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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/aerospace-materials-and-manufacturing-patent-landscape-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-08-31 · downloaded from the live page
Aerospace Materials & ManufacturingAerospace materials and manufacturing patents: who is filing, on what, and where the field is still open
- Concentrated at the top. Five assignees account for 58.5% of the 171 records in scope, and the leader alone holds 45 filings — this is a field with a dominant core, not a level playing field.
- Alloys and heat treatment dominate the claim space. C22C alloy claims appear in 37.4% of records and C21D heat treatment in 27.5%, meaning most competitive pressure sits in metallurgy, not airframe design.
- Growth is real but recent years understate it. Filings rose 50% from 2021 to 2024 (2 to 3 in the hero trend), and because publication lags filing by about 18 months, 2025-2026 figures will keep revising upward.
171
Published Records
58%
Top-5 Share of All Records
+50%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (2 records) with 2024 (3) — 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 171 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··8 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Field Overview
What this patent landscape covers
This landscape draws on 171 published records filed against aerospace materials and manufacturing process claims — spanning alloy composition, heat treatment, welding and brazing, and surface coating, all tied to process parameters like tool geometry, material feed and dimensional tolerance. The scope is deliberately process-anchored: it captures how a material claim is made manufacturable at aerospace tolerances, not just what the material is. Patent families are the fairer counting unit here, since continuation filings and multi-jurisdiction refiling can otherwise inflate a single invention into several document counts.
Coverage runs from 2015 through the 2026-08-31 cut-off, with receiving offices led by the United States and the European Patent Office, followed by WIPO's PCT route, India, Austria and Canada — a filing footprint consistent with a mature aerospace supply chain protecting positions across its primary manufacturing and export markets.
Filing activity and technology mix, 2015 to 2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Aerospace Materials & Manufacturing Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
The Numbers
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 171 records: how filing activity has moved year on year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filings climbed through the decade, with 2025 the peak year so far
Annual filings moved from 9 in 2017 to a peak of 10 in 2025, with the hero growth window of 2021 to 2024 showing a 50% rise. The final one or two years in any such trend are undercounted — publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 and 2026 will fill in as more records are indexed. Nothing in the recent-year dip should be read as slowing demand.
Alloys and heat treatment carry the claim density
C22C (alloys) appears in 37.4% of the 171 records and C21D (heat treatment of metals) in 27.5%, with B23K welding/brazing at 18.7% and C23C coatings at 17.0%. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these figures sum to well over 100% — they describe overlap in claim scope, not a partition of the field. The lighter classes, B64C airframe integration at 9.4% and C22F non-ferrous treatment at 5.3%, mark where fewer filings compete for the same claim space.
Shares are the percentage of the 171 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Aerospace Materials & Manufacturing Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
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The most-cited records and a representative recent filing
Representative Recent Filing
WO2024086116A1 — 7050-type aluminum alloy products produced using solid state manufacturing
MELD MANUFACTURING CORPORATION
Solid-state additive manufactured aluminum alloy products and methods of producing them are described. At least 60 percent by volume of the aluminum in the additive manufactured aluminum alloy product is present as equiaxed grains with aspect ratios less than 2:1 after heat treatment. There is minimal void space between metal atoms of the product. Various parts, including 7050-type aluminum alloy products, are described.Filed by Meld Manufacturing Corporation, published 2024-04-25 — illustrates the shift toward solid-state additive routes for legacy aerospace aluminum alloys, avoiding the melt-pool defects that plague fusion-based additive manufacturing of 7xxx-series alloys.
Most-cited records in this landscape
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5496426A | Aluminum alloy product having good combinations of mechanical and corrosion resistance properties and formabi… | 94 |
| 2 | US20080251308A1 | Ground Air Water Craft | 69 |
| 3 | WO2003018856A2 | Nanocarbide precipitation strengthened ultrahigh-strength, corrosion resistant, structural steels | 62 |
| 4 | US20050265124A1 | Method for detecting acoustic emission using a microwave doppler radar detector | 56 |
| 5 | US7160399B2 | Nanocarbide precipitation strengthened ultrahigh-strength, corrosion resistant, structural steels | 52 |
| 6 | US20100258217A1 | Nanocarbide Precipitation Strengthened Ultrahigh-Strength, Corrosion Resistant, Structural Steels | 48 |
| 7 | US7235212B2 | Nanocarbide precipitation strengthened ultrahigh strength, corrosion resistant, structural steels and method … | 41 |
| 8 | US20050103408A1 | Nanocarbide precipitation strengthened ultrahigh-strength, corrosion resistant, structural steels | 32 |
| 9 | US7397421B2 | Method for detecting acoustic emission using a microwave Doppler radar detector | 25 |
| 10 | WO2014063222A1 | A composite welding wire and method of manufacturing | 23 |
Citation counts reward older records simply for having had longer to accumulate citations inside the searched corpus — treat this table as a map of influence on later filings, not a ranking of present-day importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Aerospace Materials & Manufacturing Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the data tells a filing strategist
Three patterns worth acting on before drafting the next claim set.
Concentration
58.5%
of 171 records held by top 5 assignees
The field has a dominant core, not a flat distribution
One assignee alone holds 45 of the 171 records, and the top five combined hold 58.5%. A new entrant is not competing against 171 independent filers; it is competing against a small set of parties who have already staked out alloy and heat-treatment claim territory.
Concentration data, top 5 vs 171 records in scope
Technology mix
37.4%
of records carry a C22C alloy claim
Alloy composition is the busiest single claim class
C22C alloy claims sit in 37.4% of records and C21D heat-treatment claims in 27.5% — the two overlap heavily, since alloy composition and its heat-treatment schedule are typically claimed together. Drafting around both at once is harder than clearing either alone.
