Active Magnetic Regenerator Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filing has not grown since 2015. The peak year was 2018 at 5 records, and the 2022 midpoint sits at just 3 — this is a field with a flat or declining filing curve, not an emerging one.
- 62.7% of all activity sits with five assignees. The top 5 combined account for 42 of 67 records in scope, and the top 10 reach 88.1% — leaving a thin tail beyond the ranked leaders.
- Zero recent-year activity from every named leader. Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum, including the top filer, shows 0 filings in the latest year — a signal worth checking against publication lag before reading it as retreat.
Filing growth compares 2021 (5 records) with 2024 (1) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 67 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the dataset covers
Active magnetic regenerator (AMR) refrigeration uses the magnetocaloric effect to move heat without a vapor-compression cycle: a magnetic field is applied and removed across a regenerator bed, and the resulting temperature swing drives a refrigeration cycle. This landscape covers 67 published records filed or published between 2015 and the 2026-07-31 cut-off, matched on active magnetic regenerator, magnetocaloric refrigerator and magnetic refrigeration device terminology combined with claim-level language on field strength, regenerator bed geometry, pressure drop, hysteresis loss, cycle frequency and cooling power.
Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent one or two years in the trend understate real activity. Read the 2025-2026 figures as a floor, not a ceiling, and weight the mid-decade years more heavily when judging direction.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 67 records: how filing has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
A flat curve since the mid-2010s
Filings ran at 4 in 2017, peaked at 5 in 2018, and sat at 3 by the 2022 midpoint. There is no acceleration visible in this window — this is a mature, narrow field rather than one attracting new entrants at scale.
Refrigeration and magnet classes dominate
F25B (refrigeration & heat pumps) appears on 92.5% of the 67 records, confirming this is squarely a refrigeration-cycle field first. H01F (magnets, inductors & transformers) follows at 35.8%, and C22C (alloys) at 16.4% — together these three classes carry most of the technical substance, while F25J, F28D, H10N, F25D and H01L each cover a smaller slice of adjacent apparatus and materials claims.
Shares are the percentage of the 67 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Active Magnetic Regenerator Refrigeration with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about active magnetic regenerator refrigeration and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited prior art in this field
Shimmed active magnetic regenerator for use in thermodynamic devices
The technology provides a shimmed active magnetic regenerator (SAMR) for use in active magnetic thermodynamic devices. The shimmed active magnetic regenerator comprises a combination of at least one magnetocaloric material and at least one shim comprising at least one passive material, such that when a magnetic field is applied the relative magnetization of the magnetocaloric material in combination with the shim is greater than the relative magnetization of the magnetocaloric material. The SAMR can achieve a relative magnetism of about 1 from a magnetic field less than approximately 3T.Filed by Cooper Technologies Company, published 2010-05-06 as US20100107654A1.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US4332135A | Active magnetic regenerator | 289 |
| 2 | US5934078A | Reciprocating active magnetic regenerator refrigeration apparatus | 165 |
| 3 | US5743095A | Active magnetic refrigerants based on Gd-Si-Ge material and refrigeration apparatus and process | 146 |
| 4 | US20070220901A1 | Magnetic refrigeration material and magnetic refrigeration device | 110 |
| 5 | US20150033763A1 | Material for magnetic refrigeration and magnetic refrigeration device | 71 |
| 6 | US20090217675A1 | Magnetic refrigeration device and magnetic refrigeration system | 62 |
| 7 | US5887449A | Dual stage active magnetic regenerator and method | 60 |
| 8 | US20180283740A1 | Advanced multi-layer active magnetic regenerator systems and processes for magnetocaloric liquefaction | 45 |
| 9 | US9702594B2 | Magnetocaloric refrigerator | 42 |
| 10 | US20100107654A1 | Shimmed active magnetic regenerator for use in thermodynamic devices | 32 |
Citation counts are drawn from within this searched corpus and favor older filings; treat them as a signal of influence on later work, not of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three read-throughs from the trend, the concentration figures and the class composition.
Claim space is already occupied at the top
With 42 of 67 records in scope held by five assignees, and 88.1% held by the top 10, new entrants are filing into a field where the foundational claim territory — regenerator bed geometry, field-strength operating ranges, magnetocaloric alloy compositions — is already staked by a small group.
No leader shows recent-year filing
Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum shows zero filings in the latest year on record. Given the 18-month publication lag, some of this is an artifact of the data cut-off rather than a genuine pullback, but the flat trend since 2018 supports reading this as a slow field rather than a temporary gap.
