DETAILED ACTION
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) 1-6 and 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wittek (DE 102020127020 B3), in view of Semii (JP 2006316656 A).
Regarding claims 1 and 10, Wittek discloses method of controlling injection in a hydrogen internal combustion engine (2, [0002]) comprising a plurality of cylinders (Fig. 4), wherein injection events are performed by applying drive signals to fuel injectors in order to inject predetermined fuel quantities of hydrogen [0010], wherein a fuel quantity to be injected in a cylinder is based on torque demand [0040].
Wittek does not disclose a method comprising the steps of: determining whether said nominal fuel quantity falls within a predetermined forbidden region, of a flow characteristic of the fuel injector; whereby: if the nominal fuel quantity does not fall within forbidden region, injecting the nominal fuel quantity into the cylinder; if the nominal fuel quantity does fall within forbidden region, then injecting into the cylinder a fraction of the nominal fuel quantity that does not fall within forbidden region, or skipping fuel injection in the cylinder, and distributing the remainder of the nominal fuel quantity over one or more subsequent injection events in other cylinder(s).
Semii discloses a method comprising the steps of: determining a nominal fuel quantity to be injected in a cylinder; determining whether said nominal fuel quantity falls within a predetermined forbidden region, of a flow characteristic of the fuel injector; whereby: if the nominal fuel quantity does not fall within forbidden region, injecting the nominal fuel quantity into the cylinder; if the nominal fuel quantity does fall within forbidden region, then injecting into the cylinder a fraction of the nominal fuel quantity that does not fall within forbidden region, or skipping fuel injection in the cylinder, and distributing the remainder of the nominal fuel quantity over one or more subsequent injection events in other cylinder(s) (Paragraphs: [0024], [0031], [0061-0063]). Semii also discloses a method wherein the fuel quantity and engine torque are directly related [0063]. Hence, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to apply the method of Semii in the engine of Wittek in order to improve on the combustion stability in the engine.
Regarding claim 2, Wittek as modified with Semii discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein said forbidden region is defined as at least one range of fuel amounts (Semii: Fig. 10).
Regarding claim 3, Wittek as modified with Semii discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein said forbidden region is defined as at least one range of pulse widths (Semii: Fig. 10).
Regarding claim 4, Wittek as modified with Semii discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein said forbidden region depends on fuel pressure and engine speed (Semii: [0023]).
Regarding claim 5, Wittek as modified with Semii discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein a global fuel amount is determined for injection over all cylinders for one engine cycle to achieve the desired torque, and the nominal fuel quantity QC,Niscomputed as the global fuel amount divided by the number of cylinders (Semii: [0059]).
Regarding claim 6, Wittek as modified with Semii discloses the method according claim 1, wherein the forbidden region FR is determined by calibration and statistically representative for a population of injector (Semii: [0028], [0049]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-9 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.
Conclusion
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/TEUTA HOLBROOK/
Examiner
Art Unit 3747
/GEORGE C JIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3747
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