Al-Si Coated Press Hardening Steel Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
- Concentrated at the top. The five leading filers hold 76.6% of all 111 records in scope, and the leading ten hold 96.4% — a field with very little room left among generalist claims.
- Filing accelerated sharply into 2024. Filings rose from 4 in 2021 to 16 in 2024, a +300% increase over that span, after an earlier 2019 peak of 40 records.
- Heat treatment and vehicle structure dominate the classes. C21D heat treatment (36.9%) and B62D vehicle structures (33.3%) each cover more than a third of records, alongside C22C alloys at the same 33.3% share.
Filing growth compares 2021 (4 records) with 2024 (16) — 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 111 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Aluminium silicon (Al-Si) coated press hardening steel is used for hot-stamped automotive structural parts, where the coating must survive furnace dwell without forming a brittle intermetallic layer that compromises spot weldability or promotes hydrogen embrittlement. The search behind this page combines coating-process language with the specific failure modes engineers file around: intermetallic layer growth, furnace dwell, scale free forming and related terms. That combination narrows a broad steel-metallurgy field down to the claims that actually matter for hot-stamped body structures.
The 111 records in scope span 2015 through the 2026 cut-off, with publication lagging filing by roughly 18 months — so the most recent one to two years understate real filing activity. Receiving-office data shows filings concentrated in the United States, Europe and WIPO's PCT route, with meaningful volume also in India, Canada and Germany, consistent with a technology tied closely to global automotive supply chains.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 111-record set: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings ran from 21 in 2017 to a peak of 40 in 2019, before rebuilding from 4 in 2021 to 16 in 2024 — a +300% increase over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in given the typical 18-month publication lag, so the apparent tail should not be read as a slowdown.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
C21D heat treatment and B62D vehicle structures each appear in roughly a third of records, with C22C alloys at the same level, indicating that claims cluster around the thermal process, the alloy chemistry and the structural part simultaneously rather than any one being isolated. Coating-specific C23C claims sit at 16.2%, a narrower slice than the process and structural classes around it.
Shares are the percentage of the 111 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Aluminium Silicon Coated Press Hardening Steel with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about aluminium silicon coated press hardening steel and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative and most-cited filings
Hydrogen-embrittlement-resistant press hardening steel (EP4779049A1)
Describes a press hardening steel alloy composition designed for high strength while resisting hydrogen embrittlement, specifying a compositional window across carbon, manganese, niobium, chromium, boron, titanium and other elements, with a ratio constraint between chromium and niobium content.Abstract shortened for length; full text available via the linked record.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO2020002335A1 | A body side structural frame of a vehicle | 14 |
| 2 | US20210008665A1 | Method for welding coated steel plates | 12 |
| 3 | US20210221439A1 | Body side structural frame of a vehicle | 10 |
| 4 | EP3960592A1 | Method for manufacturing an unitary body side structural frame of a vehicle and corresponding unitary body si… | 8 |
| 5 | US20190316235A1 | High strength steel sheet having excellent high-temperature elongation characteristic, warm-pressed member, a… | 8 |
| 6 | WO2020000083A1 | Laser welding coated steel blanks with filler wire | 6 |
| 7 | WO2018060779A1 | A coated steel and a method of coating a steel substrate | 6 |
| 8 | US20210078106A1 | Laser welding coated steel blanks with filler wire | 5 |
| 9 | US11680305B2 | High strength steel sheet having excellent high-temperature elongation characteristic, warm-pressed member, a… | 5 |
| 10 | US20190352755A1 | Steel for manufacturing a component by hot forming and use of the component | 3 |
Citation counts favour older records inside a searched corpus and should be read as a signal of influence, not current importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three read-outs from the concentration, class and citation data that matter for anyone deciding where to file next.
Little room in generalist claims
With the five leading filers holding 76.6% of all 111 records and the leading ten holding 96.4%, broad compositional or process claims are largely occupied. New filings are more likely to succeed by narrowing to a specific failure mode or part geometry than by re-claiming the general coating-and-stamping combination.