Magnet assembly claims are a distinct, smaller layer
F25B refrigeration-cycle claims dominate at 92.5% of records, but only about a third also carry H01F magnet-assembly classifications and roughly a sixth carry C22C alloy classifications — the magnet hardware and materials side of AMR systems is claimed far less densely than the refrigeration-cycle side.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to active magnetic regenerator refrigeration, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the claim space
A small set of assignees account for most of the filings, with academic and national-lab entrants alongside industrial refrigeration and materials companies.
A single filer well ahead of the field
The top-ranked assignee holds 11 of the 67 records in scope, roughly 2.5 times the fifth-place assignee's 7 — an unusually steep drop from first to fifth place for a field this size.
A compact group of established filers
Positions two through five cluster together before the count drops sharply — by tenth place, assignees are filing only 2 records each, marking where the field moves from established players into single- and double-filing entrants.
Joint filings cluster around a few relationships
Co-assignee activity is limited but not absent: the strongest pairing appears three times, and two other pairings recur twice each, suggesting small, repeat collaboration clusters rather than broad industry consortia.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Astronautics Corporation of America | 0 | — |
| Technical University of Denmark | 0 | — |
| VETROVEC JAN | 0 | — |
| Santoku Corporation | 0 | — |
| Battelle Memorial Institute | 0 | — |
| Gree Electric Appliances, Inc. of Zhuhai | 0 | — |
| Toshiba Corporation | 0 | — |
| BARCLAY JOHN | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The dataset points to a narrow, concentrated field with clear leaders and a thin but real collaboration layer. Two directions follow from that.
Map the leader's claim boundaries precisely
With one assignee holding 11 of 67 records and a steep drop to the rest of the field, understanding exactly what that portfolio blocks — and where its claims stop short — is the fastest way to find a filable position.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaTest the under-claimed branches against fresh art
Regenerator geometry, hysteresis-loss reduction and magnet-assembly cost sit behind the dominant F25B refrigeration-cycle class in filing density. Before drafting there, run a targeted prior-art check on those specific sub-areas.
Run a white-space search in EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
The assignee ranking in this dataset returns 32 companies across 67 records in scope. That is the full ranked list the data endpoint returns, not a top-50 or top-100 cut, so it represents the entire population of named assignees found in this search. Filing is heavily concentrated at the top of that list: the leading assignee alone holds 11 records, and the top 5 combined account for 62.7% of all 67 records. Beyond the top 10, which holds 88.1% of records between them, the remaining assignees each hold only a handful of filings.
Based on this dataset, filing has been flat to declining since the mid-2010s rather than growing. The peak year was 2018 with 5 records, and by the 2022 midpoint annual filing had dropped to 3. Every top assignee tracked shows zero filings in the most recent year, though that figure should be read cautiously because publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months, understating the truest recent activity. Taken together, the pattern points to a mature, narrow technology area rather than one currently attracting a wave of new entrants.
The overwhelming majority of records, 92.5% of the 67 in scope, carry an F25B refrigeration-and-heat-pump classification, confirming this is fundamentally a refrigeration-cycle technology. A smaller but significant share, 35.8%, also carries a H01F magnets-and-inductors classification, covering the magnet-assembly side of AMR systems, and 16.4% carry a C22C alloys classification for magnetocaloric materials. Smaller classes cover gas liquefaction (F25J), heat exchangers (F28D), solid-state devices (H10N and H01L) and general refrigerators (F25D), each appearing on a minority of records.
The dataset's assignee ranking includes a mix of national labs, universities and industrial refrigeration and materials companies among its 32 ranked entities. The leading assignee holds 11 of the 67 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-ranked assignee's 7, and the field then narrows quickly to assignees holding 2 records by tenth place. A small collaboration layer also exists: 10 co-assignee pairs were identified, with the strongest recurring pairing appearing three times across the dataset.
The clearest signal comes from comparing IPC class density against the dominant F25B refrigeration-cycle class, which sits at 92.5% of records. Magnet-assembly claims (H01F, 35.8%) and alloy-composition claims (C22C, 16.4%) are both present but far less densely claimed, and narrower categories like solid-state heat-switch integration and cycle-frequency control electronics show up only within smaller adjacent classes such as H10N and F28D. Practically, that suggests regenerator bed pressure-drop optimisation, hysteresis-loss reduction and magnet-assembly cost reduction are worth a targeted prior-art check before drafting, since they sit behind the core refrigeration-cycle claim territory rather than inside it.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
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Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.