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 .
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.
Specification
ABSTRACT - Applicant is reminded of the proper language and format for an abstract of the disclosure.
The abstract should be in narrative form and generally limited to a single paragraph on a separate sheet within the range of 50 to 150 words in length. The abstract should describe the disclosure sufficiently to assist readers in deciding whether there is a need for consulting the full patent text for details.
The language should be clear and concise and should not repeat information given in the title. It should avoid using phrases which can be implied, such as, “The disclosure concerns,” “The disclosure defined by this invention,” “The disclosure describes,” etc. In addition, the form and legal phraseology often used in patent claims, such as “means” and “said,” should be avoided.
The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because it merely consists of a single run-on sentence without regard for proper grammatical form. Correction is required. See MPEP § 608.01(b).
TITLE - The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
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) 1-7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP 2016-118602 to Sawanaka in view of US 2011/0064496 to Ashikawa and JP 2006-189667 to Miya et al.
Sawanaka teaches:
(claim 1) An image forming apparatus (1, Fig.1) comprising:
an image bearing member (20) configured to bear a toner image;
a belt (6) onto which the toner image is transferred from the image bearing member while the belt is being rotated in a rotational direction (X);
an outer roller (12) configured to come into contact with an outer circumference surface of the belt;
an inner roller (8) arranged to face the outer roller with the belt interposed therebetween, the inner roller being configured to come into contact with an inner circumference surface of the belt and to form a transfer nip (T2) with the outer roller;
a tension roller (9) configured to come into contact with the inner circumference surface of the belt, the tension roller being disposed upstream of the inner roller in the rotational direction;
a conveyance roller pair (2) configured to convey a sheet toward the transfer nip;
a guide member configured to guide the sheet being conveyed by the conveyance roller pair toward the transfer nip (see Fig.4);
a belt drive motor (M2) configured to drive the belt; and
a control unit (100) configured to execute, after the sheet has reached the transfer nip, a conveyance control of controlling a rotational speed of the conveyance roller pair such that a first conveyance speed (i.e., belt speed) of the sheet conveyed by the transfer nip becomes faster than a second conveyance speed of the sheet conveyed by the conveyance roller pair (line J15, Abstract);
(claim 6) wherein the control unit executes the conveyance control for at least a part of a period of time from when the sheet has reached the transfer nip until the sheet passes through the conveyance roller pair (Fig.6); and
(claim 7) further comprising a conveyance motor (Sawanaka:M1) configured to drive the conveyance roller pair, wherein the control unit is configured to control the rotational speed of the conveyance roller pair by controlling the conveyance motor (Abstract).
Sawanaka appears silent about a torque sensor and control based on a detection result of the torque sensor, as claimed.
Ashikawa discloses an image forming apparatus (100, Fig.1) comprising: an image bearing member (27) configured to bear a toner image; a belt (14) onto which the toner image is transferred from the image bearing member while the belt is being rotated in a rotational direction; an outer roller (18) configured to come into contact with an outer circumference surface of the belt; an inner roller (17) arranged to face the outer roller with the belt interposed therebetween, the inner roller being configured to come into contact with an inner circumference surface of the belt and to form a transfer nip with the outer roller; a tension roller (15) configured to come into contact with the inner circumference surface of the belt, the tension roller being disposed upstream of the inner roller in the rotational direction; a conveyance roller pair (33, Fig.12) configured to convey a sheet (53) toward the transfer nip [0081]; a belt drive motor (64, Fig.12) configured to drive the belt [0082]; a torque sensor (67, Fig.12) configured to detect a torque of the belt drive motor; and a control unit (200, Fig.5) configured to execute, after the sheet has reached the transfer nip, a conveyance control of controlling a rotational speed of the conveyance roller pair based on a detection result of the torque sensor [0177].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Sawanaka and Ashikawa to arrive to that an image forming apparatus according to claim 1 comprising
a torque sensor configured to detect a torque of the belt drive motor; and
a control unit configured to execute, after the sheet has reached the transfer nip, a conveyance control of controlling a rotational speed of the conveyance roller pair such that a first conveyance speed of the sheet conveyed by the transfer nip becomes faster than a second conveyance speed of the sheet conveyed by the conveyance roller pair based on a detection result of the torque sensor
for at least the purpose of accurately controlling a loop amount of the sheet between the conveyance roller pair and the transfer nip.
