DETAILED ACTION
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
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) 14-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Guglielmo et al. (US 2019/0103639) (“Guglielmo”) in view of Donell et al. (US 2013/0270016) (“Donell”).
With respect to claim 14, Guglielmo discloses a battery assembly, comprising: a plurality of battery modules disposed within the battery assembly housing (housing contains six battery modules installed vertically on the front side of the assembly, with their electrical and data connections occurring within the housing on the rear side, Abstract), each of the plurality of battery modules including a module positive terminal, a module negative terminal (negative terminals 212 of the modules 200 will either connect to the 0 V (ground) bus bar or the 24 V bus bar...positive terminals 211 of the modules 200 will connect to the 48 V bus bar, [0085]; Fig. 12), a plurality of battery modules disposed within the battery assembly housing, each of the plurality of battery modules including a module positive terminal, a module negative terminal, and a plurality of battery cells interconnected to provide a combined electrical potential between the module positive terminal and the module negative terminal; (a plurality of battery modules, wherein each battery module in said plurality of battery modules includes a positive terminal and a negative terminal and a plurality of lithium-ion battery cells, said plurality of lithium-ion battery cells being electrically united within each respective one of said plurality of battery modules to provide a combined electrical potential, Claim 1); and a battery module charging assembly electrically coupled with the negative module terminal and the positive module terminal of each of the plurality of battery modules (the individual battery modules and/or the larger assembly can be recharged with lithium-ion chargers, [0013]), the battery module charging assembly including: and control circuitry configured to control charging operations of the battery assembly (module 901 in housing 100, to the extent networked, is designed to monitor the states of charge in each module 200 and will grant permission for a module 200 that varies by more than some threshold to disconnect, [0089}), the control circuitry including: a voltage monitor configured to measure voltage levels of the plurality of battery modules (Each battery module has an integrated battery supervisor system (BSS). The system monitors the health to include cell voltage, current, and temperature. During charging, the system monitors the state of charge, compensates for voltage differences, and ensures the pack remains operational if and only if the battery cells are properly balanced and within the operating temperature limits, [0016]), a power supply plug configured to deliver electrical energy from the plurality of battery modules to the electric vehicle (At the rear of each module the 6-pin connector 400 and positive 401 and negative 402 connectors are visible, [0100]; positive 401 and negative 402 terminals are connected to the same plurality of battery cells. The positive 401 and negative 402 terminals connect to the housing rack 300 through the use of a quick release connection. The requirements for this quick release connection are that they are able to: maintain performance through a high number of cycles, blindly connect the battery module 330 and the housing rack 300, and safely transfer current from the module 330 to the housing rack 300 through multiple contact points, [0103]; six battery modules 200 a-f are connected in parallel to the housing rack 100. At any particular point in time, each battery module 200 may have a different state of charge, particularly as the module charges are drained through use in powering the forklift, [0083]). Abstract discloses the use of supervisor system (BSS) and a battery system Operating System Supervisor.
Guglielmo; however, does not expressly disclose a battery module charging assembly disposed within the battery assembly housing, the battery module charging assembly including: a power charging port configured to be coupled with and receive electrical energy from a power source for charging the plurality of battery modules and a voltage regulator configured to regulate the voltage of the electrical energy supplied from the power source to the plurality of battery modules and that the supervisor controller control the voltage regulator based on the voltage levels of the plurality of batteries.
