AFP Head and Material Feed Mechanisms Patents: Who Leads 2026
- 69.8% concentration. The top five assignees alone account for 513 of the 735 records in scope – a field with a narrow set of gatekeepers rather than a broad, open one.
- Filing has cooled from its 2020 peak. Filings peaked at 72 in 2020 and fell from 16 in 2021 to 6 in 2024, a -63% move over that span, though 2025-2026 figures are still incomplete due to publication lag.
- One family dominates the citation record. US20050061422A1, a multiple tape laying apparatus filing, is cited 283 times – more than any other record in this corpus – and still frames how compaction and feed claims get written.
Filing growth compares 2021 (16 records) with 2024 (6) — 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 735 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks patent families addressing fiber placement heads, tow feed mechanisms and tape laying heads, filtered to records that also claim compaction rollers, tow cutters, tow tension control, deposition rate, tow steering or fiber path control. It is the hardware and process-control layer that sits underneath automated fiber placement (AFP) machines used to build composite airframe structures – not the resin or fiber material itself, and not the layup software above it.
The 735 records in scope span filings from 2015 through the 2026-07-31 cut-off, drawn primarily from US, European, German, PCT, Austrian and Canadian filing offices. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent one to two years understate actual filing activity and should be read as provisional.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 735-record corpus: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
Filing trend: a 2020 peak, then a pullback
Filings rose to a peak of 72 in 2020, then declined through the following years – 16 in 2021 down to 6 in 2024, a -63% move over that three-year span. Treat 2025 and 2026 as incomplete rather than as evidence of continued decline, since publication lag means recent filings have not all surfaced yet.
IPC composition: concentrated in plastics shaping
B29C (shaping of plastics) appears in 73.7% of the 735 records, by far the dominant classification, consistent with AFP heads being fundamentally plastics-forming equipment. B32B (layered products, 15.2%) and B65H (web/filament handling, 9.8%) are the next largest but far smaller pools, and G01N (material analysis and testing, 9.3%) shows up often enough to indicate inline quality-control claims are a meaningful secondary thread. Because records can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares sum to well over 100% of the record total.
Shares are the percentage of the 735 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on AFP Head and Material Feed Mechanisms with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about afp head and material feed mechanisms and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited prior art
Reversing fiber placement head (US20120222810A1, Fives Machining Systems)
A reversing fiber placement head capable of bidirectional fiber placement on an application surface includes a feed mechanism delivering fiber along two feed paths in a V-shaped orientation. A pressure tip assembly with a compaction roller receives fiber from both paths and applies it to the surface; a shifting mechanism moves the pressure tip assembly between two positions on the head, shifting the compaction roller along a linear path so it can reverse its direction of rotation.Filed by Fives Machining Systems Inc., published 2012-09-06 – illustrative of how bidirectional feed-path and compaction-roller claims are structured in this space.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20050061422A1 | Multiple tape laying apparatus and method | 283 |
| 2 | US20050109451A1 | Composite tape laying apparatus and method | 220 |
| 3 | US5562788A | Composite material laser flaw detection | 219 |
| 4 | US20130233471A1 | Small flat composite placement system | 205 |
| 5 | US5110395A | Fiber placement head | 203 |
| 6 | US5979531A | Bi-directional fiber placement head | 173 |
| 7 | US20050039843A1 | Multiple head automated composite laminating machine for the fabrication of large barrel section components | 164 |
| 8 | US6799619B2 | Composite material collation machine and associated method for high rate collation of composite materials | 155 |
| 9 | US20100200168A1 | Fiber delivery apparatus and system having a creel and fiber placement head sans fiber redirect | 138 |
| 10 | US6112792A | Fiber placement mid-span redirect | 134 |
Citation counts favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate references within the searched corpus – read them as a signal of influence on downstream claim drafting, not as a ranking of current technical importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three signals worth weighing before drafting into this space: how concentrated ownership already is, where the citation weight sits, and how the growth curve is actually moving.
Ownership sits with a handful of equipment builders
The top five assignees combined account for 513 of the 735 records in scope, and the top ten reach 584 records, or 79.5% of the field. New entrants are filing into a space where compaction-roller and feed-path claim territory is already heavily staked by a small group.
