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 .
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.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 01/16/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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(s) 1, 14, and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by ZHAN (CN 212402315 U).
Regarding Claim 1, Zhan teaches a transfer device, comprising:
a base plate (411);
a mounting plate (Part holding 4212 and 4213; Fig. 12, Fig 18) disposed on the base plate (Fig. 1);
a retractable mechanism (421, 422) disposed on the mounting plate (Fig. 12) and retractable along a first direction (Fig. 18-19);
a fixing plate (Plate of 43) disposed on a side of the retractable mechanism (Fig. 18 on top side of retractable mechanism) away from the mounting plate (Fig. 18-19);
suction cups (432) disposed on the fixing plate (Fig. 18) for suctioning a bin (9; see Fig. 2);
a drive assembly (423, 4211, 4212) disposed on the base plate (Fig. 18) and connected to the retractable mechanism (Fig. 18)) to drive the retractable mechanism ([0076]) to be retractable;
and a support assembly (5) disposed on the base plate (Fig. 18) to support a bin ([0106]; see Fig. 3) suctioned by the suction cup ([0106]; Fig. 3).
Regarding Claim 14, Zhan a transfer robot, comprising: a mounting rack (411); and the transfer device according to any one of claim 1, wherein the transfer device is disposed on the mounting rack (40; Fig. 18-19).
Regarding Claim 17, Zhan as teaches the transfer robot according to claim 14, further comprising at least one of the following:
a plurality of storage plates (shelves of 2) disposed on the moving mechanism;
a rotation mechanism (413) disposed on the mounting rack (Fig. 11, Fig. 19) and configured to drive the transfer device to rotate ([0089]), so that the transfer device stores the bin on the storage plate ([0076], see Fig. 2-3);
a dust cover disposed on a retractable mechanism of the transfer device.
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.
Claim(s) 2-4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZHAN (CN 212402315 U) in view of KLINGE (US 2020189845 A1).
Regarding Claim 2 Zhan teaches the transfer device according to claim 1, wherein the retractable mechanism comprises: a slide guide (443) extending in the first direction (Fig. 13);
Zhan does not teach a plurality of retractable units, and two adjacent retractable units are hinged, the plurality of retractable units are divided into a plurality of first retractable units and two second retractable units, the plurality of first retractable units are located between the two second retractable units, one of the second retractable units is movably connected to the mounting plate, and the other second retractable unit is movably connected to the fixing plate.
Klinge et al. teaches a device for moving boxes with a base plate (9) a retractable mechanism (Scissor mechanism of 10) a mounting plate (MP see annotated Fig. 1) a fixing plate (plate of 10) with a suction device ([0028]; Fig. 1) and the retractable mechanism comprises a plurality of retractable units (units of scissor mechanism of 10), and two adjacent retractable units are hinged (Fig. 1), the plurality of retractable units are divided into a plurality of first retractable units (U1, U2) and two second retractable units (SU1, SU2), the plurality of first retractable units are located between the two second retractable units (see annotated Fig. 1 below), one of the second retractable units is movably connected to the mounting plate (annotated Fig. 1), and the other second retractable unit is movably connected to the fixing plate (annotated Fig. 2).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the drive of Zhan with the plurality of retractable units so the plurality of retractable units are slidably connected to the slide guide for the purpose of strengthening the retracting mechanism.
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Annotated Figure 1
Regarding Claim 3, Zhan in view of Klinge et al. teaches the transfer device according to claim 2, wherein each of the retractable units comprises: two retractable racks disposed opposite to each other (Klinge et al. top and bottom of the mechanism of 10), and each of the retractable racks comprises a first side part (Klinge et al. U1 see annotated Fig. 1 above) and a second side part (Klinge et al. U2 annotated Fig. 1) that are staggered (Klinge et al. annotated Fig. 1); and a connecting rod (Klinge et al. CR annotated Fig. 1) disposed on the first side parts of the retractable racks, and hinged to the second side parts of adjacent retractable racks (Klinge et al. annotated Fig. 1).
Regarding Claim 4, Zhan in view of Klinge et al. teaches the transfer device according to claim 3, wherein the first side part and the second side part respectively comprise a retractable rod (Klinge et al. RR1/RR2 see annotated Fig. 1 above), and the retractable rack comprises: two retractable rods (Klinge et al. RR1, RR2) interleaved and connected rotatably (Klinge et al. annotated Fig. 1), one connecting rod is disposed at one end of each of the retractable rods (Klinge et al. annotated Fig. 1) , the other end of the retractable rod is hinged to the connecting rod of the adjacent retractable unit (Klinge et al. annotated Fig. 1), and two connecting rods at two ends of the retractable rod are respectively located on two sides of the slide guide (Zhan Fig. 18; Klinge et al. Fig. 1).
