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 CORRESPONDENCE
This is the first Office Action on the merits of Application 19/102,850 filed on 2/10/25. Claims 1-28 are pending.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 2/10/25 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claims 12, 13, 15-28 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 12
Line 5: “the numbers” should be amended as -- numbers --.
Claim 15
Line 19: “the plurality” should be amended as -- a plurality --.
Claim 21
Line 3: “the control unit” should be amended as -- a control unit --.
Line 4: “the tray” should be amended as -- a tray --.
Line 5: “the X and Y” should be amended as -- X and Y --.
Claim 22
Line 3: “the X-pitch” should be amended as -- an X-pitch --.
Claim 23
Lines 2 & 3: “the active area” should be amended as -- an active area --.
Claims 13, 16-20 & 24-28 are also objected to for being dependent upon an objected base claim.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
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 1-3, 5-11 & 14-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by U.S. Patent Application Publication 2014/0271084 to Vangilbergen et al. (applicant cited reference).
Claims 1 & 15
Vangilbergen discloses in Figs 1-22,
A component pick-and-place system comprising: a control unit (e.g. 100); at least one transport line for transporting a plurality of component trays (Paragraph 76, e.g. 13-16 trays); and at least one transfer line for transferring a plurality of pick-and-place (PnP) devices (Paragraph 77, transport 12 moving PnP heads 4-7); wherein each of the plurality of PnP devices comprises: a control and valve unit (Paragraphs 90-92); an automatic pitch conversion unit (e.g. Station 1 & 2) having at least one column and at least one row of pickup tips positional at a parking area and an active area (Paragraph 77), the automatic pitch conversion unit further comprising: a X-pitch conversion mechanism comprising: a first drive motor (e.g. 21 or 22) ;a plurality of movement transfer elements (e.g. 37) for transferring rotary motions of the first drive motor to cause a pair of X-pitch bands to move in a linear direction (e.g. 37 rotates to cause linear motion of 36); a pair of engagement arms (e.g. 25 & 26) slidably engaged to the pair of X-pitch bands for sequentially engaging each of the at least one column of pickup tips to move to a desired X-pitch position (Paragraph 88, pitch 32 adjustment is done by fixating changeover fork 25, 26 to the pick and place head); a Y-pitch conversion mechanism comprising: a second drive motor (e.g. 21 or 22); a plurality of movement transfer elements (e.g. 35 & 29) for transferring rotary movements of the second drive motor to a pair of Y-pitch arms to cause a pair of Y-pitch rods to move in a linear direction (Paragraph 83, 23, 24 is moved by gear assembly along X-coordinate direction); a pair of pickup tip holders slidably engaged to the pair of Y-pitch rods for simultaneously moving the at least one row of pickup tips to a desired Y- pitch position (Paragraph 84, pusher 23, 24 push each row N1 and N2 to the pickers/grippers 20 along parallel rails 39 to desired pitch 30).
Claim 2
The system of claim 1, wherein the X-pitch mechanism comprises a first pair of guide rails (e.g. first set of 57) and each of the plurality of columns of pickup tips is sequentially moved to the X-pitch position along the first pair of guide rails.
Claim 3
The system of claim 2, wherein the X-pitch mechanism further comprises a second pair of guide rails (e.g. second set of 57, paragraph 96) spaced apart from the first pair of guide rails and each of the plurality of columns of pickup tips is sequentially moved to the X- pitch position along the second pair of guide rails.
Claim 5
The system of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of PnP devices is configured to pick components from the component trays along the transport line, conduct Y-pitch conversion on-the-fly and place the components in the component trays along another transport line (Paragraph 38, pitches are freely configurable).
Claim 6
The system of claim 5, wherein the Y-pitches along the transport lines are different (Paragraph 38, pitches are freely configurable).
Claim 7
The system of claim 1, further comprising a programmable software recipe (Paragraph 39, sensors, position verification and adjusting pitches) configured to execute commands for X-pitch and Y-pitch conversions.
Claim 8
The system according to claim 7, wherein the X-pitch conversion mechanism further comprises one or more column sensors configured to determine the actual positions of the pickup tips in an X-pitch direction and wherein the Y-pitch conversion mechanism further comprises one or more row sensors configured to determine the actual positions of the pickup tips in a Y-pitch direction (Paragraph 39, sensors, position verification and adjusting pitches).
Claim 9
The system according to claim 8, wherein a suction portion of each pickup tip is configured to be removed with a quick release mechanism (e.g. 75).
Claim 10
The system according to claim 9, wherein each of the pair of engagement arms comprises a pin cylinder (e.g. 43) and a pusher (e.g. 23/24), and wherein the control and valve unit is configured to activate the pin cylinder to enable the pusher to engage or disengage the pair of engagement arms.
Claim 11
The system of claim 1, wherein each of the at least one row of pickup tips are adapted to be slidably attached the pair of Y-pitch rods such that each of the at least one row of pickup tips are simultaneously moved for Y-pitch conversion (Paragraph 84, pusher 23/24 push each row N1 N2 and moved with pickers/grippers 20).
Claim 14
The system according to claim 1, wherein the automatic pitch conversion unit further comprises a pantograph mechanism (Paragraph 11) configured to keep the pitch between each row of pickup tips equidistant from each other.
Claim 16
The PnP device of claim 15, wherein the transfer mechanism comprises a first pair of guide rails (e.g. first set of 57) and each of the plurality of PnP modules is sequentially moved to the X-pitch position along the first pair of guide rails.
Claim 17
The PnP device of claim 16, wherein the transfer mechanism further comprises a second pair of guide rails (e.g. second set of 57, paragraph 96) and each of the plurality of PnP modules is sequentially moved to the X-pitch position along the second pair of guide rails.
Claim 19
The pick-and-place(PnP) device of claim 15,wherein the pitch adjustment mechanism further comprises a pair of pickup tip holders slidably engaged to the pair of Y-pitch rods for simultaneously moving the plurality of rows of pickup tips to a desired Y-pitch position (Paragraph 84, pusher 23, 24 push each row N1 and N2 to the pickers/grippers 20 along parallel rails 39 to desired pitch 30).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4, 12, 13, 18 & 20 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.
Claims 21-28 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the objections stated above.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Accou ‘550 teaches a pick and place device with automatic pick-up-height adjustment.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HUAN LE whose telephone number is (571)270-3122. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Friday 9:00am - 5:00pm PST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jacob Scott can be reached on 571-270-3415. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/HUAN LE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3655
Prosecution Insights