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
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, 2, 9, and 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP 2001-039599 to Tsubakimoto in view of US 2023/0024199 to Makino et al.
Regarding claim 1, Tsubakimoto teaches a conveyance device conveying a recording medium with an image fixed by a fixer (1), the conveyance device comprising a first guide disposed on a downstream side of the fixer and including:
a sheet member (lower discharge guide 4); and
a high-thermal-conductivity sheet (graphite sheet 13) disposed between the sheet member and the recording medium.
Tsubakimoto appears silent about a material of the lower discharge guide 4 and about a resin sheet as claimed.
Makino teaches a conveyance device conveying a recording medium (P) with an image fixed by a fixer, the conveyance device comprising a sheet metal (base 71a, Fig.5B) made of electrogalvanized steel sheet such as silver top, a nickel-plated steel sheet, or a stainless-steel sheet); and a resin sheet (71b, Fig.6A) disposed over a conveyance face of the sheet metal made of a low friction material such as a fluorocarbon resin such that sheet conveyance guides 71 and 72 are less likely to be charged. As a result, the effect of preventing attraction of the sheet P is stably maintained over time [0117].
The path 115 of Tsubakimoto as a metal sheet, is an obvious to try configuration that would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention in choosing from a finite number of identified, predictable solutions, with a reasonable expectation of success.
It would have been further obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add fluorine resin layer on the contact surface of the guide with the sheet as a resin sheet disposed over a conveyance face of the sheet metal for improved friction resistance.
The resulting conveyance device thus meets the high-thermal-conductivity sheet (12) having a higher thermal conductivity than a thermal conductivity of the sheet metal.
The resulting conveyance device further renders obvious:
(claim 2) The conveyance device according to claim 1, wherein the high-thermal-conductivity sheet is disposed so as to face a non-image face of the recording medium with the resin sheet in between (Tsubakimoto: Fig.3).
(claim 9) The conveyance device according to claim 1, wherein the high-thermal-conductivity sheet is disposed on entirety of a face of the resin sheet, the face being opposite to a conveyance face of the resin sheet (upon combination).
(claim 12) An image forming apparatus comprising: an image former forming an image on a recording medium; a fixer fixing the image on the recording medium; and the conveyance device according to claim 1, the conveyance device conveying the recording medium with the image fixed (Tsubakimoto: Background).
Claim(s) 3 and 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP 2001-039599 to Tsubakimoto in view of US 2023/0024199 to Makino et al., as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of US 11,048,200 to Shimodaira.
Regarding claim 3, Tsubakimoto and Makino appear silent about a second guide, as claimed.
Shimodaira discloses a guide structure and image forming apparatus including a first guide (62) that guides a recording medium from a fixing unit (34) to a transport roller unit (48); and a second guide (72), disposed downstream of the first guide, that comes into contact with the recording medium, the second guide being made of a material having a thermal conductivity higher than a thermal conductivity of a material of the first guide (Abstract).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to apply these teaching of Shimodaira to a conveyance device according to claim 1, such that it comprises a second guide disposed on an upstream side of the first guide and the downstream side of the fixer and made of a material having a thermal conductivity lower than the thermal conductivity of the sheet metal, for at least the purpose of improving lowering the temperature of the recording medium, thus reducing image damage that could arrive during conveyance (Shimodaira: col. 11 lines 5-12).
Regarding claim 4, Tsubakimoto and Makino appear silent about a third guide, as claimed.
Shimodaira discloses a guide structure and image forming apparatus including a first guide (62) that guides a recording medium from a fixing unit (34) to a transport roller unit (48); and a second guide (72), disposed downstream of the first guide, that comes into contact with the recording medium, the second guide being made of a material having a thermal conductivity higher than a thermal conductivity of a material of the first guide (Abstract). The second guide disclosed by Shimodaira is made of stainless steel.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to apply these teaching of Shimodaira to a conveyance device according to claim 1, such that it further comprises a third guide disposed on a downstream side of the first guide and made of a sheet metal, wherein the sheet metal of the third guide and a non-image face of the recording medium come in direct contact with one another, for at least the purpose of improving lowering the temperature of the recording medium, thus reducing image damage that could arrive during conveyance (Shimodaira: col. 11 lines 5-12).
Claim(s) 1, 2, 5-7, and 9-12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2023/0024199 to Makino et al. in view of JP 2001-039599 to Tsubakimoto and US 2019/0056686 to Yagi.
