Appeal No. 2006-0945
Application No. 10/245,888
BACKGROUND
The appellants’ invention relates to a lockup control system for a torque converter of a vehicle
equipped with an air conditioner. An understanding of the invention can be derived from a
reading of exemplary claim 1, which is reproduced below.
1. A lockup control system for a torque converter of a vehicle equipped with an
air conditioner, said lockup control system being adapted to maintain a coasting
slip restricted state of the torque converter even during coasting of the vehicle
with an accelerator pedal released, for restricting slip rotation between input and
output elements of the torque converter, the coasting slip restricted state being
achieved by a coasting lockup capacity that is lower than a lockup capacity of the
torque converter in a driving condition of the vehicle with the accelerator pedal
depressed, wherein the coasting lockup capacity is controlled according to an
operation load of the air conditioner and is increased as the operation load of the
air conditioner increases, and wherein the lockup capacity with which the slip
rotation becomes the predetermined slight-slip rotation is stored as learned values
for different operation loads of the air conditioner, so as to be used as basis for
calculation of the required minimum lockup capacity.
The prior art reference of record relied upon by the examiner in rejecting the appealed
claims is:
Narita et al. (Narita) 5,667,458 Sep. 16, 1997
Claims 1, 2 and 4 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Narita.
More particularly, the examiner has rejected claims 1, 2 and 4 based on the combined teachings
of a first embodiment described within Narita [Figs. 1-7, referred to herein as Narita I] in view of
a second embodiment within Narita [Figs. 9, referred to herein as Narita II].
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