Claim(s) 5 and 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZHAN (CN 212402315 U) in view of KLINGE (US 2020189845 A1) as applied to claims 2-4 above, and further in view of WANG (CN 215481834 U).
Regarding Claim 5, Zhan in view of Klinge et al. teaches the transfer device according to claim 3,
Zhan in view of Klinge et al. does not teach wherein the second retractable unit further comprises: a diagonal rod, one end of the diagonal rod is hinged to the fixing plate or the mounting plate, and the other end of the diagonal rod is hinged to the retractable rack.
Wang teaches a machine with a mounting plate (60) a retractable rack (20) on the mounting plate comprising plurality of retractable units (21,22) further comprising a diagonal rod (26) one end is hinged to the fixing plate or the mounting plate (Fig. 1), and the other end of the diagonal rod is hinged to the retractable rack (Fig. 1).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the transfer device of Zhan in view of Klinge with the diagonal rod of Wang for the purpose of increasing the structural strength of the retractable rack thereby decreasing the risk of failure of the device.
Regarding Claim 7, Zhan as modified above teaches the transfer device according to claim 5, wherein the retractable unit further comprises: a top rod (Klinge et al. TR see annotated Fig. 1 above) disposed between the two retractable racks (Klinge et al. see annotated Fig. 1).
Claim(s) 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZHAN (CN 212402315 U) as applied to claim 1, 14, and 17 above, and further in view of ZOU (CN 112875128 A ).
Regarding Claim 10, Zhan in view of Klinge et al. teaches the transfer device according to claim 1, wherein the drive assembly comprises: a plurality of rotary wheels (Zhan 4211, 4213); a drive member (Zhan [0097]) connected to any one of the plurality of the rotary wheels (Zhan [0097]) to drive the rotary wheel (Zhan 4212) to rotate ([0097]); a drive belt (Zhan 423) disposed on the plurality of the rotary wheels (Zhan Fig. 13); and a connection block (Zhan 431) disposed on the drive belt and connected to the retractable mechanism (Zhan Fig. 6) to drive the retractable mechanism to be extended or retracted in the first direction (Zhan [0097]).
Zhan in view of Klinge et al. does not teach a drive chain instead teaching a drive belt that accomplishes the same function.
Zou teaches a package moving AGV device (9) comprising a mounting plate (75) a fixing plate (back plate of 75) having a retractable mechanism (1) comprising a drive chain (14).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to substitute the belt of Zhan with the chain of Zou for the purpose of increasing the durability of the driving mechanism.
Claim(s) 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZHAN (CN 212402315 U) as applied to claim 1, 14, and 17 above, and further in view of SANDT (DE 202004016704 U1 ).
Regarding Claim 11, Zhan in view of Klinge et al. teaches the transfer device according to claim 1 wherein the support assembly comprises: a support rack (Zhan top side of 5) disposed on the base plate (Zhan Fig. 18);
Zhan in view of Klinge et al. does not teach a plurality of support rollers that are rotatably connected to the support rack and distributed at intervals in the first direction, wherein a top wall of the support roller is disposed to support a bottom wall of the bin.
Sandt teaches a retractable mechanism (6) disposed on a base plate (bottom of 5) with a support rack (sides of 5) having a plurality of support rollers (7) that are rotatably connected to the support rack(Fig. 1) and distributed at intervals in the first direction(Fig. 1), wherein a top wall of the support roller is disposed to support a bottom wall of the bin ([0022], [0024]; Fig. 3-4).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the support assembly of Zhan with he rollers of Sandt for the purpose of reducing the resistance between the box and the support plate allowing the box to more easily be placed on the support plate.
Claim(s) 15, 16, 18-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZHAN (CN 212402315 U) as applied to claim 1, 14, and 17 above, and further in view of QIAN et al. (US 20220274779 A1).
Regarding Claim 15 Zhan teaches the transfer robot according to claim 14, further comprising: a moving mechanism (3), wherein the mounting rack is disposed on the moving mechanism (Fig. 1), and the moving mechanism is configured to drive the mounting rack ([0075]) to move, so as to move the transfer device to a specified location ([0075]);
Zhan does not specifically disclose a control module communicatively connected to the moving mechanism and the transfer however one of ordinary skill in the art would have realized that Zhan likely would have a control system to control the operations of the robot.
