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 § 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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kim (Patent/Publication Number US 2023/0077214).
Regarding claim 1, Kim discloses an electric water pump (EWP, 200) comprising: a housing (10) comprising a housing body (11, 12) (e.g. See Paragraphs [0098-0099]), a printed circuit board (PCB) (50, 51) (e.g. See Paragraphs [0138-0140]), and a stator back yoke (42, 421) (e.g. See Paragraphs [0140, 0146-0149]), the housing body comprising an inlet (11a) and an outlet (11b) and having an internal space (located at the impeller 20) defined therein (Figure 6) (e.g. See Paragraphs [0099, 0106-0108]), the stator back yoke being integrally embedded in the housing body (12, 10) (e.g. See Paragraphs [0131] To solve this problem, in order to obtain the stator core 45 of the present invention, the teeth 41 having a complicated three-dimensional (3D) shape may be manufactured by compression molding soft magnetic composites (SMC) powder, and the back yoke 42 may be prepared by blanking and stacking the electric steel sheets (silicon steel sheets), as in the conventional case, and as shown in FIG. 7D, a plurality of soft magnetic composites (SMC) powder teeth 41 are assembled with the back yoke 42, to thereby obtain the stator core 45.) (e.g. See Paragraphs [0111-0113, 0121, 0131]); and an impeller (20) disposed in the internal space in the housing body and mounted to be rotatable about a rotation shaft (60), the impeller comprising an impeller body and a magnet (132) (e.g. See Paragraphs [0198] When a rotating magnetic field is generated from the plurality of teeth 41 of the stator 40, the rotor 30 arranged in the fluid flow passage P through the partition 12b rotates around the support shaft 60 together with the impeller 20. As a result, cooling water is introduced from the inlet 11a of the pump cover 11 according to the rotation of the impeller 43, and the introduced cooling water is discharged to the outlet 11b along the fluid flow passage P.) (e.g. See Paragraphs [0117, 0198, 0223-0224, 0228-0230]).
Regarding claim 2, Kim further discloses wherein the PCB is integrally embedded in the housing body together with the stator back yoke (e.g. See Paragraphs [0186] In addition, as another method of cooling the printed circuit board (PCB) 51, a cooling heat dissipation pad (not illustrated) may be installed between the back yoke 42 and the printed circuit board (PCB) 51 to transfer heat to the back yoke 42 through the heat dissipation pad, and then heat may be radiated to the outside through the body case 12.) (e.g. See Paragraphs [0138-0140, 0174, 0185-0187]).
Regarding claim 3, Kim further discloses wherein the PCB is structured such that a copper foil pattern, serving as a stator coil (44), is printed on a substrate to be integrally formed with the substrate (e.g. See Paragraphs [0182] In addition, in the axial gap type motor 100 according to the present invention, the stator core 45 is composed of the soft magnetic composites (SMC) powder teeth 41 and the back yoke 42, and the printed circuit board (PCB) 51 forming a driver 50 is closely attached and arranged on the bottom surface of the back yoke 42.) (e.g. See Paragraphs [0138, 0182-0187, 0243-0246]).
Regarding claim 4, Kim further discloses wherein the magnet is integrally embedded in the impeller body (e.g. See Paragraphs [0112] First, the rotor 30 has a ring-shaped back yoke 31 and a magnet 32 installed sequentially on the bottom surface of the lower plate 22 to form a single body with the impeller 20. The magnet 32 of the rotor 30 may be formed of a plurality of N-pole and S-pole split magnet segments, or may use a magnet in which the N-pole and S-pole are split and magnetized into multiple poles in a ring-shaped magnet, and the back yoke 31 is installed on the rear surface of the magnet 32 to form a magnetic circuit.) (e.g. See Paragraphs [0112-0114, 0228-0230]).
Regarding claims 5, 18, Kim further discloses wherein the PCB and the magnet are disposed on one surface of the housing and one surface of the impeller, respectively, facing each other in a direction parallel to the rotation shaft, and wherein the stator back yoke is disposed opposite the magnet with respect to the PCB (e.g. See Paragraphs [0138] A driver 50 for generating a rotating magnetic field by applying a driving signal to a three-phase coil of the stator 40 is installed in the lower portion of the stator 40. The driver 50 includes a printed circuit board (PCB) 51 on which various electronic components 54 forming a motor driving circuit are mounted.) (e.g. See Paragraphs [0138-0140, 0182-0187, 0243-0246]).
Regarding claim 6, Kim further discloses wherein the PCB is integrally embedded in the housing body together with the stator back yoke (e.g. See Paragraphs [0138, 0182-0187, 0243-0246]).
Regarding claim 7, Kim further discloses wherein a gap is defined between the one surface of the housing and the one surface of the impeller to allow coolant to pass between the one surface of the housing and the one surface of the impeller (e.g. See Paragraphs [0112-0114, 0182-0187, 0243-0246]).
