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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This is the first action on the merits for application 18/996373. Claims 1-8 are currently pending in this application.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
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) 1-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over YOKOYAMA (JP 2022-085864 A) in view of TSUJI (JP 2020-051617 A) and TAKAMI (4,773,895).
Regarding Claim 1, YOKOYAMA teaches A joined V-belt comprising: a plurality of wrapped V-belt portions (V); and a tie band (1)(3), wherein outer peripheral surfaces of the wrapped V-belt portions are connected by the tie band, each of the wrapped V-belt portions comprises a belt body and a cover fabric (8) covering an outer surface of the belt body, the belt body comprises a tension member layer (6) comprising a tension member (5), a tension rubber layer (4) laminated on a belt outer peripheral side of the tension member layer (6), and a compression rubber layer (7) laminated on a belt inner peripheral side of the tension member layer (6),
YOKOYAMA does not teach the tie band comprises a short fiber-containing rubber layer in which a short fiber is oriented in a belt width direction, and the short fiber-containing rubber layer comprises a plurality of rib portions extending in a belt longitudinal direction.
TSUJI teaches the tie band (102) comprises a short fiber-containing rubber layer (102a) in which a short fiber is oriented in a belt width direction.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to change the belt in YOKOYAMA to have the short fiber rubber layer in TSUJI to increase the stiffness of the belt in the width direction.
TAKAMI teaches the tie band rubber layer (13) comprises a plurality of rib portions (16) extending in a belt longitudinal direction.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to change the belt in YOKOYAMA as modified to have the rib portions in TAKAMI to increase the friction between the back of the belt and a pulley.
Regarding Claim 2, YOKOYAMA as modified teaches wherein an arrangement pitch of the rib portions (TAKAMI 16) is smaller than an arrangement pitch of the wrapped V-belt portions (TAKAMI 14).
Regarding Claim 3, YOKOYAMA as modified teaches wherein an arrangement pitch of the rib portions (TAKAMI 16) is larger than a width of a gap between adjacent wrapped V-belt portions (TAKAMI 14).
Regarding Claim 4, YOKOYAMA as modified teaches wherein the tie band comprises the short fiber-containing rubber layer and a fabric layer, and the fabric layer comprises a fibrous structure laminated on an inner peripheral surface of the short fiber-containing rubber layer [0047]-[0060].
Regarding Claim 5, YOKOYAMA as modified teaches wherein the fibrous structure is a cord fabric comprising a plurality of first threads extending in a belt width direction and a plurality of second threads extending in a direction intersecting the belt width direction, and an arrangement density of the second threads is lower than an arrangement density of the first threads [0047]-[0060].
Regarding Claim 6, YOKOYAMA as modified teaches wherein a center of a top portion of the rib portions (TAKAMI 16) is located at a gap between adjacent wrapped V-belt portions (Fig. 2).
Regarding Claim 7, YOKOYAMA as modified teaches wherein a thickness of the tie band (TAKAMI 13)(Fig. 2) is 0.3 to 0.7 times a thickness of the wrapped V-belt portions.
Regarding Claim 8, YOKOYAMA as modified teaches the method comprising: connecting a plurality of wrapped V-belt portion precursors by a tie band precursor; crosslinking and molding the connected wrapped V-belt portion precursors and tie band precursor by heating and pressurizing to obtain a crosslinked molded body; and forming rib portions on an outer peripheral side of the crosslinked molded body [0203][0206](TAKAMI Col. 3 lines 5-10).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HENRY Y LIU whose telephone number is (571)270-7018. The examiner can normally be reached 9-5:30 ET.
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HENRY Y. LIU
Examiner
Art Unit 3654
/HENRY Y LIU/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3654