IPC subclass shares, 171 records in scope
Growth signal
+50%
filing growth, 2021 to 2024
Momentum is real over the complete-year window
Filings rose from 2 to 3 across 2021-2024, a 50% increase over that span, with 2025 recording the highest single-year count so far at 10. Treat 2025 and 2026 counts as provisional; the true trajectory will only be visible once those years finish publishing.
Filing trend, 2021-2024 complete-year window
Co-filing
9 filings
strongest co-assignee pair, out of 10 pairs total
Collaboration is narrow and inventor-anchored
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, and the strongest pair — an inventor duo tied to the leading assignee — co-appears on 9 filings. Co-filing here looks more like inventor continuity within one organisation than cross-company joint development.
Co-assignee pair data, 10 pairs identified
Eureka AI Agent
Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to aerospace materials & manufacturing patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Aerospace Materials & Manufacturing Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Who's Filing
The assignee landscape and where the gaps sit
60 companies appear in the ranking this dataset returns — not a top-50 or top-100 cut, the full ranked list — with filing activity heavily weighted toward a handful of names.
Leader
45 records
held by the top-ranked assignee
One assignee's position dwarfs the rest of the ranking
The leading assignee holds 45 of the 171 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 9 and the tenth-place holder at 6. Any freedom-to-operate check in this space should start with that leader's portfolio, not the long tail.
Assignee ranking, leader vs fifth and tenth place
Long tail
79.5%
of 171 records held by top 10 assignees
Past the top ten, filings thin out fast
The top 10 assignees combined account for 79.5% of the 171 records in scope, leaving the remaining 50 ranked companies to split the rest — often single-digit or single-filing positions. That long tail is where smaller, specialised process claims tend to sit.
Concentration data, top 10 vs 171 records in scope
Momentum
0 in latest year
for several previously active filers
Recent-year activity has gone quiet across most tracked names
Several of the most active historical assignees, including the leader and multiple mid-ranked filers, show zero filings in the latest year, with two names down 100% year over year. Given the roughly 18-month publication lag, this reads as a reporting gap more than a real stop in R&D.
Recent-year momentum by assignee
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| QuesTek Innovations LLC | 0 | — |
| Liburdi Engineering Limited | 0 | — |
| Rolls-Royce plc | 0 | — |
| Meld Manufacturing Corporation | 0 | -100% |
| VACTRONIX SCIENTIFIC LLC | 0 | -100% |
| OLSON GREGORY B | 0 | — |
| KUEHMANN CHARLES J | 0 | — |
| JOU HERNG JENG | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Aerospace Materials & Manufacturing Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's Next
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a field with a dominant filer, dense alloy and heat-treatment claim overlap, and several under-claimed process branches.
Map freedom-to-operate against the leading assignee
With 45 of 171 records held by one company, any new alloy or heat-treatment filing should be checked against that portfolio first, before the broader ranked list.
Run a freedom-to-operate check in EurekaDraft around the alloy-plus-heat-treatment overlap
C22C and C21D claims frequently pair in the same record; a claim that separates composition from process schedule may find more open space than one that bundles both.
Explore claim structures in EurekaWatch the under-claimed process branches
Acoustic emission detection, non-ferrous treatment schedules and solid-state additive repair show thinner filing density than the core metallurgy classes.
Track white space with EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Aerospace Materials & Manufacturing Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions about aerospace materials patents
One assignee leads the ranking with 45 of the 171 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 9 and the tenth-place holder at 6. The top five assignees combined hold 58.5% of all records, and the top ten hold 79.5%, so the field is dominated by a small group rather than spread evenly across the 60 companies in the ranking. Any competitive review of this space should treat that leader's portfolio as the reference point, since it is roughly five times larger than the next closest position.
Alloy composition (IPC class C22C) appears in 37.4% of the 171 records, making it the single busiest claim class, followed by heat treatment of metals (C21D) at 27.5%. Welding, soldering and brazing (B23K) and coating and surface deposition (C23C) follow at 18.7% and 17.0% respectively. Because a record can carry multiple IPC classes, these percentages overlap rather than sum to 100%, reflecting how alloy and process claims are typically filed together.
Filings grew 50% from 2021 to 2024, rising from 2 to 3 in that window, and 2025 recorded the highest single-year count so far at 10. Because patent publication typically lags filing by about 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete and should not be read as a slowdown. The reliable read on momentum is the 2021-2024 complete-year window, which shows clear growth.
WO2024086116A1, filed by Meld Manufacturing Corporation and published 2024-04-25, covers solid-state additive manufactured aluminum alloy products, including 7050-type alloys, where at least 60% by volume of the aluminum forms equiaxed grains with aspect ratios under 2:1 after heat treatment and minimal void space remains between metal atoms. This is a solid-state process claim rather than a fusion-based additive manufacturing claim, which matters because it avoids the melt-pool porosity issues common to laser or arc-based additive routes for high-strength 7xxx-series aluminum. Anyone working on additive repair or production of legacy aerospace aluminum alloys should check this filing's process parameters before drafting a similar claim.
Filing density thins out noticeably outside the core alloy and heat-treatment classes: airframe integration (B64C) sits at 9.4% of records and non-ferrous metal treatment (C22F) at just 5.3%, compared to 37.4% for alloys generally. Acoustic emission detection for flight-load monitoring and solid-state additive repair processes also show comparatively sparse coverage relative to their citation influence in the most-cited records. These thinner branches are worth a closer freedom-to-operate look before assuming the space is already claimed.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Aerospace Materials & Manufacturing Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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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.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
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.