DETAILED ACTION
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because the U-phase of the current is not visible for the alignment angle of 300 in Fig. 3. Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
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) 1-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2006/0186914 (Ho) in view of US 2015/0198668 (Viswanathan).
Regarding claim 1, Ho teaches a motor disconnection detection apparatus (apparatus of Fig. 1) comprising:
a phase current detection part (Detector 18 receives current feedback from a phase of PMSM 13, including a U, W, and V phases, wherein the components of detector 18 receiving the current would reasonably be interpreted as “a phase current detection part” as claimed. See Fig. 1; see [0014]-[0015]) which detects a phase current at a specific alignment angle and a specific time within a motor alignment period (In a first stage the angle corresponds to 30 degrees and is aligned with the V-phase such that the magnitude of current in the V phase is equal to the magnitude of the supplied current iq* and the magnitude of the U and W phase are half the current magnitude in the V-phase. The current is forced to align with the V-phase “for a certain period of time” and “The comparison between expected and measured current values is done at the end portion of each of the parking stages to allow sufficient settling time for current control” which would be interpreted as being detected at a specific time within a motor alignment period as claimed. See Figs. 1, 2; see [0017], [0019]); and
a motor disconnection detection part which detects disconnection of a motor based on the detected phase current (phase loss detector 18 determines when a faulty motor electrical connection exists including a phase disconnection based on the detected phase currents not being within a range of values for expected currents; see [0006]-[0008]),
Ho fails to teach wherein the motor disconnection detection part determines whether the disconnection of the motor occurs based on phase currents detected a plurality of times within the specific time.
Viswanathan teaches wherein the motor disconnection detection part determines whether the disconnection of the motor occurs based on phase currents detected a plurality of times within the specific time (“in all embodiments, it may be preferred that the determination is made only when a plurality of calculated values (derived from ongoing measured data) meet the requirements of the particular embodiment”; see [0112]).
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 features of Viswanathan into Ho in order to gain the advantage of determining a disconnection occurs only if multiple determinations are made that the current does not meet the desired level over a predetermined length of time, as this approach helps to eliminate a false positive determination of a fault on the basis of instantaneous anomalous effects measured in the exciter current.
Regarding claim 9, Ho teaches a method of detecting disconnection of a motor (detecting a connection error of a motor using the apparatus of Fig. 1), comprising:
detecting a phase current at a specific alignment angle and a specific time within a motor alignment period (In a first stage the angle corresponds to 30 degrees and is aligned with the V-phase such that the magnitude of current in the V phase is equal to the magnitude of the supplied current iq* and the magnitude of the U and W phase are half the current magnitude in the V-phase. The current is forced to align with the V-phase “for a certain period of time” and “The comparison between expected and measured current values is done at the end portion of each of the parking stages to allow sufficient settling time for current control” which would be interpreted as being detected at a specific time within a motor alignment period as claimed. See Figs. 1, 2; see [0017], [0019]); and
detecting disconnection of a motor based on the detected phase current (phase loss detector 18 determines when a faulty motor electrical connection exists including a phase disconnection based on the detected phase currents not being within a range of values for expected currents; see [0006]-[0008]).
Ho fails to teach wherein the detecting of the disconnection of the motor includes determining whether the disconnection of the motor occurs based on phase currents detected a plurality of times within the specific time.
Viswanathan teaches wherein the detecting of the disconnection of the motor includes determining whether the disconnection of the motor occurs based on phase currents detected a plurality of times within the specific time (“in all embodiments, it may be preferred that the determination is made only when a plurality of calculated values (derived from ongoing measured data) meet the requirements of the particular embodiment”; see [0112]).
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 features of Viswanathan into Ho in order to gain the advantage of determining a disconnection occurs only if multiple determinations are made that the current does not meet the desired level over a predetermined length of time, as this approach helps to eliminate a false positive determination of a fault on the basis of instantaneous anomalous effects measured in the exciter current.
Regarding claims 2 and 10, Ho teaches wherein the phase current detection part sets an alignment angle of at least some of a U-phase, a V-phase, and a W-phase to 300 (In a first stage the alignment angle is set at an angle 30 degrees such the current is aligned with the V axis and the normalized magnitude of current in the U-phase and W-phase are half the current in the V-phase; see [0017]; see Fig. 2).
