DETAILED ACTION
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 .
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.
Claims 1, 8, 15, 18, 21, 28, 31 and 41 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Addiego (US20210354071) in view of Patil (WO2021222187) and Lin (US20140170425).
Regarding claim 1, Addiego teaches a method of making a porous bodies by depositing inorganic deposits in the honeycomb filter body (abstract, paragraphs 0002 and 0110) (providing inorganic oxide deposits on a surface of a honeycomb filter substate). Addiego teaches preparing a mixture suspensions (paragraphs 0115 and 0119), wherein the mixture comprising inorganic particles, such as combination of Al2O3 (alumina) an SiO2 (silica) (pargraph 0117), alcohol as liquid vehicle (organic solvent) (paragraph 0118), binders (paragraph 0122-0123) and a catalyst to accelerate the curing reaction of the binder (paragraph 0124). Addiego teaches to atomizing the mixture to form droplets and evaporate the liquid vehicle to form agglomerates (pargraph 0115) (aerosolizing at least a portion of the suspension into droplets). Addiego teaches the binder, which is cured at elevated temperature after the deposition, provides mechanical integrity to the deposited inorganic material (paragraph 0123, 0136, 00143) and the curing catalyst functions to accelerate the curing reaction of the binder (paragraph 0124), thus, indicating the agglomerates comprising the inorganics particles, the binder and the curing catalyst. Addiego teaches to deposit the agglomerates onto the substrate (paragraphs 0115 and 0150). Addiego teaches to curing the binder on the substrate to forming a inorganic network of aggregated agglomerates of inorganic materials particles, which is alumina and silica, bound to the substrate (abstract, paragraphs 0012-0013, 0115, 0156-0158).
Addiego does not explicitly teaches the mixture further comprises colloidal silica. However, Patil teaches a method of forming a ceramic cement mixture for applying to honeycomb body for filter (abstract, paragraphs 0002 and 0006). Addiego teaches the mixture includes inorganic particles such as silica and alumina (paragraphs 0055 and 0050), an organic binder (paragraph 0050) and a first source of inorganic particles, colloidal silica, act as inorganic binder (paragraphs 0050-0051). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to further in includes the colloidal silica in the mixture for applying to honeycomb filter as suggested by Patil in the method of Addiego because Patil teaches such inorganic binder can further provide strength to the deposited material after the organic material is burned away during the end-use of the honeycomb structure in high temperatures (paragraph 0057).
Addiego in view of Patil does not explicitly teaches the curing catalyst is citric acid or the binder is methoxysilane (Addiego teaches the binder can be silicon containing binder, such as Dowsil® US-CF-2405 and Dowsil™ US-CF-2403, paragraphs 0123). However, Lin teaches a ceramic paint comprising inorganic particles/powder (abstract, paragraphs 0008 and 0015), silica sol (colloidal silica) (paragraph 0012), organic silane (pargraph 0013) and curing catalyst for organic silane (paragraph 0014). Lin’s organic silane is methyltrimethoxy silane (abstract, paragraph 0013) and the curing catalyst is citric acid (paragraph 0014). Lin’s organic silane reads on the limitation of binder as it would condense through curing to form the coating (paragraphs 0013 and 0006). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to use methyltrimethoxy silane as binder and citric acid as catalyst as suggested by Lin in the method of Addiego in view of Patil, because Lin teaches such binder reacts with the silica sol to form the silica sol-gel and is able to tune the hardness of resulting coating (paragraph 0013) and the citric acid is accelerate the hydrolysis rate of the organic silane and the reaction between the hydrolyzed organic silane and the silica sol (paragraph 0014).
Regarding claim 8, Lin teaches the binder hydrolyzed upon curing (paragraph 0014) and Addiego teaches the binder grafted to the inorganic particles (paragraph 0123).
Regarding claim 15, Lin teaches the binder is condensed (cross-linked) upon curing (paragraphs 0006 and 0013).
Regarding claim 18, Addiego teaches the curing temperature is above 1000ºC (pargraph 0262).
Regarding claim 21, Addiego teaches the solvent is ethanol (paragraphs 0118 and 0137).
Regarding claim 28, Lin teaches the binder is methyltrimethoxy silane (paragraph 0013)
Regarding claim 31, Addiego teaches the droplets are conveyed toward the substrate by a carrier gas (paragraphs 0015, 0112-0113).
Regarding claim 41, Addiego teaches the honeycomb filter substrate comprises a plurality of intersecting porous walls, and the depositing comprises depositing the agglomerates on, in or both on and in at least some of the intersecting porous walls (paragraphs 0115 and 0150).
Conclusion
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/NGA LEUNG V LAW/Examiner, Art Unit 1717
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