Regarding claim 8, Kim further discloses wherein the PCB is disposed outside the housing body on a side of the one surface of the housing (e.g. See Paragraphs [0138, 0182-0187, 0243-0246]).
Regarding claim 9, Kim further discloses wherein a gap is defined between the PCB and the one surface of the impeller to allow coolant to pass between the PCB and the one surface of the impeller (e.g. See Paragraphs [0222] As will be described later, when the impeller 120 is operated by the motor 100a, air around the printed circuit board (PCB) 150 is supplied to the impeller 120 to generate negative pressure. Accordingly, negative pressure is also generated in the motor support portion 110b and the air-cooling flow passage portion 110h arranged to face the printed circuit board (PCB) 150, and thus, air sucked into the through-hole 110g at the front end portion of the bridge 110e passes through the air-cooling flow passage portion part 110h, and then air-cooling wind is discharged to the heating electronic component mounted on the printed circuit board (PCB) 150 through the through-holes 110i and 110j formed in the motor support portion 110b, to accordingly accomplish air-cooling.) (e.g. See Paragraphs [0222, 0237]).
Regarding claim 10, Kim further discloses wherein the impeller body comprises a rotation-shaft support portion surrounding the rotation shaft, and wherein the PCB is formed in a ring shape to allow the rotation-shaft support portion to be located at a center of the PCB (e.g. See Paragraphs [0138-0140, 0182-0187, 0243-0246]).
Regarding claim 11, Kim further discloses wherein a gap is defined between the PCB and the rotation-shaft support portion to allow coolant to pass between the PCB and the rotation-shaft support portion (e.g. See Paragraphs [0218-0222, 0237, 0243-0246]).
Regarding claim 12, Kim further discloses wherein a gap is defined between the PCB and the housing body to allow coolant to pass between the PCB and the housing body on a side of the one surface of the housing (e.g. See Paragraphs [0111, 0218-0222, 0237, 0243-0246]).
Regarding claim 13, Kim further discloses wherein the PCB comprises a through-hole formed therein to allow coolant to pass through the PCB (e.g. See Paragraphs [0219] In addition, a through-hole 110g serving as an inlet of the air-cooling flow passage portion 110h is formed at the front end portion of the bridge 110e, and the motor support portion 110b includes at least one through-hole 110i and 110 j serving as an outlet of the air-cooling flow passage portion 110h.) (e.g. See Paragraphs [0218-0222, 0237, 0243-0246]).
Regarding claim 14, Kim further discloses wherein the housing further comprises a sealing member (63, 64) disposed between an edge portion of the PCB and the housing body (e.g. See Paragraphs [0099, 0102-0103]).
Regarding claim 15, Kim further discloses wherein the impeller further comprises a rotor back yoke (31) (e.g. See Paragraphs [0112, 0223-0226]).
Regarding claim 16, Kim further discloses wherein the rotor back yoke is integrally embedded in the impeller body (e.g. See Paragraphs [0112, 0223-0226]).
Regarding claim 17, Kim further discloses wherein the magnet and the rotor back yoke are integrally embedded in the impeller body (e.g. See Paragraphs [0112, 0223-0226]).
Regarding claim 19, Kim further discloses wherein the impeller body comprises a rotation-shaft support portion surrounding the rotation shaft, and wherein the magnet is formed in a ring shape to allow the rotation-shaft support portion to be located at a center of the magnet (e.g. See Paragraphs [0226] In order to integrate the impeller 120 with the rotor 130, when the circular upper plate 121, the cylindrical support portion 123, and the shaft support portion 121a are formed, the back yoke 131 and the rotary shaft 160 are inserted, and a part of the upper plate 121 is formed on both side surfaces of the upper plate part 131c through a plurality of through-holes 131d provided in the upper plate portion 131c of the back yoke 131 to increase coupling force between the impeller 120 and the rotor 130.) (e.g. See Paragraphs [0109, 0223-0226]).
Regarding claim 20, Kim further discloses wherein the impeller body comprises a rotation-shaft support portion surrounding the rotation shaft; and wherein the electric water pump comprises a bearing (61, 161, 62) disposed between the rotation-shaft support portion and the rotation shaft (e.g. See Paragraphs [0109-0110, 0240-0243]).
Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure and consists of six patents:
Nakamura et al. (Pat./Pub. No. US 2013/0136635), Kim et al. (Pat./Pub. No. US 2012/0183421), Furlan et al. (Pat./Pub. No. US 2011/0150674), Kim et al. (Pat./Pub. No. US 2025/0146491), Shiraki et al. (Pat./Pub. No. US 2019/0386542), and Zhou et al. (Pat./Pub. No. US 2017/0082117), all discloses an electric water pump for use with fluid dispensing system.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Primary Examiner Binh Tran whose telephone number is (571) 272-4865. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisors, Mark Laurenzi, can be reach on (571) 270-7878. The fax phone numbers for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned are (571) 273-8300 for regular communications and for After Final communications.
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Binh Q. Tran
/BINH Q TRAN/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3748
July 10, 2026
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