DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-10 of U.S. Application No. 19036049 filed on 01/24/2025 are presented for examination.
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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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.
Claims 1-4, 6-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ikuo Uematsu (JP 2006-050797; Hereinafter, “Uematsu”) in view of Zhou Nianzu et al. (WO 2024174686; filed 2023-12-13; Hereinafter, “Nianzu”).
Regarding claim 1: Uematsu discloses a step motor (1), comprising a housing (8, 10), a stator assembly (3), a rotor assembly (2), and a reduction gearbox assembly (gear 11 and the gears that it meshes with) connected to an output end (21a) of the rotor assembly (2) for power transmission; wherein
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the stator assembly (3) is arranged around the rotor assembly (2) and spaced apart from the rotor assembly (by a magnetic air gap), the housing comprises an outer shell (41, 51) a first end cover (8) and a second end cover (10), the reduction gearbox assembly (gear 11 and the gears that it meshes with) is fixed on a side of the second end cover (10), the rotor assembly (2) comprises a rotary shaft (21) rotationally connected to the first end cover (8) and the second end cover (10), respectively, as well as a permanent magnet (22) sleeved on and fixed to the rotary shaft (21), and an outer peripheral side of the permanent magnet is spaced apart from the stator assembly (3); and
wherein the step motor (1) further comprises an elastic piece (9) having a flat plate structure (fig. 2) and fixed to the first end cover (8), the elastic piece (9) comprises a limiting portion (9a, 9d) abutting against an end (21b) of the rotary shaft (21) away from the reduction gearbox assembly (gear 11 and the gears that it meshes with), a ring-shaped fixing portion (9c) arranged around the limiting portion (fig. 2), and at least two elastic arms (9b) connecting the limiting portion (9a, 9d) with the fixing portion (9c), and the fixing portion (9c) is fixed to the first end cover (8).
Uematsu is silent regarding the outer shell of the housing.
Nianzu discloses a stepper motor (abstract, line 1) has a housing (51), a stator assembly (5; fig. 5) fixed to an inner peripheral side of the housing (51), a rotor assembly (4) supported by the housing (51) and rotationally connected to the housing (51), and the reduction gearbox assembly (8) is fixed on a side of the second end cover (555) away from the outer shell (51).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have provided the stepper motor of Uematsu with the outer shell of the housing wherein the stator assembly is fixed to an inner peripheral side of the housing, and the rotor assembly is supported by the housing and rotationally connected to the housing, and the reduction gearbox assembly is fixed on a side of the second end cover away from the outer shell as taught by Nianzu to physically provide a layer of protection to the motor from foreign objects and outer damaging elements.
Regarding claim 2/1: Uematsu in view of Nianzu disclose the limitations of claim 1 and Uematsu further discloses that the limiting portion (9a, 9d) has a circular structure and is located in the center of the fixing portion(9c; fig. 2), the number of the elastic arms (9b) is three (fig. 2), and the three elastic arms are arranged in a centrally symmetrical manner about the center of the limiting portion (fig. 2).
Regarding claim 3/2/1: Uematsu in view of Nianzu disclose the limitations of claim 2 and Uematsu further discloses that a width of each of the elastic arms (9b) decreases gradually from both ends (9b are thicker at 9a, and 9c) towards the middle (thinner in the middle as seen in fig. 2).
Regarding claim 4/3/2/1: Uematsu in view of Nianzu disclose the limitations of claim 3 and Uematsu further discloses that each of the elastic arms (9b) is in an arc shape (fig. 2).
Regarding claim 6/1, 7/6: Uematsu in view of Nianzu disclose the limitations of claim 1 and Nianzu further discloses that the housing further comprises a claw-pole (512) inserted into and fixed to the outer shell (51), the claw-pole and the outer shell together enclose to form a mounting site (fig. 6), the stator assembly (5) is sleeved on and fixed to the outer shell, and is located in the mounting site (fig. 5); the step motor further comprises a framework (skeletons 551, 553) fixed to the housing (fig. 5), the framework (551, 553) comprises an annular framework body (fig. 5) and a connecting portion (53) extending along a direction perpendicular to an axial direction (extending in the radial direction perpendicular to the axial direction) of the rotary shaft (54) from the framework body, the framework body fixes the outer shell (51) and is located in the mounting site (fig. 5), and the stator assembly (5) is sleeved on and fixed to an outer peripheral side of the framework (fig. 5); the step motor further comprises a circuit board (2) assembly fixed to an end of the connecting portion (53) away from the outer shell (fig. 1).
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Uematsu in view of Zhou Nianzu and in further view of Asano (US 9705391; Hereinafter, “Asano”).
Regarding claim 8/1: Uematsu in view of Nianzu disclose the limitations of claim 1 but does not specifically disclose the step motor further comprises a first spacer and a second spacer, the first spacer and the second spacer are respectively attached and fixed to opposite ends of the permanent magnet, and the first spacer is spaced apart from the first end cover and the second spacer is spaced apart from the second end cover.
Asano discloses step motor (title) further comprises a first spacer (31) and a second spacer (32), the first spacer and the second spacer are respectively attached and fixed to opposite ends of the permanent magnet (20; fig. 4), and the first spacer (31) is spaced apart from the first end cover (81) and the second spacer (32) is spaced apart from the second end cover (82).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have provided the stepper motor of Uematsu in view of Nianzu with a first spacer and a second spacer, the first spacer and the second spacer are respectively attached and fixed to opposite ends of the permanent magnet, and the first spacer is spaced apart from the first end cover and the second spacer is spaced apart from the second end cover as taught by Asano to provide protection to the permanent magnets from the thrust movement of the rotor.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5, 9-10 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AHMED ELNAKIB whose telephone number is (571)270-0638. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00AM-4:00PM.
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/AHMED ELNAKIB/ Primary Examiner,
Art Unit 2834
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