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 Objections
Claim 3 objected to because of the following informalities:
On line 31 of page 1 of the claims it reads “…the third speed…”. This lacks antecedent basis and should be corrected to read “…a third speed…”.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claim(s) 1-6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takeuchi et al. US 20160200125 A1 and Niimi US 20090244216 A1.
Regarding claim 1, Takeuchi et al. teaches,
a liquid discharge apparatus (Paragraph 0002, “The present invention relates to an inkjet printer”) comprising:
a first head to discharge a first ink (Paragraph 0037, “The printing unit 30 includes six types of ink heads, which are a white ink head unit 32W that discharges white ink, a cyan ink head unit 32C that discharges cyan ink, a magenta ink head unit 32M that discharges magenta ink, a yellow ink head unit 32Y that discharges yellow ink, a black ink head unit 32K that discharges black ink, and a transparent ink head unit 32V that discharges transparent ink”),
a second head to discharge a second ink different from the first ink (Paragraph 0037, “The printing unit 30 includes six types of ink heads, which are a white ink head unit 32W that discharges white ink, a cyan ink head unit 32C that discharges cyan ink, a magenta ink head unit 32M that discharges magenta ink, a yellow ink head unit 32Y that discharges yellow ink, a black ink head unit 32K that discharges black ink, and a transparent ink head unit 32V that discharges transparent ink”),
a conveyor to move a medium relative to the carriage in a second scanning direction orthogonal to the first scanning direction (Paragraph 0033, “The ink jet printer 100 mainly includes… a plurality of transport rollers 13…”),
circuitry (Paragraph 0033, “The control unit 10 is comprised of a microcomputer including a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and a memory (a main storage unit). The control unit 10 can control each component of the ink jet printer 100”) configured to:
cause the conveyor to move the medium at least with a first acceleration or at a first speed when the first head discharges the first ink (Paragraph 0063, “In the fourth embodiment, a test pattern is formed by changing the transport speed of the printing base material 11 for each ink color”),
cause the conveyor to move the medium at least with a second acceleration different from the first acceleration or at a second speed different from the first speed when the second head discharges the second ink (Paragraph 0063, “In the present embodiment, the transport speed of the printing base material 11 can be switched between a first transport speed S1, a second transport speed S2, and a third transport speed S3”).
Takeuchi et al. does not disclose a carriage mounting the first head and the second head to move the first head and the second head in a first scanning direction.
However, Niimi teaches a carriage mounting a plurality of inkjet heads moving in a right-and-left direction orthogonal to the conveyance direction (Paragraph 19, “The first inkjet heads 21 are mounted on a carriage 13, which is reciprocated in a right-and-left direction…”; Figure 1, Item 13). Therefore, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Takeuchi et al. to have that the first head and the second head are mounted onto a carriage moving in a first scan direction to allow a print operation across the width of the medium to be executed.
Regarding claim 2, Takeuchi et al. teaches,
the first head discharges a color ink as the first ink (Paragraph 0037, “The printing unit 30 includes six types of ink heads, which are a… a cyan ink head unit 32C that discharges cyan ink…),
the circuitry is further configured to:
cause the conveyor to move the medium with the first acceleration lower than the second acceleration when the first head discharges the color ink and cause the conveyor to move the medium at the first speed lower than the second speed when the first head discharges the color ink (Paragraph 0064, “In the formation of the test pattern, the first cyan patch C1 is formed by transporting the printing base material 11 at the first transport speed S1 while applying the first test voltage V1c to the first cyan ink head 321C”; Paragraph 0063, “a first transport speed S1, a second transport speed S2, and a third transport speed S3 (S1 <S2<S3).” Note that the third transport speed is the highest of the three transport speeds. Naturally, conveyance at a slower speed would necessitate a lower acceleration than conveyance at a higher speed).
