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 ACTION
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Liu et al. (WO2022193998). Regarding claim 1, Liu et al. discloses a hydraulic pump state monitoring device (Fig. 1) that monitors a state of a variable displacement hydraulic pump 5 that delivers a hydraulic operating fluid with capacity according to a tilting amount by being driven by rotation of a prime mover 1, the hydraulic pump state monitoring device comprising a controller 8 that acquires information relating to a rotational force of the prime mover (paragraph [0052]), the tilting amount of the hydraulic pump (paragraph [0052]), and delivery pressure (via pressure sensor 7) of the hydraulic operating fluid concerning the hydraulic pump 5 and has a computation function for monitoring the state of the hydraulic pump 5, wherein the controller 8 is configured to, in a case in which the tilting amount of the hydraulic pump has become a predetermined tilting amount and the delivery pressure of the hydraulic pump has become a predetermined pressure, compute a feature amount relating to force conversion efficiency that is efficiency of conversion from the rotational force of the prime mover to the delivery pressure of the hydraulic operating fluid concerning the hydraulic pump at a time when the delivery pressure of the hydraulic pump has become the predetermined pressure. See Liu et al. paragraphs [0046]-[0049].
Regarding claim 2, Liu et al. discloses that the feature amount relating to the force conversion efficiency includes the rotational force of the prime mover (paragraph [0052]), the tilting amount of the hydraulic pump (paragraph [0052]), and the delivery pressure of the hydraulic pump (pressure sensor 7). See Liu et al. paragraphs [0046]-[0049].
Regarding claim 3, Liu et al. discloses a hydraulic drive system (Fig. 1) comprising a prime mover 1, a tank (inherent on an excavator that stores a hydraulic operating fluid (paragraph [0039]) to supply hydraulic fluid to pump 5), a variable displacement hydraulic pump 5 driven by rotation of the prime mover 1 to suck the hydraulic operating fluid in the tank and deliver the hydraulic operating fluid with capacity according to a tilting amount, and a controller 8 that acquires information relating to a rotational force of the prime mover (paragraph [0052]), the tilting amount of the hydraulic pump (paragraph [0052]), and delivery pressure of the hydraulic operating fluid concerning the hydraulic pump (pressure sensor 7) and controls the tilting amount of the hydraulic pump, wherein the hydraulic drive system comprises a pressure sensor 7 that senses the delivery pressure of the hydraulic pump, and the controller 8 is configured to compute a feature amount relating to force conversion efficiency that is efficiency of conversion from the rotational force of the prime mover to the delivery pressure of the hydraulic operating fluid concerning the hydraulic pump, in a case in which the controller has controlled the tilting amount of the hydraulic pump to a predetermined tilting amount and the delivery pressure of the hydraulic pump sensed by the pressure sensor 7 has become a predetermined pressure. See Liu et al. paragraphs [0046]-[0049].
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 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu et al., as applied to claim 3 above. Liu et al. discloses all of the claimed subject matter except for
a temperature sensor that senses temperature of the hydraulic operating fluid that circulates through the hydraulic pump, wherein the controller stops computation of the feature amount when the temperature of the hydraulic operating fluid sensed by the temperature sensor is out of a predetermined temperature range.
Official notice is taken that sensing temperature of hydraulic operating fluid that circulated through a hydraulic pump is well known. It would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify the hydraulic drive system of Liu et al. to sense temperature of hydraulic operating fluid that circulated through a hydraulic pump as a matter of engineering expedience.
Since the applicant has not disclosed that stopping computation of the feature amount when the temperature of the hydraulic operating fluid sensed by the temperature sensor is out of a predetermined temperature range solves any stated problem or is for any particular purpose above the fact that it would be an inaccurate computation and it appears that the computation of the feature amount of Liu et al. would perform equally well with a stopping of the computation as claimed by applicant, it would have been an obvious matter of engineering expedience to further modify the hydraulic drive system of Liu et al. to stop the computation as claimed for the purposes of preventing an inaccurate computation.
Prior Art
Prior art made of record but not relied upon is considered pertinent to Applicant's disclosure for showing other hydraulic drive systems with prime movers, hydraulic pumps, tanks, pressure sensors, tilt angle sensors, and controllers configured to measure efficiencies.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-7 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 improvements comprise (claim 4) a bleed-off valve capable of adjusting a flow rate of the hydraulic operating fluid returned to the tank after being delivered from the hydraulic pump; a relief valve that restricts the delivery pressure of the hydraulic pump; and a measurement instruction device that instructs the controller to compute the feature amount, wherein the predetermined pressure is a set pressure of the relief valve, and the controller controls revolution speed of the prime mover to a predetermined revolution speed, controls the tilting amount of the hydraulic pump to the predetermined tilting amount, and closes the bleed-off valve, when an instruction from the measurement instruction device has been input to the controller and (claim 5) a bleed-off valve capable of adjusting a flow rate of the hydraulic operating fluid returned to the tank after being delivered from the hydraulic pump; and a measurement instruction device that instructs the controller to compute the feature amount, wherein the controller controls revolution speed ofthe prime mover to a predetermined revolution speed, controls the tilting amount of the hydraulic pump to the predetermined tilting amount, and adjusts an opening area of the bleed-off valve to cause the delivery pressure of the hydraulic pump sensed by the pressure sensor to correspond with the predetermined pressure, when an instruction from the measurement instruction device has been input to the controller.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communication from the examiner should be directed to Thomas Lazo whose telephone number is (571) 272-4818. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor Nathaniel Wiehe, can be reached on (571) 272-8648. The fax phone number for this Group is (571) 273-8300.
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/THOMAS E LAZO/Primary Examiner,
Art Unit 3745
July 11, 2026
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