DETAILED ACTION
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the “third heat exchanger” of claim 11 and the “in-vehicle evaporator” of claim 13 must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 5-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Both claims 5 and 6 repeatedly use the term “about” which is a term of degree lacking definition in the specification and thus creating confusion as to the metes and bounds of the claims.
In both of claims 5 and 6, it is unclear which of the list of conditions is required or optional or must occur in conjunction with each other. Additionally, the grammatical structure of the claim leaves it unclear whether the final statement is meant to be triggered by one of the conditions or is simply a co-occurring status. The claims have been interpreted as best as understood below.
Claim 13 recites that the compressor has an “air inlet”. It is unclear if this is an artefact of translation or if the air conditioning system truly uses ambient air as a compressed and condensed refrigerant. For purposes of this action, “air inlet” is taken to mean ‘gaseous refrigerant inlet’.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-6, 14-17, and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by CN 112652840 (‘840).
Regarding claim 1, ‘840 teaches: a thermal management system comprising a batter thermal management system including: first and second trunk paths (any of 1-4) each configured to exchange heat with a first and second region of the battery, respectively; the first and second regions being different (“dividing the battery pack into different temperature regions; arranging a liquid cooling plate in each region;”) and the trunk paths exchanging heat with the battery (each of 1-4 is a heat exchanger); and at least one first heat exchanger (23) arranged at the battery thermal management subsystem (left of 22 and 25 in Fig. 1) and an air conditioning subsystem (from 20) which exchange heat with each other in the first heat exchanger (Fig. 1).
‘840 further teaches that: the first heat exchanger (23) comprises first and second flow channels that exchange heat with each other (the channel connected to the battery subsystem and the channel connected to the air conditioning subsystem 20), and the first and second trunk paths are connected in parallel (Fig. 1; e.g. paths of 1 and 2) and two ends of the second flow channel are connected to tow ends of the first trunk path to form a first heat exchange circuit (connected at 7 and 8), per claim 2; the first and second trunk paths are provided with first and second regulating valves for flow regulation (valves 15-18), per claim 3; opening amounts of the regulating valves are adjusted to vary the heat exchange amounts of the first and second trunk paths independently (see step C5), per claim 4; when the temperature of the battery is greater than a first temperature threshold (step C1) and a temperature of a first region is higher than a temperature of a second region (see step C4), at least one of the first and second trunk paths cool the battery and have different heat exchange amounts (see Fig. 4, in particular step C5), per claim 5; when a temperature of the battery is less than a first temperature threshold (step H1) and a temperature of a first region is higher than a temperature of a second region (step H4) at least one of the first and second trunk paths heat the battery and have different heat exchange amounts (see Fig. 5, in particular step H5), per claim 6.
Regarding claim 14, ‘840 teaches a method of managing temperature in a vehicle comprising circulating first and second working media through first and second trunk paths to exchange heat with first and second regions of a battery (e.g. 1 and 2; Fig. 1); and exchanging heat between the first and second working media and an air conditioning subsystem (20) via a first heat exchanger (23).
‘840 further teaches that: the first and second media are the same medium (see 7 and 8 where they merge) and the method comprises adjusting flow rates of the media (see 15-18) independently to control heat exchange int eh first and second regions of the battery (see steps C4 and H4), per claim 15; monitoring temperatures of the regions (see steps C1, H1 and C3, H3) and adjusting (see steps C4, H4) flow rates based on the monitored temperatures to maintain a desired temperature distribution across the battery, per claim 16; increasing the flow rate of the first or second working medium relative to the other when the first or second region, respectively, has a higher temperature (see steps C3 C4), per claim 17.
Regarding claim 20, ‘840 teaches a vehicle comprising a battery (11); and air conditioning subsystem (20) and a thermal management system including first and second trunk paths configured to exchange heat with first and second regions of the battery (e.g. 1 and 2; Fig. 1) wherein the first and second regions are different (“dividing the battery pack into different temperature regions; arranging a liquid cooling plate in each region;”); and a first heat exchanger (23) arranged to facilitate heat exchange between the first and second trunk paths and the air conditioning system (see Fig. 1).
