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 § 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) 1-6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO 2010/097596 (herein Whitley) in view of Galloway (US PGPub No. 2019/0145390).
Whitley teaches:
limitations from claim 1, a hydraulic system comprising: a variable displacement pump (20) connected to at least one hydraulic device (30) through a supply path (51-52) and that supplies hydraulic fluid to the hydraulic device through the supply path (Page 5 – “The example shown in Figure 2 includes a rotary actuator 30 which is arranged to rotate in response to hydraulic fluid pumped along fluid line 51 by the pump 20.”); an electric motor (10) coupled to the variable displacement pump and that drives the variable displacement pump; a controller (40) electrically connected to the electric motor and that controls operation of the variable displacement pump by outputting a control signal to the electric motor; and a sensor (14) that outputs, to the controller, a measurement signal relating to a supply flow rate of the hydraulic fluid supplied to the hydraulic device (“capacity”; Page 4 – “In this example a feedback line 13 is provided to indicate to controller 40 the capacity of the pump 20 and the speed of the motor 10, which in this example is measured by a suitable sensor 14.”), wherein the variable displacement pump includes a mechanical compensator (25-26) that changes a pump displacement (Page 4 – “In this example the position or angle of the swash plate is controlled by a swash motor drive 26 controlled by a signal from controller 40 along control line 21.”), and based on the measurement signal from the sensor, the controller outputs a control signal for increasing a rotational speed of the electric motor in a case where the supply flow rate falls below a required flow rate of the hydraulic device (FIG. 4-5, Step 84; Page 6), and the controller outputs a control signal for decreasing the rotational speed of the electric motor in a case where the supply flow rate exceeds the required flow rate of the hydraulic device (FIG. 4-5, Step 94; Page 6);
Whitley teaches that the compensator is operated by the controller (40) based on measured signals (13-14) rather than by receiving a pressure in the supply path;
However, controlling a swash plate angle by supplying a pressure/flow of fluid from the pump output to the plate is commonly known in the art of swash pumps. Galloway teaches a hydraulic pumping system (12) for an aircraft including a pump (102) driven by a motor (146), the pump including a compensator (136); the compensator receiving a pressure from the supply path (142) to control the displacement of the pump based on demand (paragraph 51 and 56 for example);
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art of pumps at the time the invention was filed to provide a control signal to the compensator of Whitley using known methods, such as the supply path control line taught by Galloway, as a matter of design choice in order to reach an expected result (the supply-based control of the pump displacement).
Whitley further teaches:
limitations from claim 2, wherein the controller (40) sets the rotational speed of the electric motor to a first speed (N1), which is a low speed, in a low flow rate range where a discharge flow rate of the variable displacement pump is low (the first two paragraphs of Page 6); and the controller makes the rotational speed of the electric motor faster than the first speed and higher as the required flow rate increases in a high flow rate range where the discharge flow rate is higher than in the low flow rate range (a speed N2; see the last paragraph of Page 6 continuing to Page 7), and the pump displacement of the variable displacement pump increases by the compensator in the low flow rate range (speed N1) as the required flow rate increases, and is maximum in the high flow rate range (speed N2; see the paragraphs spanning Pages 6-7);
limitations from claim 3, wherein the controller continuously increases the discharge flow rate of the variable displacement pump in an entire range from the low flow rate range to the high flow rate range (the first two paragraphs of Page 6 in which the hydraulic fluid flow is increased from speeds N1-N2 and also within those speed bands by compensator 25-26);
limitations from claim 4, wherein the hydraulic device includes a flight control actuator and a takeoff/landing actuator for an aircraft (see paragraph spanning Pages 3-4; the system controls an actuator (flap) of an aircraft using a variable capacity/flow of a hydraulic fluid; further, Page 7 states “any desired actuator 30 may be used as is appropriate for the desired application. Although the examples have been described with reference to the operation of a flap of an aircraft, the hydraulic actuator may of course be used in any desired application…”, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in that other actuators on an aircraft would include actuators such as flaps for takeoff/landing);