Qian et al. teaches a package transporting robot (100) with a transfer device (30) having a moving mechanism ([0067]) and a control module communicatively connected to the moving mechanism and the transfer (200; [0110]; [0101])
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the robot of Zhan with the control system of Qian et al for the purpose of controlling the route the robot takes.
Regarding Claim 16, Zhang as modified above teaches the transfer robot according to claim 15, wherein the moving mechanism further comprises: a mobile trolley (Zhan 1), where the mobile trolley includes a translation mechanism (Zhan [0074]), and the translation mechanism is configured to drive the mobile trolley (Zhan [0074])) to move in a plane; a fixing rack (Zhan 2) fixed to the mobile trolley (Zhan Fig. 1), and the mounting rack is slidably connected to the fixing rack (Zhan Fig. 1); and an elevation mechanism disposed on the fixing rack (Zhan 1003) and connected to the mounting rack (Zhan Fig. 1) to drive the mounting rack (Zhan [0075]) to slide.
Regarding Claim 18, Zhan teaches the transfer robot according to claim 1
Zhan does not teach a warehouse, wherein the transfer robot is disposed in the warehouse.
Qian et al. teaches a package transporting robot (100) with a transfer device (30) having a moving mechanism ([0067]) and a control module communicatively connected to the moving mechanism (200) a warehouse (300) wherein the transfer robot is disposed in the warehouse ([0101]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to substitute to robot of Qian et al. with the robot of Zhan for the purpose of being able to pack a higher number of items in the storage system as Zhan does not need to leave space to grip the package from the sides.
Regarding Claim 19, The warehousing system according to claim 18, further comprising: a shelf (Qian et al. Shelves of 300) including a cache layer (Qian et al. Bottommost shelf layer Fig. 12) and a plurality of storage layers (Qian et al. storage layers above bottom Fig. 12), a plurality of bins are densely disposed in the storage layers (fully capable), and the transfer robot is configured to transfer the bins on the storage layers to the cache layer (Zhan Fig. 1-2 the robot is fully capable of moving a bin from a shelf and would therefore be fully capable of moving the bin to any shelf on the storage layer and the cache layer).
Regarding Claim 20, Zhan in view of Qian et al. teaches the warehousing system according to claim 19,
Zhan in view of Qian et al. does not currently teach further comprising: a background system communicatively connected to the shelf and the transfer robot, so as to generate a corresponding control instruction according to a location of the bin in the shelf and a location of the transfer robot.
Qian et al. teaches a package transporting robot (100) having a moving mechanism ([0067]) and a control module communicatively connected to the moving mechanism (200) a warehouse (300) wherein the transfer robot is disposed in the warehouse ([0101]) and having a background system (200) communicatively connected to the shelf and the transfer robot ([0100]), so as to generate a corresponding control instruction according to a location of the bin in the shelf and a location of the transfer robot ([0101]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify the rob0t of Zhan with the background system of Qian et al. for the purpose of being able to control the route the robot takes in the warehouse.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6, 8-9, and 12-13 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.
Regarding claim 6, Zhan as modified above does not teach a straight rod disposed between the two opposite retractable racks; a sleeve disposed on the straight rod and rotatably connected to the straight rod, an end wall of the diagonal rod is fixedly connected to the sleeve. There is no prior art of record to suggest it would have been obvious for the retractable racks to have a sleeved rod.
Regarding claim 8, Zhan as modified above does not teach a pressing assembly that selectively abuts against the fixing plate to restrict the retraction and extension of the retractable mechanism in a retracted state.
Claim 9 depends on claim 8 and is therefore allowable.
Regarding Claim 12, Zhan as modified above does not teach wherein the support assembly further comprises: a stop plate that is slidably connected to the base plate, a top wall of the stop plate is lower than a top of the support roller ; a baffle plate fixed to the stop plate, the baffle plate partially overlaps with the fixing plate; a stop rod rotatably connected to the base plate and located on a side of the stop plate away from the baffle plate; and a toggle fixed on the stop plate and selectively abutting against the stop rod, so that the stop rod partially protrudes the stop plate, a portion of the stop rod protruding the stop plate is opposite to the stop plate.
Claim 13 depends on claim 12 and is therefore allowable.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Elmer (US 5421685 A) and Tanaka et al. (US 20180215540 A1) teach similar transfer devices.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ernesto Suarez can be reached at (571) 270-5565. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ERNESTO A SUAREZ/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3655
/A.N./Examiner, Art Unit 3655