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) 7-8 and 10-12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ‘840 in view of CN 111231656 (‘656).
Regarding claim 7, ‘840 does not teach a power thermal management subsystem.
‘656 teaches a thermal management system which includes a battery subsystem (1-5) and a power thermal management subsystem (14-20) configured to dissipate heat for a power module (19).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to provide the system of ‘840 with the power thermal management subsystem, as taught by ‘656, in order to allow for dissipation of the vehicles power systems thermal energy.
‘656 further teaches that: the power thermal management subsystem (ptms) is configured to exchange heat with the air conditioning subsystem through the first heat exchanger (see Figs. 2-3), per claim 8; a switching module (5, 15, 20) connected to the ptms and the battery subsystem separately to enable the ptms to connect (Figs. 2-3) or disconnect (Fig. 1) from the battery subsystem, per claim 10; a motor heat spreader (where the coolant line of the ptms interacts with the motor 19); a third heat exchanger (17) connected to two ends of the motor heat spreader (see Fig. 2) and configured to exchange heat with the first heat exchanger (heat from 17 is passed directly to 4; see Fig. 2), per claim 11; the first heat exchanger comprises a first flow channel (downstream of 6) at the air conditioning subsystem and second flow channel (downstream of 3), the second flow channel is connected to the battery thermal management subsystem (1-2-3; all Figures) to define at least one heat exchange circuit with the battery cooling trunk path (through 2) therein, and the switching module comprises first and second three-way valves with the first connected in series to the heat exchange circuit (5) and having a valve port (c) connected to a high pressure thermal management subsystem (i.e. the ptms) and the second valve (15) connected in series to the high pressure thermal management subsystem (i.e. the ptms) and having a valve port (c) connected to the heat exchange circuit, per claim 12.
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ‘840 in view of ‘656 and Li (US 12,263,758).
‘840, as modified, does not teach a separate heat exchanger for each of the ptms and battery subsystem.
Li teaches that it is old and well-known to provide separate heat exchangers for a ptms (2012) and a battery subsystem (2013) connected to a refrigeration cycle.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to provide the device of ‘840, as modified, with the second heat exchanger for the ptms, as taught by Li, in order to allow for optimizing independent operating temperatures in the subsystems.
Claim(s) 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ‘840 in view of CN 111231656 (‘656) and Kim (US 2017/0106725).
’840, as modified, does not teach the precise refrigerant circuit for the air conditioning subsystem recited.
Kim teaches that it is old and well-known to form vehicular thermal management systems with air conditioning subsystems comprising a compressor (31) with an inlet and exhaust port (upstream/downstream respectively), an in vehicle condenser (23) downstream of the condenser, an out-vehicle condenser (35) downstream of the in-vehicle condenser, an in-vehicle evaporator between the out-vehicle condenser and the compressor inlet (27) and a first heat exchanger (120) for cooling subsystems (such as motor 13 or battery B) with a first flow channel for the refrigerant connected downstream of the out-vehicle condenser and upstream of the compressor (120; Fig. 1).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to provide the device of ‘840 with the air conditioning subsystem, as taught by Kim, as ‘840 has left all such details to one of ordinary skill.
Claim(s) 18-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ‘840 in view of CN 111231656 (‘656) and CN 114374018 (‘018).
Regarding claim 18, ‘840 does not specify locating one battery region at the electrodes and another region not at the electrodes.
‘018 teaches that it is old and well-known to provide batteries with separate cooling devices one of which is located at the electrodes (20) and the other is not located at the electrodes (30).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to provide the battery cooling subsystem of ‘840 with a cooling region at the electrodes, as taught by ‘018, as ‘840 has left the precise regions of the battery unspecified.
Regarding claim 19, per step C4 the volume of working medium flowing through each trunk is dependent upon temperature and may include circulating prioritizing cooling of any region, including the electrode region, when the battery temperature exceeds a predetermined threshold, per step C1.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Devon Lane whose telephone number is (571)270-1858. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th, 9-4.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jerry-Daryl Fletcher can be reached at 571.270.5054. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/DEVON LANE/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3763
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