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 .
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.
Claim Objections
Claim 2 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Regarding claim 2, the recited “a second state in which the at least one circuit is active” should be corrected to “a second state in which the at least one circuit is inactive” (see [0059] of applicant’s disclosure).
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claims 1-5, 7, 8, 10, 11, and 13-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sumiya JP 2023037749 in view of Koizumi et al. US 20170068204.
Regarding claim 1, Sumiya discloses:
An image-processing apparatus comprising:
one or more heaters (202/203/204) (FIG. 2) ([0028] of attached English machine translation);
a power supply unit (500) (FIG. 2) including at least one direct current power supply (323) (FIG. 2) [0029], the power supply unit being configured to operate in one of a plurality of operation states having respective different total consumed powers [0034];
one or more drive circuits configured to drive the one or more heaters (FIG. 2); and
a controller (300) (FIG. 2) configured to control, on the basis of a driving state of the one or more heaters, the power supply unit to operate in an operation state selected such that a surplus of the total consumed power is reduced [0034-36 and 0040-42] (the operation of PFC 321 is based on a requirement to drive the one or more heaters).
Sumiya does not explicitly disclose wherein the heater drive circuits use direct current.
Koizumi et al. discloses using a direct current power supply in order to drive image-processing apparatus environment heaters [0007-10].
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify the apparatus as disclosed by Sumiya to include wherein the one or more heaters are driven using direct current as disclosed by Koizumi et al. in order to reduce heater temperature variation [0008] (Koizumi et al.).
Regarding claim 2, Sumiya discloses:
wherein the power supply unit includes at least one circuit configured to be activated and consume power in accordance with control by the controller (circuit including PFC 321) (FIG. 2), and
the plurality of operation states of the power supply unit include:
a first state in which the at least one circuit is active and the total consumed power of the power supply unit is a first power value [0040]; and
a second state in which the at least one circuit is active and the total consumed power of the power supply unit is a second power value lower than the first power value [0041].
Regarding claim 3, Sumiya discloses:
wherein the one or more heaters include a plurality of heaters (202/203/204) (FIG. 2) [0028], and
the controller is configured to:
control the power supply unit to operate in the first state when a first number of the heaters among the plurality of heaters are driven [0040]; and
control the power supply unit to operate in the second state when a second number of the heaters among the plurality of heaters are to be driven, the second number being smaller than the first number [0041].
Regarding claim 4, Sumiya discloses:
wherein the controller is configured to:
control the power supply unit to operate in the first state when at least one heater among the one or more heaters is driven [0040]; and
control the power supply unit to operate in the second state when none of the one or more heaters is driven [0041].
Regarding claim 5, Sumiya in view of Koizumi et al. teaches:
wherein the at least one direct current power supply is configured to convert alternating current voltage from a commercial power supply into direct current voltage to supply power with the direct current voltage (when modifying Sumiya to include the AC to DC conversion disclosed by Koizumi et al.) [0008] (Koizumi et al.), and
the at least one circuit includes a power factor correction circuit (321) (FIG. 2) (Sumiya) configured to correct a power factor in the at least one direct current power supply.
Regarding claim 7, Sumiya in view of Koizumi et al. teaches:
wherein the at least one direct current power supply includes:
a first direct current power supply configured to supply power to the one or more heaters (when modifying Sumiya to include the AC to DC conversion disclosed by Koizumi et al.); and
a second direct current power supply (323) (FIG. 2) [0029] (Sumiya) configured to supply power to the controller, and
the plurality of operation states of the power supply unit include:
a third state in which power is supplied from the first direct current power supply to the one or more heaters, and the total consumed power of the at least one direct current power supply is a third power value [0036] (Sumiya); and
a fourth state in which a power supply path passing through the first direct current power supply is shut off, and the total consumed power of the at least one direct current power supply is a fourth power value lower than the third power value [0034] (Sumiya).
Regarding claim 8, Sumiya discloses:
wherein the controller is configured to control the power supply unit to operate in the operation state selected on the basis of a comparison between (i) a required power amount determined on the basis of the driving state of the one or more heaters and (ii) a predetermined threshold [0040] (PFC 321 is operated if the required power amount includes one or more of the heaters).
Regarding claim 10, Sumiya discloses:
wherein the controller is configured to determine the required power amount on the basis of (i) the driving state of the one or more heaters and (ii) a power consumed by a component (any component of the image-processing apparatus that requires power including a fixing unit, developing unit, or various driven rollers), aside from the one or more heaters, that depends on an operation mode of the image-processing apparatus.
Regarding claim 11, Sumiya discloses:
a receiving unit (126) (FIG. 2) [0038] configured to receive a setting as to whether to activate each of the one or more heaters,
wherein the one or more drive circuits are configured to drive the one or more heaters in accordance with the setting received by the receiving unit [0038].
Regarding claim 13, Sumiya discloses:
wherein the image-processing apparatus includes an image-forming apparatus configured to form an image on a sheet (FIG. 1), and
the one or more heaters include a heater (202) (FIG. 1) [0028] for heating a container unit (121) (FIG. 1) configured to contain a sheet bundle.
Regarding claim 14, Sumiya discloses:
wherein the image-processing apparatus includes an image-forming apparatus configured to form an image on a sheet (FIG. 1), and
the one or more heaters include a heater (203) (FIG. 2) [0028] for heating an image-forming unit (104) (FIG. 1).
Regarding claim 15, Sumiya discloses:
wherein the image-processing apparatus includes a reading apparatus (120) (FIG. 1) configured to optically read a document, and
the one or more heaters include a heater (204) (FIG. 2) [0028] for heating an optical system of the reading apparatus.
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sumiya JP 2023037749 in view of Koizumi et al. US 20170068204 and further in view of Nakatani US 20140356013.
Regarding claim 6, Sumiya in view of Koizumi et al. teaches the limitations of claims 1 and 2 as set forth above, but does not explicitly teach wherein the at least one circuit includes a drive circuit configured to drive a cooling unit that cools the at least one direct current power supply.
Nakatani discloses a drive circuit configured to drive a cooling unit (12) (FIG. 3) that cools the direct current power supply [0024] (FIG. 3).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to further modify the apparatus as taught by Sumiya in view of Koizumi et al. to include the cooling unit as disclosed by Nakatani in order to prevent overheating of the power supply.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 9 and 12 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding claim 9, the prior art of record does not disclose or suggest the recited “memory configured to store a power amount required when driving each of the plurality of heaters, and the controller is configured to determine the required power amount by totaling the power amounts stored in the memory for heaters set to be active” along with the remaining claim limitations.
Regarding claim 12, the prior art of record does not disclose or suggest the recited “a further heater configured to be driven using power supplied from an alternating current power supply; and a switch capable of opening and closing a power supply path from the alternating current power supply to the further heater, wherein the controller is configured to control the driving state of the one or more heaters on the basis of an open/closed state of the switch” along with the remaining claim limitations.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THOMAS S GIAMPAOLO II whose telephone number is (571)272-6619. The examiner can normally be reached T-Th 9-5.
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/THOMAS S GIAMPAOLO II/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2852
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