Sawanaka and Ashikawa appear silent about a convex portion of the guide member, as claimed.
Miya discloses an image forming apparatus (100, Fig.1) comprising: an image bearing member (14a) configured to bear a toner image; a belt (17) onto which the toner image is transferred from the image bearing member while the belt is being rotated in a rotational direction; an outer roller (18) configured to come into contact with an outer circumference surface of the belt; an inner roller (21) arranged to face the outer roller with the belt interposed therebetween, the inner roller being configured to come into contact with an inner circumference surface of the belt and to form a transfer nip with the outer roller; a tension roller (39) configured to come into contact with the inner circumference surface of the belt, the tension roller being disposed upstream of the inner roller in the rotational direction; a conveyance roller pair (41/42) configured to convey a sheet (P) toward the transfer nip; and
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a guide member (71, Fig.4) configured to guide the sheet being conveyed by the conveyance roller pair toward the transfer nip, the guide member including a convex portion (circled in annotated Fig.4 beside) that projects toward the outer circumference surface of the belt and that is arranged between a virtual (dotted) line that passes through a nip of the conveyance roller pair and the transfer nip and a virtual (dashed) line that extends along the outer circumference surface of the belt being stretched between the tension roller and the inner roller.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to configure an image forming apparatus according to claim 1 to include a guide member configured as in Miya, for at least the purpose of smoothly and reliably guiding the sheet towards the transfer nip while the sheet is brought into contact with the belt on the upstream side of the secondary transfer portion thereby reliably suppressing the distortion of the toner image on the belt and stabilizing the high-quality transfer image.
The modifications according to Miya further renders obvious:
(claim 2) The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the convex portion of the guide member is configured to be in sliding contact with the sheet nipped by the conveyance roller pair and the transfer nip in a case where the conveyance control is executed (i.e., while the sheet is nipped by the conveyance roller pair and the transfer nip ) (Miya: Fig.4).
The modifications according to Ashikawa further renders obvious:
(claim 3) The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit is configured to:
(i) acquire a target torque (i.e. set torque, Fig.13) of the belt drive motor set such that the first conveyance speed becomes faster than the second conveyance speed, and a conveyance torque obtained by subtracting a second torque of the belt drive motor when the sheet is not nipped by the transfer nip from a first torque (TA') of the belt drive motor when the sheet is nipped by the transfer nip [0174-0177]; (ii) control, in the conveyance control, the rotational speed of the conveyance roller pair such that the second conveyance speed is decelerated in a case where the conveyance torque is greater than the target torque; and (iii) control the rotational speed of the conveyance roller pair such that the second conveyance speed is accelerated in a case where the conveyance torque is smaller than the target torque (resist motor controller 91 can increase or decrease speed as required to meet target).
(claim 4) The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the target torque is set according to an attribute of the sheet being conveyed (Ashikawa: [0176]).
(claim 5) The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the torque sensor includes a current detection unit configured to detect a current flowing to the belt drive motor (Ashikawa: [0138]).
Claim(s) 8-12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP 2006-189667 to Miya et al. in view of US 2011/0064496 to Ashikawa and JP 2016-118602 to Sawanaka.
Miya et al. teach:
(claim 8) An image forming apparatus (100, Fig.1) comprising: an image bearing member (14a) configured to bear a toner image; a belt (17) onto which the toner image is transferred from the image bearing member while the belt is being rotated in a rotational direction; an outer roller (18) configured to come into contact with an outer circumference surface of the belt; an inner roller (21) arranged to face the outer roller with the belt interposed therebetween, the inner roller being configured to come into contact with an inner circumference surface of the belt and to form a transfer nip with the outer roller; a tension roller (39) configured to come into contact with the inner circumference surface of the belt, the tension roller being disposed upstream of the inner roller in the rotational direction; a conveyance roller pair (41/42) configured to convey a sheet (P) toward the transfer nip; and
a guide member (71, Fig.4) configured to guide the sheet being conveyed by the conveyance roller pair toward the transfer nip, the guide member including a convex portion that projects toward the outer circumference surface of the belt and that is arranged between a virtual line that passes through a nip of the conveyance roller pair and the transfer nip and a virtual line that extends along the outer circumference surface of the belt being stretched between the tension roller and the inner roller (see priorly presented annotated Fig.4 above);
a belt drive motor (not shown) configured to drive the belt (pg.7 of translation document, last paragraph); and
a control unit (92) configured to execute a conveyance control of controlling a rotational speed of the conveyance roller pair (pg.10 of translation document); and
(claim 12) further comprising a conveyance motor (94, Fig.6) configured to drive the conveyance roller pair, wherein the control unit is configured to control the rotational speed of the conveyance roller pair by controlling the conveyance motor.