Regarding claim 3, Takeuchi et al. teaches,
a third head to discharge a third ink different from the first ink and the second ink (Paragraph 0037, “The printing unit 30 includes six types of ink heads, which are a white ink head unit 32W that discharges white ink, a cyan ink head unit 32C that discharges cyan ink, a magenta ink head unit 32M that discharges magenta ink, a yellow ink head unit 32Y that discharges yellow ink, a black ink head unit 32K that discharges black ink, and a transparent ink head unit 32V that discharges transparent ink”), wherein:
the second head discharges a white ink as the second ink (Paragraph 0037, “…a white ink head unit 32W that discharges white ink…”), and
the circuitry is further configured to:
cause the conveyor to move the medium with a third acceleration higher than the first acceleration when the third head discharges the third ink and cause the conveyor to move the medium at the third speed higher than the first acceleration when the third head discharges the third ink (Paragraph 0064, “The first magenta patch M1 is formed by transporting the printing base material 11 at the third transport speed S3 while applying the first test voltage V1m to the first magenta ink head 321M (FIG. 11B)”; Paragraph 0063, “a first transport speed S1, a second transport speed S2, and a third transport speed S3 (S1 <S2<S3).” Note that the first transport speed is the slowest of the three transport speeds. Naturally, conveyance at a higher speed would necessitate a higher acceleration than conveyance at a lower speed).
Regarding claim 4, Takeuchi et al. teaches,
the circuitry is further configured to:
cause the conveyor to move the medium with the third acceleration higher than the second acceleration when the third head discharges the third ink and cause the conveyor to move the medium at the third speed higher than the second speed when the third head discharges the third ink (Paragraph 0064, “The first magenta patch M1 is formed by transporting the printing base material 11 at the third transport speed S3 while applying the first test voltage V1m to the first magenta ink head 321M (FIG. 11B)”; Paragraph 0063, “a first transport speed S1, a second transport speed S2, and a third transport speed S3 (S1 <S2<S3).” Note that the third transport speed is the higher than the second transport speed. Naturally, conveyance at a higher speed would necessitate a higher acceleration than conveyance at a lower speed).
Regarding claim 5,
the circuitry is further configured to:
cause the conveyor to move the medium at the third acceleration identical to the second acceleration when the third head discharges the third ink and cause the conveyor to move the medium at the third speed identical to the second speed when the third head discharges the third ink.
Takeuchi et al. teaches that an optimal transport speed can be found for a given ink to achieve a certain ink thickness depending on the curing and solidifying properties of the ink (Paragraph 0065, “The curing property and solidifying property of ink vary depending on color. Therefore, the film thickness of each patch is formed to be a film thickness suitable to each color by forming the test pattern by changing the transport speed of the printing base material 11 depending on color”). Therefore, if the second ink, which is ejected from the second head while the medium is moved at a second speed and/or acceleration, has properties similar to the third ink, then it would be obvious to have that the third transport speed and/or acceleration is identical to the second speed and/or acceleration.
Regarding claim 6,
Modified Takeuchi further does not disclose:
another carriage mounting the third head to move the third head in the first scanning direction,
the carriage moves along a first guide in the first scanning direction, the first guide at a first position in the second scanning direction,
said another carriage moves along a second guide in the first direction, the second guide rod at a second position different from the first position in the second scanning direction.
However, Niimi teaches that the first carriage has a first guide (Paragraph 0019, “The first inkjet heads 21 are mounted on a carriage 13, which is reciprocated in a right-and-left direction in FIG. 1 along a guide rail 11”), and a second carriage, with the second carriage scanning in the same direction as the first, having a second guide rod placed at a second position different from the position of the first in the second scanning direction (Paragraph 0024, “The inkjet printer 1 according to the embodiment is equipped with a guide rail 12 (FIG. 1), which is arranged in parallel with the guide rail 11, to guide a carriage 14 with a second inkjet head 22 being mounted”). Therefore, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify Takeuchi to have another carriage mounting the third head to move in the first scanning direction along a second guide to provide a separate printing assembly particularly suited to white ink, providing a more consistent color density of the printed image, as taught by Niimi (Paragraphs 0007-0010).
Conclusion
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/RAMI A ALSHOROOGI/ Examiner, Art Unit 2853
/DOUGLAS X RODRIGUEZ/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2853
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