Regarding claim 1, Makino teaches a conveyance device conveying a recording medium (P) with an image fixed by a fixer (50), the conveyance device comprising a first guide (71) disposed on a downstream side of the fixer and including:
a sheet metal (guide base 71a, Fig.5B made of electrogalvanized steel sheet such as silver top, a nickel-plated steel sheet, or a stainless-steel sheet [0115]); and
a resin sheet (sheet material 71b1, Fig.6A) disposed over a conveyance face of the sheet metal.
Makino appears silent about a high-thermal-conductivity sheet as claimed.
Tsubakimoto discloses a sheet material conveying device and image forming device teaches. To prevent occurrence of dew condensation on a guide surface downstream of a fixing device, films (12/13) are formed on facing surfaces of the paper discharge guides (3/4) of a material having low heat capacity so they are instantly heated by heat dispersed from a recording medium (P), and the films are prevented from cooling the steam causing dew condensation (Abstract).
Yagi discloses a heat soaking member (65) composed of a material having a high thermal conductivity and coated with a sliding layer (67). The configuration disclosed by Yagi aims at dissipating heat away from high temperature regions (R) on an outer face of the sliding layer (Fig.4, [0093]).
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 Tsubakimoto and Yagi such that the conveyance device of Makino includes
a high-thermal-conductivity sheet disposed between the sheet metal and the resin sheet and having a higher thermal conductivity than a thermal conductivity of the sheet metal
for at least the purpose of diffusing heat away from a recording medium path.
The resulting conveyance device further renders obvious:
(claim 2) The conveyance device according to claim 1, wherein the high-thermal-conductivity sheet is disposed so as to face a non-image face of the recording medium with the resin sheet in between (Makino: #71 Fig.4).
(claim 7) The conveyance device according to claim 1, wherein the high-thermal-conductivity sheet is made of aluminum (Yagi: [0096]).
(claim 9) The conveyance device according to claim 1, wherein the high-thermal-conductivity sheet is disposed on entirety of a face of the resin sheet, the face being opposite to a conveyance face of the resin sheet (upon combination, see Makino: Fig.5B, Tsubakimoto Figs. 1 & 3, and Yagi Fig.4).
(claim 10) The conveyance device according to claim 1, wherein the resin sheet and the high-thermal-conductivity sheet cover an entire area of the recording medium in a width direction thereof (Makino: in a case conveyance rollers are omitted [0108]).
(claim 11) The conveyance device according to claim 1, wherein the resin sheet and the high-thermal-conductivity sheet each are divided in a width direction of the recording medium (see Makino: Fig.5A, divided by #71c, [0108]).
(claim 12) An image forming apparatus comprising: an image former forming an image on a recording medium; a fixer fixing the image on the recording medium; and the conveyance device according to claim 1, the conveyance device conveying the recording medium with the image fixed (Makino:Fig.1; Tsubakimoto: Figs. 1& 3).
Regarding claims 5 & 6, Yagi discloses a thickness of the heat soaking member and a thickness of the sliding layer as a result effective variables selected to ensure appropriate thermal conductivity performance. Some examples include graphite sheets having a thicknesses of 100 μm and 50 μm for a 2-layer stacked sheet (Fig.6, Fig.14, [0098-0099, 0103, 0121]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of effective filing to discover the optimum or workable range of a thickness of the high-thermal-conductivity sheet and a thickness of the resin sheet of the first guide, as a recognized result-effective variables, by routine experimentation (MPEP 2144.05)
Therefore rendering obvious,
(claim 5) The conveyance device according to claim 1, wherein a thickness of the high-thermal-conductivity sheet is less than a thickness of the sheet metal and the resin sheet of the first guide; and
(claim 6) The conveyance device according to claim 5, wherein the thickness of the high-thermal-conductivity sheet is less than 0.1 mm.
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2023/0024199 to Makino et al. in view of JP 2001-039599 to Tsubakimoto and US 2019/0056686 to Yagi, as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of JP H11352763 to Morinaga et al.
Regarding claim 8, Makino discloses the resin sheet as a fluorocarbon resin film, for example, a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) film, but appears silent high-density polyethylene. Morinaga discloses a low-friction member (16a) made of a selected from a group including polyester PET, polytetrafluoroethylene PTFE, glass cloth, polypropylene PP, high density polyethylene HDPE, and polyethylene PE. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the first conveyance guide of claim 1 (by for example using fluorinated HDPE) such that the resin sheet is made of high-density polyethylene, as a an obvious to try configuration that would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention in choosing from a finite number of identified, predictable solutions, with a reasonable expectation of success.
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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