Miya appears silent about a torque sensor and control based on a detection result of the torque sensor, as claimed.
Ashikawa discloses an image forming apparatus (100, Fig.1) comprising: an image bearing member (27) configured to bear a toner image; a belt (14) onto which the toner image is transferred from the image bearing member while the belt is being rotated in a rotational direction; an outer roller (18) configured to come into contact with an outer circumference surface of the belt; an inner roller (17) arranged to face the outer roller with the belt interposed therebetween, the inner roller being configured to come into contact with an inner circumference surface of the belt and to form a transfer nip with the outer roller; a tension roller (15) configured to come into contact with the inner circumference surface of the belt, the tension roller being disposed upstream of the inner roller in the rotational direction; a conveyance roller pair (33, Fig.12) configured to convey a sheet (53) toward the transfer nip [0081]; a belt drive motor (64, Fig.12) configured to drive the belt [0082]; a torque sensor (67, Fig.12) configured to detect a torque of the belt drive motor; and a control unit (200, Fig.5) a control unit (92) configured to execute a conveyance control of controlling a rotational speed of the conveyance roller pair such that a torque detected by the torque sensor when the sheet is nipped by the conveyance roller pair and the transfer nip becomes a set relative value to a torque detected by the torque sensor when the sheet is nipped and conveyed only by the transfer nip [0177]. In the case disclosed by Ashikawa, the set relative value is 1:1 such that the sheet is neither pushed nor pulled by the conveyance roller pair.
Sawanaka discloses setting the speed of a conveyance roller pair to be lower than the speed of an intermediate transfer belt such that a loop formed between the secondary transfer portion and the conveyance roller pair is reduced by the time a trailing end of the sheet passes the conveyance roller pair to reduce image defects that might be caused by a belt load fluctuations (pg. 7 of translation document). Thus, applying these teachings of Sawanaka using torque detection control as disclosed by Ashikawa, but such that the sheet is in a pulled state, a torque detected by the torque sensor when the sheet is nipped by the conveyance roller pair and the transfer nip would need to be greater than (instead of 1:1) a torque detected by the torque sensor when the sheet is nipped and conveyed only by the transfer nip.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to configure the image forming apparatus of Miya to comprise
a torque sensor configured to detect a torque of the belt drive motor; and the control unit to
execute a conveyance control of controlling a rotational speed of the conveyance roller pair such that a torque detected by the torque sensor when the sheet is nipped by the conveyance roller pair and the transfer nip becomes greater than a torque detected by the torque sensor when the sheet is nipped and conveyed only by the transfer nip
for at least the purpose of actively controlling an amount of loop formed in the sheet so as to prevent image defects at the transfer nip.
The combination above further renders obvious:
(claim 9) The image forming apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the convex portion of the guide member is configured to be in sliding contact with the sheet nipped by the conveyance roller pair and the transfer nip in a case where the conveyance control is executed.
(claim 10) The image forming apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the torque sensor includes a current detection unit configured to detect a current flowing to the belt drive motor (Ashikawa: [0176]).
(claim 11) The image forming apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the control unit executes the conveyance control for at least a part of a period of time from when the sheet has reached the transfer nip until the sheet passes through the conveyance roller pair (Sawanaka: Fig.6).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ARLENE HEREDIA whose telephone number is (571)272-8393. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 9:30-5:30.
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/Arlene Heredia Ocasio/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2852
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