Activity has cooled from its 2020 peak
Filings peaked at 72 in 2020 before falling from 16 in 2021 to 6 in 2024. That is the last year that can be read as complete; 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in given typical publication lag and should not be read as a continued decline.
Older tape-laying patents still anchor the claim language
The most-cited record in this corpus, a multiple tape laying apparatus filing, sits well above the next-most-cited records. Heavy citation of decades-old apparatus patents suggests core mechanical concepts around multi-tape and compaction-roller feeding are treated as settled foundations rather than open ground.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to afp head and material feed mechanisms, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranked leaders come almost entirely from AFP machine builders and aerospace primes rather than materials suppliers, which tracks with the IPC composition skewing toward plastics-shaping equipment rather than material chemistry.
One assignee holds a commanding single-company share
The leading assignee's 280 records is more than five times the fifth-place count of 18, an unusually steep drop-off that marks this as a field with one dominant filer rather than a tight cluster of comparable rivals.
The mid-tier is thin and closely bunched
Fifth place holds 18 records and tenth place holds 14 – a narrow four-record spread across five ranking positions, meaning several equipment and tooling firms are filing at roughly comparable, modest volumes rather than one clearly separating from the pack.
Recent-year filing has gone quiet even among leaders
Several of the most active historical filers, including the top-ranked assignee and multiple machine-tool specialists, show no filings in the latest tracked year. Given publication lag, this likely reflects incomplete recent data more than an actual stop in R&D activity.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| The Boeing Company | 0 | — |
| INGERSOLL MACHINE TOOLS INC | 0 | — |
| Fives Machining Systems Inc. | 0 | — |
| Cytec Industries Inc. | 0 | — |
| MAG IAS LLC | 0 | — |
| Isogrid Composites Canada | 0 | — |
| Cincinnati Machine LLC | 0 | — |
| Alliant Techsystems Inc. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to next steps for both filing strategy and freedom-to-operate work.
Screen the white space chips against your own claims
The under-claimed sub-areas listed above are starting points, not conclusions – run a targeted search against your own draft claims before committing to a filing direction in tow-tension feedback or multi-material heads.
Open Eureka to search this spaceTrace the citation lineage of the top-cited records
Records like US20050061422A1 and US5110395A sit at the root of many later compaction-roller and feed-path claims – understanding what they actually block clarifies where a new claim needs to differentiate.
Explore citation trees in EurekaCommon questions about AFP head and feed mechanism patents
One assignee dominates this corpus with 280 of the 735 records in scope, well ahead of the next four ranked companies combined. The top five assignees together hold 513 records, or 69.8% of the field, and the top ten reach 79.5%. This is a heavily concentrated space, so any freedom-to-operate review should start with that leading assignee's portfolio rather than treating the field as fragmented.
Filings peaked at 72 in 2020 and then declined, falling from 16 in 2021 to 6 in 2024, a -63% change over that three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year with reasonably complete data; 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in because publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months. It would be premature to read the very latest years as confirming a continued drop.
The large majority, 73.7% of the 735 records, classify under B29C, shaping of plastics, which fits since AFP heads are fundamentally plastics-forming tools. Layered products and laminates (B32B) appear in 15.2% of records and web/filament handling (B65H) in 9.8%, with material testing (G01N) present in 9.3% of records, indicating a meaningful secondary cluster around inline quality inspection. Since records often carry multiple IPC codes, these percentages overlap rather than sum to 100%.
US20120222810A1, assigned to Fives Machining Systems, covers a reversing fiber placement head with two V-oriented feed paths feeding a single pressure tip assembly, where a shifting mechanism moves that assembly between two positions so the compaction roller can reverse rotation direction for bidirectional placement. Anyone designing a bidirectional AFP head with a similarly shared compaction roller and a two-position shifting mechanism should review this claim scope closely. Designs using separate compaction rollers per direction, or a different repositioning geometry, sit further from this claim as drafted.
Given the dense B29C and B32B claim coverage around core plastics-shaping and lamination mechanics, comparatively thinner areas include inline tow-tension feedback control, multi-material co-deposition heads, adaptive tow-steering path correction, compaction roller wear sensing, and automated tow-cutter fault detection. These are not guaranteed-clear areas, but they show up less densely than the core compaction and feed-path claims in this corpus. A targeted prior-art search against the specific claim language you intend to file is still necessary before relying on any white-space read.
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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.