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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 02/25/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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)1, 9-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Minesawa (JP2007274809) in view of Kimura et al. (US PG Pub 2024/0154485).
As to independent claim 1, Minesawa teaches a stator (2) comprising: an annular stator core (3); a plurality of slots (6) arrayed in a circumferential direction on an inner peripheral side of the stator core (3) and penetrating in an axial direction; an insulator (9) having a sheet shape including a plurality of layers (91, 92) in which the layers are bonded by a first bonding method (adhesive, see paragraph [0030]), the insulator being wound in a tubular shape along an inner wall of the slot (6) in each of the plurality of slots; and a plurality of stator coils (41) inserted into the insulator (9), and a part of the insulator (9) is folded back in a direction perpendicular to the axial direction, the inner wall of the slot (6) facing the second surface at a folded portion having three surfaces or less, and at least a part of the second surface at the folded portion being bonded to the inner wall of the slot (6) as shown in figure 3-5 and see paragraph [0029-0033].
However Minesawa teaches the claimed limitation as discussed above except wherein the insulator has a first surface bonded to the inner wall of the slot by a second bonding method and a second surface opposite to the first surface bonded to the stator coil by the second bonding method.
Kimura et al. teaches wherein the insulator (20) has a first surface bonded to the inner wall (12a) of the slot by a second bonding method and a second surface opposite to the first surface bonded to the stator coil (30) by the second bonding method see paragraph [0041-0047], for the advantageous benefit of providing the workability of inserting the winding into the stator is improved without lowering the thermal conductivity.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify Minesawa by using the insulator has a first surface bonded to the inner wall of the slot by a second bonding method and a second surface opposite to the first surface bonded to the stator coil by the second bonding method, as taught by Kimura et al., to provide a composite member whose residual magnetic flux density of a bonded magnet does not decrease even when being exposed in a presence of high-temperature and high-pressure water vapor.
As to claim 9/1, Minesawa in view of Kimura et al. teaches the claimed limitation as discussed above except wherein the second bonding method is bonding using a thermosetting resin.
However Kimura et al. teaches the second bonding method (22) is bonding using a thermosetting resin see paragraph [0041-0044], for the advantageous benefit of providing the workability of inserting the winding into the stator is improved without lowering the thermal conductivity.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify Minesawa in view of Kimura et al. by using the second bonding method is bonding using a thermosetting resin, as taught by Kimura et al., to provide a composite member whose residual magnetic flux density of a bonded magnet does not decrease even when being exposed in a presence of high-temperature and high-pressure water vapor.
As to claim 10/1, Minesawa teaches a rotating electric machine comprising the stator (2) as shown in figures 3-5
Claim(s) 6-7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Minesawa (JP2007274809) and Kimura et al. (US PG Pub 2024/0154485) as applied in claim 1 above, and further in view of Saga (US PG Pub 2009/0179506) and Packo (4,379,067).
As to claim 6/1, Minesawa in view of Kimura et al. teaches the claimed limitation as discussed above except wherein the first bonding method is bonding using an adhesive that hydrolyzes with moisture contained in a refrigerant that cools the stator coil.
However Saga teaches the first bonding method is bonding using an adhesive that hydrolyzes as shown in figure 1 and see paragraph [0034], for the advantageous benefit of providing a thermally conductive polymer composition that has a high conductivity but this must be balanced with the moldability of the composition and the costs of the conductive filler materials
Packo teaches hydrolyzes with moisture contained in a refrigerant (see column 9, lines 15-21), for the advantageous benefit of providing a solid polymeric seal.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify Minesawa in view of Kimura et al. by using the first bonding method is bonding using an adhesive that hydrolyzes with moisture contained in a refrigerant that cools the stator coil, as taught by Saga and Packo, to provide a thermally conductive polymer composition that has a high conductivity but this must be balanced with the moldability of the composition and the costs of the conductive filler materials and a solid polymeric seal.
As to claim 7/1, Minesawa and Kimura et al. in view of Saga and Packo teaches the claimed limitation as discussed above except wherein the second surface includes any one of polyimide, polyphenylene sulfide, and a polyester resin.
However Saga teaches wherein the second surface includes any one of polyimide, polyphenylene sulfide, and a polyester resin (see paragraph [0034]), for the advantageous benefit of providing a thermally conductive polymer composition that has a high conductivity but this must be balanced with the moldability of the composition and the costs of the conductive filler materials
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify Minesawa and Kimura et al. in view of Saga and Packo by using the first bonding method is bonding using an adhesive that hydrolyzes with moisture contained in a refrigerant that cools the stator coil, as taught by Saga, to provide a thermally conductive polymer composition that has a high conductivity but this must be balanced with the moldability of the composition and the costs of the conductive filler materials.
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Minesawa (JP2007274809) and Kimura et al. (US PG Pub 2024/0154485) as applied in claim 1 above, and further in view of Hashimoto et al. (US PG Pub 2018/0254681)
As to claim 8/1, Minesawa in view of Kimura et al. teaches the claimed limitation as discussed above except wherein the first surface is made of an aramid resin.
However Hashimoto et al. teaches the first surface (41b) is made of an aramid resin as shown in figure 3 and 6 and see paragraphs [0029-0031, 0033, 0038], for the advantageous benefit of providing a stator assembly method that can reduce the time and effort needed to assemble a stator while preventing damage to coils.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify Minesawa and in view of Kimura et al. by using the first surface is made of an aramid resin, as taught by Hashimoto et al., to provide a stator assembly method that can reduce the time and effort needed to assemble a stator while preventing damage to coils.
Claim(s) 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Minesawa (JP2007274809) and Kimura et al. (US PG Pub 2024/0154485) as applied in claim 10 above, and further in view of Fee et al. (US PG Pub 2009/0127946).
As to claim 11/10, Minesawa in view of Kimura et al. teaches the claimed limitation as discussed above except further comprising a liquid-cooled jacket that is provided on an outer peripheral side of the stator and cools the stator by causing a refrigerant to flow to the stator.
However Fee et al. teaches a liquid-cooled jacket (20) that is provided on an outer peripheral side of the stator and cools the stator (112) by causing a refrigerant to flow to the stator (112) as shown in figure 8, for the advantageous benefit of providing cooling to the stator.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify Minesawa and in view of Kimura et al. by using a liquid-cooled jacket that is provided on an outer peripheral side of the stator and cools the stator by causing a refrigerant to flow to the stator, as taught by Hashimoto et al., to provide cooling to the stator.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-5 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. Note claims 2 depends claim 1 and claims 3-5 depends claim 2.
Conclusion
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/JOSE A GONZALEZ QUINONES/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2834 September 4, 2026
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