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 .
2. This office action is responsive to the application Nº 19/077,659 filed on March 12th, 2025 in which claims 1-9 are pending and ready for examination.
Information Disclosure Statement
3. Acknowledgment is made of Applicant’s Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) form PTO-1449. These IDS have been considered.
Priority
4. Receipt is acknowledged of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Drawings
5. The examiner contends that the drawings submitted on 03/12/2025 are acceptable for examination proceedings.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
6. 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 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.
7. 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 of this title, 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.
8. Claims 1-2, 4 and 6-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Suzuki (US Pub. Nº 2014/0267521), in view of Kubo et al. (US Pat. Nº 6,074,056).
9. Regarding independent claim 1: Suzuki disclosed a printing apparatus ([0028], line 1; also see Fig. 1, reference 1) comprising:
a supporting drum ([0032], line 1 and [0033], line 1; also see Fig. 1, reference 30) configured to support a medium (Fig. 1, reference S) looped there around;
a printing unit disposed so as to be opposed to the supporting drum and configured to discharge ultraviolet-light curable-type ink to the medium supported by the supporting drum ([0036], lines 1-2 and [0037], lines 1-2; also see Fig. 1, references 36a-36d);
an emitting unit disposed so as to be opposed to the supporting drum and configured to emit ultraviolet light to the ink discharged on the medium ([0037], lines 2-3; also see Fig. 1, references 37a-37b); and
an air blowing unit configured to deliver air to the supporting drum ([0045], lines 1-4; also see Fig. 1, references 61), wherein
the supporting drum includes:
a rotating body configured to rotate ([0033], lines 1-2; also see Fig. 5, reference 30); and
the rotating body includes:
a shaft portion ([0032], lines 3-4; also see Fig. 5, reference 302);
a peripheral-surface portion around which the medium is looped ([0033], lines 1-2; also see Fig. 5, reference 301a); and
a coupling portion configured to couple the shaft portion and the peripheral-surface portion ([0051], lines 6-10; also see Fig. 5, references 303),
the peripheral-surface portion defines a first opening and a second opening that open in a shaft direction (Fig. 5, the left and right openings of the rotating body 30 in the axial direction Y ), and
the air blowing unit delivers air to an inside of the rotating body from the first opening toward the second opening ([0045], lines 5-6).
Suzuki is silent about a sealing member attached to the rotating body, the sealing member is attached to the rotating body so as to close the second opening.
Kubo et al. disclosed a printing apparatus (see Fig. 1), comprising a rotating body (Fig. 7, reference 11), for conveying a recording medium wrapped around a surface of the rotating body (Fig. 1, reference M), an air blowing unit configured to deliver air inside the rotating body (Col. 8, lines 39-42; also see Fig. 7, reference 111) through a first opening of the rotating body (Fig. 7, reference 32L), and a sealing member attached to the rotating body, the sealing member is attached to the rotating body so as to close the second opening (Col. 8, lines 42-45; also see Fig. 7, reference 300).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Kubo et al. with those of Suzuki by sealing the second opening of the rotating body in order to better control the pressure inside the rotating body as disclosed by Kubo et al. in Col. 5, lines 16-20.
10. Regarding claim 2: The combination of Suzuki and Kubo et al. disclosed the printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sealing member includes a round plate (Kubo et al. Fig. 7, reference 300).
11. Regarding claim 4: The combination of Suzuki and Kubo et al. disclosed the printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the coupling portion includes a plurality of ribs extending from the shaft portion toward the peripheral-surface portion (Suzuki [0052], lines 1-2; also see Fig. 5, reference 303), the ribs divide an internal space of the rotating body into a plurality of separated spaces (Suzuki Fig. 5, references 300), and the ribs include a through hole opened therein and causing the adjacent separated spaces to communicate with each other (Suzuki Fig. 5, references [0052], lines 2-3; also see Fig. 5, references 303a).
12. Regarding claim 6: The combination of Suzuki and Kubo et al. disclosed the printing apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising a housing (Suzuki [0028], lines 1-2; also see Fig. 1, reference 10), wherein the housing includes an inlet opening opened therein and used by the air blowing unit to take in air from an outside (Suzuki [0058], lines 1-3; also see Fig. 3, reference 11).
13. Regarding claim 7: The combination of Suzuki and Kubo et al. disclosed the printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the air blowing unit is disposed lower than a rotary axis of the supporting drum, and delivers air toward a space of an internal space of the supporting drum that is disposed lower than the rotary axis (Suzuki Fig. 3, the fans 61 are disposed lower than a rotation axis 302 of the rotation body 30; also see Fig. 5 for clarifications).
14. Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Suzuki (US Pub. Nº 2014/0267521), in view of Kubo et al. (US Pat. Nº 6,074,056) as applied to claims 1-2, 4 and 6-7 above, and further in view of Nuita et al. (US Pat. Nº 6,092,894).
15. Regarding claim 3: The combination of Suzuki and Kubo et al. disclosed the printing apparatus according to claim 1.
The combination of Suzuki and Kubo et al. is silent about wherein the sealing member includes a plurality of plate members and the plate members have a sector shape.
Nuita et al. disclosed a rotating body configured to support a recording medium looped therearound (Col. 2, lines 61-64; also see Fig. 4, reference 10), comprising a sealing member for sealing an end portion of the rotating body, wherein the sealing member includes a plurality of plate members and the plate members have a sector shape (Col. 11, lines 52-61; also see Fig. 10A, references 18-1 – 18-4 are shutters for sealing each of the openings 14-1 – 14-4).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Nuita et al. with those of the combination of Suzuki and Kubo et al. by sealing the end portion of the rotating body with sector shaped plates in order to facilitate a selective closure of the second opening as shown Fig. 10A of Nuita et al.
16. Claims 8-9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Suzuki (US Pub. Nº 2014/0267521), in view of Kubo et al. (US Pat. Nº 6,074,056) as applied to claims 1-2, 4 and 6-7 above, and further in view of Yamamoto et al. (JP 2021-091095).
17. Regarding claim 8: The combination of Suzuki and Kubo et al. disclosed the printing apparatus according to claim 1 that includes a printing apparatus (Suzuki Fig. 1, reference 1), wherein the printing apparatus includes a housing (Suzuki Fig. 1, reference 10), an inlet opening configured to take air into the housing is opened in the housing (Suzuki Fig. 3, reference 11).
The combination of Suzuki and Kubo et al. is silent about the printing apparatus being configured to receive cold air from a spot cooler, an inlet opening configured to take the cold air into the housing and the printing apparatus includes a cooling flow path configured to guide the cold air to the air blowing unit.
Yamamoto et al. disclosed a printing apparatus (Fig. 1, reference 1), comprising a cooling unit configured to supply air cooled by a cooling unit to an air blowing unit configured to supply air ([0137], lines 1-5) to a medium-supporting rotating body (Fig. 7, reference 53).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Yamamoto et al. with those of the combination of Suzuki and Kubo et al. by cooling the air supplied to the blowing unit in order to more effectively cool down the rotating body.
18. Regarding claim 9: The combination of Suzuki, Kubo et al. and Yamamoto et al. disclosed the printing apparatus according to claim 8 further comprising: a cold-air flow path configured to guide the cold air to a portion of the medium that is not yet looped around the supporting drum (Yamamoto et al. Fig. 7, reference 76A and 75A; also see Suzuki Fig. 3, reference 11).
Allowable Subject Matter
19. Claim 5 is 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
20. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YAOVI M. AMEH whose telephone number is (571)272-4578. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM.
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/YAOVI M AMEH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853
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