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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election with traverse of Claims 1-14 and 25-28 in the reply filed on 05/11/2026 is acknowledged.
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.
Claims 1-3, 12, 14 and 25-27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Fenn (US 2018/0100523 A1).
Regarding Claim 1 FENN teaches a linear actuator comprising: a piston (202) slidably mounted for sliding along an axis (Fig 4-8); a linear drive (Fig 7) including a ball screw (208) and a ball nut (216) operably mounted on the ball screw (208), with rotation of the ball screw (208) causing the ball nut (216) to move axially along the ball screw (208), a drive mechanism (110) including a rotational drive element (116) operable to impart rotation to the ball screw (208) about the axis, said piston (202) being attached to the ball nut (216), with the ball nut (216) and piston (202) configured to be advanced along the axis as the ball screw (208) is rotated (par.0045); and a releasable coupling (118) that drivingly interconnects the drive mechanism (110) and ball screw (208), with rotation of the drive element (116) causing rotation of the ball screw (208), said coupling (118) releasably attached to one of the drive element (116) and the ball screw (208) to permit relative movement between the drive element (116) and the ball screw (208) (Fig 4).
Regarding Claims 2 and 26 FENN teaches said drive element (116) and said ball screw (208) having respective coupling elements (splines) that are removably complementally engaged with one another via splines of coupling (118) so that the drive element (116) and ball screw (208) are in driving engagement with one another (Fig 4-7).
Regarding Claims 3 and 27 FENN teaches said drive element (116) having a first set of splines (gear teeth) and said ball screw (208) having a second set of splines (gear teeth), with the first set of splines and the second set of splines being axially slidable into and out of driving engagement with one another by adjusting coupling (118) (Fig 4-6).
Regarding Claim 12 FENN teaches said drive mechanism (110) including a motor, said drive element (116) comprising a driven gear powered by the motor (Fig 4-7).
Regarding Claim 14 FENN teaches said piston (202) being slidably mounted for sliding in a distal direction to extend the piston (202) and in a proximal direction to retract the piston (202) ; said piston (202) including a piston section with proximal and distal stops and a piston (202) chamber extending between the proximal and distal stops to receive the ball nut (216), said ball nut (216) being distally shiftable to engage the distal stop and move the piston (202) in the distal direction, said ball nut (216) being proximally shiftable to engage the proximal stop and move the piston (202) in the proximal direction (Fig 4-7).
Regarding Claim 25 FENN teaches a linear actuator comprising: a linear drive including a ball screw (208) and a ball nut (216) operably mounted on the ball screw (208), said ball screw (208) defining an axis, with rotation of the ball screw (208) causing the ball nut (216) to move axially along the ball screw (208), a drive mechanism (110) including a rotational drive element (116) operable to impart rotation to the ball screw (208) about the axis, said ball nut (216) configured to be advanced along the axis as the ball screw (208) is rotated; and a releasable coupling (118) that drivingly interconnects the drive mechanism (110) and ball screw (208), with rotation of the drive element causing rotation of the ball screw (208), said coupling (118) releasably attached to one of the drive element (116) and the ball screw (208) to permit relative movement between the drive element (116) and the ball screw (208) (Fig 2-5).
Allowable subject matter
Claims 4-11, 13 and 28 are objected to but would be allowable if rewritten including all the limitations of the base claims and all the intervening claims.
Conclusion
Prior art made of record not relied up on is pertinent to applicant’s disclosure. Kuang (CN 115899196 A) teaches an emergency liner actuator system having a redundancy actuator mechanism.
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/ABIY TEKA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3745
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