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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group II, claim 5 in the reply filed on 12/9/25 is acknowledged.
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 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Okada et al. (US 8950650, hereafter “Okada”) in view of Hovanski et al. (US 8434661, “Hovanski”)
Regarding claim 5, Okada discloses a friction stir welding method (abstract) comprising the steps of: causing an anvil 56 to support a stacked body of plates 61-62 (fig. 2A); pressing a joining surface of a joining probe 11 against the stacked body, softening the stacked body with frictional heat generated by sliding contact to join plate members to each other and form a joint hole therein and to form overlay portions (see fig. 2C diagram below); retracting the joining probe 11 and backfilling the joint hole with a softened overlay portion by manipulating the joining probe (figs. 2D-E; col. 8, lines 5-19).
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Okada does not show a separate backfilling probe pressing against the overlay portion. However, such probe is known in the art. Hovanski (also drawn to friction stir welding) discloses joining a stacked body of members 22-24 using a friction stir welding tool/probe 2 which includes a shoulder, pin and a scribe cutter extending from the pin (figs. 2-4). Similar to Okada, Hovanski teaches pressing the tool/probe against the stacked body, softening the stacked body with frictional heat generated by sliding contact and forming a plurality of interlocking overlay portions 30 along the length of the weld interface (see fig. 8b, col. 9, lines 50-61). The scribe cutter tool/probe backfills the interlocking overlay portions to generate a lap weld across the interface with enhanced shear strength (col. 2, lines 50-60), resulting in lap welds with increased shear strength and a lower statistical deviation compared to lap welds produced absent the cutting scribe (col. 3, lines 1-8). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to utilize a separate backfilling probe including a scribe cutter similar to Hovanski in the method of Okada with a motivation to generate a lap weld across the interface with enhanced shear strength. Thus, Okada as modified by Hovanski employs a joining probe for initially softening the stacked body with frictional heat to form a joint hole & overlay portions at the interface between two plate members; and a backfilling probe with a scribe feature for backfilling the joint hole with the overlay/interlocking portions with frictional heat by sliding contact, producing lap weld with enhanced shear strength.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 2/21/25 complies with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Inquiry
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DEVANG R PATEL whose telephone number is (571) 270-3636. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 8am-5pm, EST.
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/DEVANG R PATEL/
Primary Examiner, AU 1735