limitations from claim 5, wherein the controller sets the rotational speed of the electric motor to a first speed (N1), which is a low speed, during flight of the aircraft in which the flight control actuator works and the takeoff/landing actuator does not work, and the controller makes the rotational speed of the electric motor faster than the first speed (N2) and higher as the required flow rate increases during takeoff and landing of the aircraft in which the flight control actuator and the takeoff/landing actuator work (see paragraphs spanning pages 6-7 in which higher demand from actuators results in an increase motor speed N1-N2, and additional increase/decrease in displacement from the pump within those speed levels; regarding the particular actuators: see paragraph spanning Pages 3-4; the system controls an actuator (flap) of an aircraft using a variable capacity/flow of a hydraulic fluid; further, Page 7 states “any desired actuator 30 may be used as is appropriate for the desired application. Although the examples have been described with reference to the operation of a flap of an aircraft, the hydraulic actuator may of course be used in any desired application…”, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in that other actuators on an aircraft would include actuators such as flaps for takeoff/landing and that the number of actuators being controlled would affect the required motor speed to supply more or less hydraulic fluid);
limitations from claim 6, a method for controlling a hydraulic system, the hydraulic system includes a variable displacement pump (20) connected to at least one hydraulic device (30) through a supply path (51-52) and that supplies hydraulic fluid to the hydraulic device through the supply path (Page 5 – “The example shown in Figure 2 includes a rotary actuator 30 which is arranged to rotate in response to hydraulic fluid pumped along fluid line 51 by the pump 20.”), the variable displacement pump including a mechanical compensator (25-26) that changes a pump displacement (Page 4 – “In this example the position or angle of the swash plate is controlled by a swash motor drive 26 controlled by a signal from controller 40 along control line 21.”), an electric motor (10) coupled to the variable displacement pump and that drives the variable displacement pump, a controller (40) electrically connected (via line 11) to the electric motor and that controls operation of the variable displacement pump by outputting a control signal to the electric motor (Page 3 – “A controller 40 is also shown which is arranged to vary the speed of the motor 10 with an appropriate control signal on line 11”), and a sensor (14) that outputs, to the controller, a measurement signal relating to a supply flow rate of the hydraulic fluid supplied to the hydraulic device (“capacity”; Page 4 – “In this example a feedback line 13 is provided to indicate to controller 40 the capacity of the pump 20 and the speed of the motor 10, which in this example is measured by a suitable sensor 14.”), the method comprising: in a low flow rate range where a discharge flow rate of the variable displacement pump is low, causing the controller to set a rotational speed of the electric motor to a first speed (N1), which is a low speed, and increasing the pump displacement of the variable displacement pump, by the compensator, as a required flow rate of the hydraulic device increases (the first two paragraphs of Page 6), and in a high flow rate range where the discharge flow rate is higher than in the low flow rate range, maximizing the pump displacement of the variable displacement pump, by the compensator, and causing the controller, based on the measurement signal of the sensor, to set the rotational speed of the electric motor faster than the first speed (speed N2) and higher as the required flow rate increases (speed N2; see the paragraphs spanning Pages 6-7);
Whitley teaches that the compensator is operated by the controller (40) based on measured signals (13-14) rather than by receiving a pressure in the supply path;
However, controlling a swash plate angle by supplying a pressure/flow of fluid from the pump output to the plate is commonly known in the art of swash pumps. Galloway teaches a hydraulic pumping system (12) for an aircraft including a pump (102) driven by a motor (146), the pump including a compensator (136); the compensator receiving a pressure from the supply path (142) to control the displacement of the pump based on demand (paragraph 51 and 56 for example);
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art of pumps at the time the invention was filed to provide a control signal to the compensator of Whitley using known methods, such as the supply path control line taught by Galloway, as a matter of design choice in order to reach an expected result (the supply-based control of the pump displacement).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
US Patents 5,515,829 and 3,908,519 teach a swash plate pump in which an output pressure is used to control the pump displacement;
US PGPub 2025/0108937 teaches controlling an aircraft hydraulic system based upon different flight conditions;
US PGPub 2024/0229782 teaches controlling a hydraulic system using both pump displacement and motor speed controls;
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/CHRISTOPHER S BOBISH/Examiner, Art Unit 3746
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