HINGED MAGNETIC MOVER FOR A MAGNETIC LEVITATION CONVEYOR

Application No. 18/977,167

• Filed: Dec 11, 2024
• Priority: Feb 18, 2021 — provisional 63/150,657
  • Feb 07, 2022 — nonprovisional of PCTUS2022015426
  • Jun 30, 2023 — continuation of 12/371,280
• Examiner: BIDWELL, JAMES R
• Art Unit: 3651
• Tech Center: 3600 — Transportation & Electronic Commerce
• Assignee: Laitram LLC
• OA Round: 1 (Non-Final)

Office 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 § 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.

Claim(s) 1, 2, 8 and 10-12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Prussmeier (US 2022/0131426).
Prussmeier shows a conveying system 1 having a carryway 3, 4, a magnetic mover 20 which includes magnets which interact with coils and there is a cleaning station 30 which cleans the magnetic mover.
Re claim 2, the use of Hall sensors is extremely conventional and inherent in the field.
Re claim 8, shown is a low-profile rectangular mover having a flat upper surface.
Re claim 10, product is transferred onto and off of the magnetic mover.
Re claim 11 the magnetic mover 20 is cleaned in the cleaning station.
Re claim 12, the mover 20 may be returned to a starting position after cleaning.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-7, 9 and 13-18 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.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMES R BIDWELL whose telephone number is [phone]. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday from 8 to 4.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Gene Crawford, can be reached at telephone number [phone]. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JAMES R BIDWELL/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3651 06/23/2026

Prosecution Timeline

• Dec 11, 2024: Application Filed
• Jun 25, 2026: Non-Final Rejection mailed — §102 (current)