Donnell is in the field of internal battery chargers (title; abstract) and teaches a battery module charging assembly disposed within the battery assembly housing (an apparatus is provided for transportation comprising one or more batteries capable receiving and storing an electric charge within the removable battery module, Abstract; internal battery charger 858 may also be connected to a regular female 120 volt a/c outlet 860 with a standard extension cord plugged into a male outlet mounted on the scooter, [0075]), the battery module charging assembly including: a power charging port configured to be coupled with and receive electrical energy from a power source for charging the plurality of battery modules (an apparatus is provided for transportation comprising one or more batteries capable receiving and storing an electric charge within the removable battery module, Abstract; internal battery charger 858 may also be connected to a regular female 120 volt a/c outlet 860 with a standard extension cord plugged into a male outlet mounted on the scooter...modules 12 used in conjunction with charging the battery(s) of the scooter may be plugged into a plurality of charge port plugs, [0075]) and a voltage regulator configured to regulate the voltage of the electrical energy supplied from the power source to the plurality of battery modules (charge controller 888 on the scooter to regulate the input when the batteries are being charged with 110-120 volt a/c power, [0082]); a supervisory controller configured to control the voltage regulator based on the voltage levels of the plurality of battery modules, paragraph 0082 disclose that the charge controller controls a regulator to thus regulate the input when batteries are being charged.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify the battery charger device of Guglielmo to include a power charging port configured to be coupled with and receive electrical energy from a power source for charging the plurality of battery modules, a voltage regulator configured to regulate the voltage of the electrical energy supplied from the power source and a controller to controller the voltage regulator as taught by Donnell. The motivation being to provide a system with overvoltage protection to prevent damage to the batteries and regulating the voltage used to charge the batteries to increase charging efficiency and decrease the amount of charging time, for example. ([0002]; Donnell).
With respect to claim 15, Guglielmo in view of Donnell disclose the battery assembly of claim 14, wherein: the electronic device is a vehicle; and the battery assembly housing is sized to be replaceably installed within a battery assembly compartment of the vehicle. Paragraph 0012 disclose the use of replaceable batteries for forklifts.
With respect to claim 16, Guglielmo in view of Donnell disclose the battery assembly of claim 14, wherein the battery module charging assembly is disposed within the battery assembly housing adjacent to a first end of each of the plurality of battery modules (an apparatus is provided for transportation comprising one or more batteries capable receiving and storing an electric charge within the removable battery module, Abstract; internal battery charger 858 may also be connected to a regular female 120 volt a/c outlet 860 with a standard extension cord plugged into a male outlet mounted on the scooter, [0075]; charge controller 888 on the scooter to regulate the input when the batteries are being charged with 110-120 volt a/c power, [0082]; Fig. 13). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify the battery charger device of Guglielmo to place the battery module charging assembly within the battery assembly housing adjacent to a first end of each of the plurality of battery modules as taught by Donnell. The motivation being to provide a system with overvoltage protection to prevent damage to the batteries in a location at the end of the housing to improve heat dissipation and decrease the transferring of heat from the battery charger to the batteries. ((0074]; Donnell).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-13 are allowed.
Claim 1 is allowable over the prior art of record, because the prior art of record does not disclose a battery assembly, comprising: a plurality of battery modules, each battery module of the plurality of battery modules including a positive module terminal and a negative module terminal; a charging assembly electrically coupled with the negative module terminal and the positive module of each of the plurality of battery modules, including: a plurality of positive module contacts, each of the plurality of positive module contacts electrically coupled with one of the module positive terminals, a plurality of negative module contacts, each of the plurality of negative module contacts electrically coupled with one of the module negative terminals, a power supply plug configured to deliver electrical energy from the plurality of battery modules to an electronic device powered by the battery assembly, a power charging port configured to be coupled with and receive electrical energy from a power source for charging the plurality of battery modules, and a mechanism configured to connect the plurality of battery modules in a parallel connection and reconfigure the parallel connection of the plurality of battery modules from the parallel connection to a series connection.
Claims 17-20 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.
Claim 17 is allowable over the prior art of record, because the prior art of record does not disclose wherein the supervisory controller is electrically coupled with the voltage monitor and the voltage regulator and further configured to: in response to the voltage levels of the plurality of battery modules being less than a first threshold voltage level, control the voltage regulator to deliver the electrical energy to the plurality of battery modules from the power source using a constant current; and in response to the voltage levels of the plurality of battery modules being greater than the first threshold level, control the voltage regulator to deliver the electrical energy to the plurality of battery modules from the power source using a constant voltage.
Conclusion
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/CARLOS AMAYA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2836