Regarding claims 3 and 11, Ho teaches wherein the motor disconnection detection part determines that the disconnection of the motor occurs when each of the detected phase currents is less than 0.5 A (In stage 1, an error is determined if the current is less than 0.5 times the expected current I; see [0018], [0021]-[0022]).
Regarding claims 4 and 12, Ho teaches wherein the motor disconnection detection part determines whether the disconnection of the motor occurs based on 30 ms, 60 ms, and 90 ms periods within a time of 100 ms, however, the limitation as claimed would be a matter of design choice without providing any new or unexpected result. Ho teaches wherein measurements are performed with a current applied at an angle anlong the V-axis “for a certain period of time” (see [0017]) and “The comparison between expected and measured current values is done at the end portion of each of the parking stages to allow sufficient settling time for current control.” Viswanathan teaches wherein a fault is determined based on ongoing measured data over a predetermined length of time. It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to determine a desired period of time and the time between measurements without requiring any undue experimentation of providing any new or unexpected results.
Regarding claims 5 and 13, Ho teaches wherein, when the motor disconnection detection part determines that disconnection occurs in each of the U-phase, the V-phase, and the W-phase (In a first stage the angle corresponds to 30 degrees and is aligned with the V-phase such that the magnitude of current in the V phase is equal to the magnitude of the supplied current iq* and the magnitude of the U and W phase are half the current magnitude in the V-phase. Therefore, one of ordinary skill in the art would reasonably understand an error in each phase is determined when any of the U-, V-, or W-phase has a current magnitude of less than 0.5xiq* since each phase has a current magnitude of at least 0.5xiq*; see [0017]-[0022]). Ho fails to teach in all 30 ms, 60 ms, and 90 ms periods, the motor disconnection detection part determines that the disconnection of the motor occurs, however, the limitation as claimed would be a matter of design choice without providing any new or unexpected result. Ho teaches wherein measurements are performed with a current applied at an angle anlong the V-axis “for a certain period of time” (see [0017]) and “The comparison between expected and measured current values is done at the end portion of each of the parking stages to allow sufficient settling time for current control.” Viswanathan teaches wherein a fault is determined based on ongoing measured data over a predetermined length of time. It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to determine a desired period of time and the time between measurements without requiring any undue experimentation of providing any new or unexpected results.
Regarding claims 6 and 14, Ho teaches wherein, when the motor disconnection detection part determines that disconnection occurs in at least one of the U-phase, the V-phase, and the W-phase, the motor disconnection detection determines that the disconnection of the motor occurs (Figs. 1-3 show testing to detect connection of the U-phase via current iw; see Figs. 1-3).
Regarding claims 7 and 15, Ho teaches which applies a current by applying a predetermined voltage in an open loop method (a current is applied during start up by forcing a current into the motor, which requires applying a voltage, when determining an initial rotor shaft angle while separated from the speed regulator 11 and rotor angle estimator 16. As best understood by the examiner, this is equivalent to “an open loop method” as characterized in the pending application of “apply a current by applying a predetermined voltage in an open loop method when applying a current in an alignment period” as disclosed in [0065] of the pending Pg. Pub. US 2025/0231240).
Regarding claims 8 and 16, Ho fails to teach wherein: the phase current detection part detects disconnection a plurality of times in at least some divided periods which are divided from the motor alignment period; and when the motor disconnection detection part determines that the disconnection occurs all of the plurality of times, the motor disconnection detection part determines that the disconnection of the motor occurs.
Viswanathan teaches wherein: the phase current detection part detects disconnection a plurality of times in at least some divided periods which are divided from the motor alignment period; and when the motor disconnection detection part determines that the disconnection occurs all of the plurality of times, the motor disconnection detection part determines that the disconnection of the motor occurs (multiple determination are made over a predetermined length of time from ongoing measured data and a fault determination is made only when all the values calculated over a predetermined length of time meet the fault requirements; see [0112]).
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 features of Viswanathan into Ho in order to gain the advantage of determining a disconnection occurs only if all determinations made within a predetermined length of time indicate a fault, as this approach helps to eliminate a false positive determination of a fault on the basis of instantaneous anomalous effects measured in the exciter current.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See PTO-892.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to STEVEN LEE YENINAS whose telephone number is (571)270-0372. The examiner can normally be reached M - F 10 - 6.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Judy Nguyen can be reached at (571) 272-2258. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/STEVEN L YENINAS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2858
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