reached 8AM-5PM.
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/DAVID LUO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2837
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