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 .
This is the First Office Action on the merits of Application No. 19/026618, filed on 01/17/2025. Claims 1-17 are still pending in the application.
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) 1-5, 9-11, and 16-17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over EP 2338823 to Carparelli et al in view of JP 2009-208947 to Uemura et al (henceforth referred to as Carparelli and Uemura, respectively).
Regarding claims 1-5, 9-11, Carparelli teaches a car (i.e. Fig. 9, ref. 1) of an elevator, comprising:
a door rail (i.e. Fig. 3, ref. 2), supporting a car door (i.e. Fig. 9, ref. 10.1, 10.2) to be slidable in a left-right direction;
a first pulley (i.e. Fig. 9, ref. 62) and a second pulley (i.e. Fig. 9, ref. 67) provided to be spaced apart in the left-right direction above the door rail, and a drive belt (i.e. Fig. 9, ref. 63) operatively connected to the car door and being wound around the first pulley and the second pulley;
a support frame (i.e. Fig. 3, ref. 50), comprising the door rail on a front face and brackets (i.e. Fig. 3, ref. 31, 32, 33) at a plurality of locations on a upper edge, and the support frame supporting the first pulley, the second pulley via the brackets,
wherein the car door comprises a roller (i.e. Fig. 3, ref. 12) that engages with an upper edge of the door rail from above and rotates, and
the upper edge of the support frame is positioned lower than an upper most portion of the roller (i.e. Fig. 3, uppermost portion of ref. 12 is higher than ref. 55, the upper edge of ref. 50).
Further comprising: a drive motor (i.e. Fig. 3, ref. 61), directly connected to the first pulley, wherein the drive motor is supported on the support frame (i.e. Fig. 3, ref. 50) via one of the brackets (i.e. Fig. 3, ref. 31).
Wherein the brackets are attached to a rear face (i.e. Fig. 3, “rear” is a relative term, in this case ref. 55 of ref. 50 is considered rear facing when page is turned 90 degrees) of a main body part (i.e. Fig. 3ref. 50) of the support frame.
Wherein the support frame is a member that is long in the left-right direction (i.e. Fig. 9, ref. 56 extends in the left right direction) and is arranged along a vertical plane (i.e. Fig. 3, re. 31 extends vertically), and
the first pulley and the second pulley are arranged in an open space (i.e. Fig. 3, space under ref. 33) between a front offset plane and a rear offset plane with reference to the vertical plane of the support frame, above the support frame.
Further comprising: a cover (i.e. Fig. 3, ref. 33) that covers a part or entirety of the open space from front, rear, and above.
Wherein the brackets are attached to the support frame using a fastener (i.e. Fig. 4, ref. 51) that is able to be fixed and released by a rotational operation from front of the support frame (i.e. Functional language using relative direction: top of the fastener could be fixed and release from a “front” direction of the frame).
Wherein the car door comprises a door panel (i.e. Fig. 9, ref. 10.1, 10.2); and
a door hanger (i.e. Fig. 9, ref. 11.1, 11.2) that is attached to an upper end portion of the door panel,
the door hanger comprises an extension part (i.e. Fig. 9, ref. 64) where a portion of a main body part of the frame protrudes and extends upward, and
the car door is connected to the drive belt (i.e. Fig. 9, ref. 63) at the extension part.
Carparelli does not specifically teach a door position detection part to detect when the car door is in a predetermined position. However, Uemura teaches a elevator car (i.e. Fig. 5) comprising door rail (i.e. Fig. 5, ref. 22) supported on a support frame (i.e. Fig. 5, ref. 16) and a car door (i.e. Fig. 5, ref. 15) sliding along the rail on rollers (i.e. Fig. 5, ref. 23) and teaches the elevator car further comprises a door closing switch (i.e. Fig. 3, ref. 25) to detect when the car door is in the fully closed position. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the door closing switch as taught in Uemura as a door position detection part in the car as taught in Carparelli to sense when the car door is in the fully closed position before moving the elevator away from the landing for safety and there would have been reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding claims 16-17, Carparelli teaches a car (i.e. Fig. 9, ref. 1) of an elevator, comprising:
a door rail (i.e. Fig. 3, ref. 2), supporting a car door (i.e. Fig. 9, ref. 10.1, 10.2) to be slidable in a left and right direction;
a first pulley (i.e. Fig. 9, ref. 62) and a second pulley (i.e. Fig. 9, ref. 67) provided to be spaced apart in the left right direction above the door rail, and a drive belt (i.e. Fig. 9, ref. 63) operatively connected to the car door and being wound around the first pulley and second pulley;
a support frame (i.e. Fig. 3, ref. 50), comprising the door rail on a front face and brackets (i.e. Fig. 3, ref. 31, 32, 33) at a plurality of locations on an upper edge (i.e. Fig. 3, ref. 55), and the support frame supporting the first pulley, the second pulley via brackets,
wherein the brackets are attached to the support frame using a fastener (i.e. Fig. 4, ref. 51) that is able to be fixed and released by a rotational operation from front of the support frame (i.e. Functional language using relative direction: top of the fastener could be fixed and release from a “front” direction of the frame).
An elevator (i.e. Fig. 9) comprising the car of the elevator according to claim 1.
Carparelli does not specifically teach a door position detection part to detect when the car door is in a predetermined position. However, Uemura teaches an elevator car (i.e. Fig. 5) comprising door rail (i.e. Fig. 5, ref. 22) supported on a support frame (i.e. Fig. 5, ref. 16) and a car door (i.e. Fig. 5, ref. 15) sliding along the rail on rollers (i.e. Fig. 5, ref. 23) and teaches the elevator car further comprises a door closing switch (i.e. Fig. 3, ref. 25) to detect when the car door is in the fully closed position. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the door closing switch as taught in Uemura as a door position detection part in the car as taught in Carparelli to sense when the car door is in the fully closed position before moving the elevator away from the landing for safety and there would have been reasonable expectation of success.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6-8 and 12-15 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
JP 2009-249155 to Ishiguro et al teaches an elevator car door mount system;
US Patent No. 5,323,876 to McAllister et al teaches a low profile elevator door mount system;
FR 2595677 to Mai et al teaches a lower profile elevator door mount system.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DIEM M TRAN whose telephone number is (571)270-7825. The examiner can normally be reached M 9-5, W-F 10-2.
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/DIEM M TRAN/Examiner, Art Unit 3654