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 § 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 Hanson (US 5,596,878).
As to claim 1, Hanson teaches a heat pump water heater system (Fig. 1: system is a heat pump as refrigerant flow can be reversed via valve 15, and system operates to heat water in lines 56-57 thus is considered to constitute a water heater) comprising:
a condenser 24 configured to provide a first refrigerant at a first pressure;
a vapor injection path 36 comprising an expansion valve 43 and configured to receive the first refrigerant at the first pressure from the condenser 24, the expansion valve 43 configured to transition the first refrigerant at the first pressure to a second refrigerant at a second pressure;
a three fluid economizer 33 comprising:
a first passage through shell 37 configured to allow the first refrigerant at the first pressure to pass through the economizer 33;
a second passage 38 configured to allow the second refrigerant at the second pressure to pass through the economizer 33; and
a third passage 48 configured to allow water to pass through the economizer 33, wherein the economizer 33 is configured to facilitate heat exchange between the first refrigerant, the second refrigerant, and the water (Fig. 1).
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 1-4, 7-8, 11-14, and 17-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lifson (US 2009/0293515) in view of Hanson (US 5,596,878) and Rafalovich (US 9,920,963).
As to claims 1-2 and 11-12, Lifson teaches a heat pump water heater system comprising:
a refrigerant-to-water condenser 30 configured to provide a first refrigerant at a first pressure;
a vapor injection path 70E comprising an expansion valve 65 and configured to receive the first refrigerant at the first pressure from the condenser 30, the expansion valve 70E configured to transition the first refrigerant at the first pressure to a second refrigerant at a second pressure;
an economizer 60 comprising:
a first passage 62 to allow the first refrigerant at the first pressure to pass through the economizer 60;
a second passage 64 configured to allow the second refrigerant at the second pressure to pass through the economizer 60.
Lifson does not explicitly teach that the economizer 60 is a three-fluid economizer with a third passage as claimed. However, Hanson teaches including a third passage 48 to provide a water jacket for an economizer (Fig. 1). Additionally, Rafalovich teaches that it is known to use an economizer 43 to preheat water, which results in additional heating for use of water for use of water by a user as well as increases the capacity of the system (claim 12; col. 7, lines 35-50). Therefore it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to modify the economizer 60 of Lifson to include a third passage to receive water as taught by Hanson and Rafalovich to increase the heat exchange capabilities of the system.
As to claims 3 and 13, Lifson teaches the refrigerant at the second pressure passing through the exchanger 60 and being transitioned into a superheated vapor by receiving heat form the refrigerant at the first pressure (paragraph 24).
As to claims 4 and 14, the modified apparatus utilizes the exchanger 60 to preheat the water (Rafalovich; col. 5, lines 19-20; claim 12), and thus the modification of Lifson would necessarily result in a configuration wherein the water is configured to first pass through the exchanger 60 and then through the condenser 30.
As to claims 7 and 17, Lifson teaches that the refrigerant flows are configured to be in counterflow with respect to each other (Fig. 1).
As to claims 8 and 18, Lifson teaches the first pressure being greater than the second pressure (paragraph 24).
Claims 5-6 and 15-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the prior art as applied in the rejections above, and further in view of Miller (US 2018/0202710).
As to claims 5-6 and 15-16, Lifson, as modified, does not explicitly teach utilizing first and second portions of water output from the exchanger 60 as claimed. However, Miller teaches that it is known to utilize a configuration wherein a first portion of water output from an economizer is recirculated through a condenser and a second portion of water output from the economizer bypasses the condenser and is recirculated through the economizer (see Fig. 1). Therefore it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, at the time of the invention, to further modify Lifson to be configured such that water output from the multi-fluid exchanger 60 thereof can be either recirculated to condenser 30 or to bypass the condenser 30 and be recirculated back to the multi-fluid exchanger 60 as claimed and taught by Miller because it would increase the versatility of the temperature control for the water.
Claim 10 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the prior art as applied in the rejections above, and further in view of Wang (US 2018/0259273).
As to claims 10 and 20, Lifson is silent regarding a particular structure of heat exchanger 60 and thus does not explicitly teach the first and second passages are microchannel tubes. However, Rafalovich teaches use of an economizer exchanger that is any suitable exchanger, for example an exchanger with tubes and plates (Rafalovich, col. 7, lines 34-37). Furthermore, Wang teaches that it is known to use a heat exchanger with first and second microchannel tubes (Figs. 1-2; paragraph 3). Therefore it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, at the time of the invention, to modify Lifson to utilize an exchanger as claimed in order to effect reliable heat transfer at the exchanger 60.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 9 and 19 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
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/JONATHAN BRADFORD/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3763
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