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 .
Responsive to correspondence
This office action is in response to correspondence filed on 06/05/2025.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements filed 06/05/2025, 06/11/2026 were filed before the first action on the merits. This submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97.
Accordingly, these have been fully considered by the Office.
Abstract
The abstract filed 06/05/2025 appears to be acceptable.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1, 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CN 104121199 A to TAKEDA (TAKEDA) in view of U.S Patent number 8241007 B2 to TANAKA (TANAKA) and further in view of U.S Publication number 2016/0024968 A1 to STEARNS et al. (STEARNS).
Re: Claim 1:
TAKEDA discloses:
A gas compression device comprising:
a compression unit (See Fig.1: compression unit 12) that is supplied with a lubricant oil (See Fig.1: lubricating oil via conduit 64) and compresses gas (See Fig.1: ¶0028: discloses gas compressor);
a heat exchanger (See Fig.1: heat exchanger 38 that cools the compressed gas) that cools, through heat exchange with cooling air (See Fig.1: cooling air using fan 40), at least one of pressurized gas (See Fig.1: pressurized gas via 32) having been compressed by the compression unit (See Fig.1: compression unit 12) and the lubricant oil having been separated from the pressurized gas (See Fig.1: ¶0057: lubricant oil separated in separator 26);
a discharge port (See Fig.1: discharge port since the compressed gas exits via conduit 24) that discharges the pressurized gas;
TAKEDA is silent regarding:
an air release valve that opens and closes an air release channel that branches off from a discharge channel between the compression unit and the discharge port; and
an air release unit that is provided at a terminal end of the air release channel and releases the pressurized gas toward the heat exchanger.
However , TANAKA teaches:
an oil-injection screw compressor having a compressed air conduit (7)
an air release valve ( See Fig.1: air release valve 18) that opens and closes an air release channel that branches off from a discharge channel ( See Fig.1: discharge channel emerging from oil-gas separator 6) between the compression unit ( See Fig.1: compressor unit 3) and the discharge port ( See Fig.1: discharge port exiting from compressor unit 3 via conduit emerging from compressor and connected to oil-gas separator 6); and
an air release unit that is provided at a terminal end of the air release channel and releases the pressurized gas toward the heat exchanger ( See Fig.1: heat exchanger 15, TANAKA further explains the blow-off conduit 18 and valve 19 are configured to control release of compressed air/gas from the compressor system as explained in col. 4 lines 29-53).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the compression system of TAKEDA to configure TAKEDA to include the blow-off passage and blow-off valve of TANAKA to selectively release pressurized gas from the compressor discharge system during unloading or pressure control situation according to an art known pressure release function taught by TANAKA.
TAKEDA in view of TANAKA does not expressly disclose that an air release unit provided at a terminal end of the air release conduit which releases the pressurized gas towards the heat exchanger.
However, STEARNS teaches:
an air release unit provided at a terminal end of the air release conduit which releases the pressurized gas towards the heat exchanger (STEARNS: See Figs.1-4: ¶0032, ¶0034-¶0036: discloses a heat exchanger/air-oil cooler 68 and an ejector 198 supplied compressed gas from source 200, and the compressed air supplied via ejector 198 draws supplemental air via duct 199 across heat exchanger 68 , thus increasing cooling and airflow).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify TAKEDA in view of TANAKA to direct pressurized gas released through the air release system towards a heat exchanger as explicitly taught by STEARNS to augment airflow in the heat exchanger and extract more heat from the heat exchanger.
Re: Claim 6:
TAKEDA modified by TANKA and STEARNS discloses:
The gas compression device according to claim 1, the modified TAKEDA discloses all the limitations of claim 1, and further comprising a control unit (TANKA: col 4 lines 29-67, col. 5 lines1-64: control unit 17 configured to control the system of compressor unit 3 using motor 4 and inverter 5 and to control opening and closing of blow off valve 19) that controls operations of the compression unit and the air release valve,
wherein the control unit (TANKA: col 4 lines 29-67, col. 5 lines1-64: control unit 17 further configured opening the blow off valve 19 with the depressurization of the compressor system and stopping of the compressor system, when pressurized gas is supplied via compressed air supply line 7 is released via blow off piping 18) switches a supply destination of the pressurized gas from the discharge port to the air release channel when stopping the compression of the gas by the compression unit (TANKA: col 4 lines 29-67, col. 5 lines1-64: further discloses controlling the compressor and air release valve so that destination of the pressurized gas from the normal discharge path to the blow off path in conjunction with stoppage of compression).
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over TAKEDA in view of TANAKA and STEARNS as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of CN 206847485 U to ZHANG (ZHANG).
Re: Claim 8:
TAKEDA modified by TANKA and STEARNS discloses:
The modified TAKEDA teaches the gas compression system of claim 1, including supplying pressurized compressed gas through an air release system and channelizing pressurized airflow towards a heat exchanger, however, the modified TAKEDA is silent regarding:
performing a maintenance method of operating the air release valve to supply the pressurized gas from the compression unit to the air release channel, and releasing the pressurized gas from the air release unit toward the heat exchanger to remove dust accumulated on the heat exchanger.
However, it is well known in the art to perform a a maintenance method to remove dust accumulated on the heat exchanger, such a system is explicitly taught by CN 206847465 U to ZHANG (ZHANG: ¶0023-¶0025: compressor 1, radiator fins 2, ventilation pipeline 3, blowing pipe 4, pulse valve 5 and controller 6, and air blowing pipe 4 is connected to the air supply pipe 3 and is located above the radiator 2. The compressed air generated by the air compressor 1 is used directly to perform high-pressure blowing on the surface of the radiator 2 to achieve the purpose of cleaning the radiator 2).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to operate air release system of a gas compression system of TAKEDA to release pressurized gas toward the heat exchanger for removing dust as explicitly taught by ZHANG ( ZHANG: ¶0025) which would have provided similar advantage in the system of modified TAKEDA.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-5, 7 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Claims 2-5, 7 contains an allowable subject matter because the prior art of record failed to disclose or teach the limitations of claims 2-6 combined with the limitations of base claim 1 and any intervening claims.
In the closest prior art, cited in rejection of claim 1 fails to discloses the limitations of claims 2-5, JP 2013-245584 A specifically directed to a fluid injection direction changing mechanism, it has nozzle 10, passage member 11, and elastically deformable support 12b and a spring structure 15, deformation of the spring structure changes the inclination passage member 11 and therefore changes the direction in which fluid is discharged, it even says elastic portion may be spring or rubber. However, there is significant issues for the claims as recited. In JP 2013-245584 A , the deformation/ direction change is produced by actuator 14 particularly a piezo electric element rather than the pressure of the pressurized gas by itself. Therefore, it would not be obvious to make the claimed structure by combining primary and secondary refences CN 104121199 A , U.S Patent number 8241007 B2, and U.S Publication number 2016/0024968 A.
In regard to claim 7, the prior art fails to disclose “wherein the control unit performs an unloading operation of continuing the compression of the gas by the compression unit and distributing the pressurized gas to the discharge channel and the air release channel by the air release valve to reduce a pressure of the pressurized gas discharged from the discharge port” as recited in the claim.
Conclusion
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/SHAFIQ MIAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3746
October 2, 2026
