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 .
DETAILED ACTION
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.
Claims 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Watanabe et al. (5,170,625).
Watanabe et al. disclose:
Claim 1. A hydraulic driving system (Figs. 1 and 31), comprising: a pump (1) that is rotationally driven by a power source (15) to discharge oil and has a capacity which is changeable; an actuator (2,2A) that is activated by a supply of the oil discharged from the pump; and a controller (7) that controls the capacity of the pump in accordance with a manipulation content for the actuator (col. 8, line 59 – col. 9, line 3, col. 9, lines 10-30), wherein the controller (7) changes, on the basis of a rotational speed of the pump, an upper limit value of a magnitude of a pump capacity change amount being a change amount of the capacity of the pump per unit time (col. 31, lines 46-52).
Claim 2. The hydraulic driving system according to claim 1, wherein the controller (7) executes: setting the upper limit value to a first upper limit value when a rotational speed of the pump is a first rotational speed; and setting the upper limit value to a second upper limit value which is smaller than the first upper limit value when the rotational speed of the pump is a second rotational speed which is higher than the first rotational speed (see Watanabe et al., Claim 14).
Claim 3. The hydraulic driving system according to claim 2, wherein the controller (7) sets the upper limit value in such a manner that the upper limit value decreases as the rotational speed of the pump increases (see Watanabe et al., Claim 14).
Claim 4. The hydraulic driving system according to claim 3, wherein the controller (7) sets the upper limit value so that a change amount in a discharge flow rate of the pump per unit time is fixed when the rotational speed of the pump falls within a predetermined range (see Watanabe et al., Figs. 33 and 34, a control Ki coefficient is proportional to a modifying coefficient Kr which is determined based on the engine RPM Nr and constant when the RPM is very low or close to its maximum (Fig. 34). Pursuant to Watanabe et al. claim 1, value Ki is determining the rate of change of the pump’s swash plate).
Claim 5. A hydraulic driving system according to claim 1,wherein the power source (15) and the pump are mounted to a working machine, and the actuator operates the working machine (col. 1, lines 5-13).
Prior Art
Prior art made of record but not relied upon is considered pertinent to Applicant's disclosure for showing other hydraulic drive systems with pumps, actuators, and controllers that control pump capacity.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communication from the examiner should be directed to Thomas Lazo whose telephone number is (571) 272-4818. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor Nathaniel Wiehe, can be reached on (571) 272-8648. The fax phone number for this Group is (571) 273-8300.
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/THOMAS E LAZO/Primary Examiner,
Art Unit 3745
November 14, 2025