Recent acceleration after a 2019 peak
Filing volume peaked at 40 in 2019, dropped, then rebuilt from 4 records in 2021 to 16 in 2024 — a +300% increase. That second wave suggests renewed interest in the field distinct from the earlier peak, likely tied to newer failure-mode-specific claims rather than repeats of the original coating chemistry.
Heat treatment is the densest single class
C21D heat treatment of metals covers 36.9% of records, ahead of B62D vehicle structures and C22C alloys at 33.3% each. Coating deposition itself (C23C, 16.2%) is comparatively lighter, which points toward the furnace-dwell and intermetallic-growth control steps as the more heavily claimed territory relative to the coating application step.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to aluminium silicon coated press hardening steel, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
Eighteen companies make up the ranked leaders in this dataset, with the leading five accounting for the large majority of records. Co-assignee activity is limited, pointing to mostly independent filing programmes rather than joint ventures.
A clear single leader
The leading assignee holds 35 of the 111 records in scope, well ahead of the field, with the fifth-ranked company at 7 and the tenth at 3 — a steep drop-off that marks this as a leader-plus-long-tail structure rather than an evenly split field.
Momentum has cooled among leaders
Several of the top-ranked assignees, including the leading filer, show zero recorded filings in the latest year, and one leading filer shows a -100% year-on-year change. Given the 18-month publication lag this likely reflects filing pipeline timing more than withdrawal from the field.
Filing is mostly independent
Only five co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, with the strongest recurring pairing linked to a single automotive engineering firm working alongside a stamping supplier across three separate site-level entities. This is a field of largely solo filing programmes rather than joint patent strategies.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Autotech Engineering S.L. | 0 | — |
| Outokumpu Oyj | 0 | — |
| Pohang Iron & Steel Co., Ltd. (POSCO) | 0 | — |
| Magna International Inc. | 0 | — |
| Tata Steel Limited | 0 | — |
| ArcelorMittal SA | 0 | -100% |
| voestalpine Automotive Components Linz GmbH & Co KG | 0 | — |
| GM Global Technology Operations LLC | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a field with an occupied core and several narrower branches still open for claims.
Map claims against the under-claimed branches
Laser ablation pre-treatment, scale-free forming windows and furnace dwell-time control for thin gauges show lighter filing density than the core coating-and-stamping claims. A freedom-to-operate check on these branches specifically, rather than the field as a whole, is the more productive next step.
Explore white space in Eureka →Track the leading filer's pipeline
With one company holding 35 of 111 records and zero filings recorded in the latest tracked year, watching whether that pipeline resumes — and where — will tell you whether the field's core claims are being extended or left open.
Monitor assignee activity in Eureka →Common questions on this landscape
One assignee leads with 35 of the 111 records in this dataset, well ahead of the rest of the field; the fifth-ranked company holds 7 and the tenth holds 3. The top five combined account for 76.6% of all records, and the top ten account for 96.4%, so the field is dominated by a small group of automotive steel and component suppliers rather than being evenly spread. This concentration makes freedom-to-operate checks against the leading handful of filers the highest-priority step for any new entrant.
Filings rebuilt from 4 records in 2021 to 16 in 2024, a +300% increase over that span, after an earlier peak of 40 records in 2019. The apparent drop in 2025 and 2026 is a publication-lag artefact — patent filings typically take about 18 months to publish, so the most recent one to two years always look lower than they eventually will. Based on the complete years through 2024, the trend is one of renewed acceleration, not decline.
EP4779049A1 claims a specific hydrogen-embrittlement-resistant press hardening steel alloy defined by a compositional window across carbon, manganese, niobium, chromium, boron, titanium and several optional elements, with an explicit ratio constraint between chromium and niobium content. It is a composition-of-matter claim rather than a process or coating claim, filed by an automotive technology company. Anyone formulating a similarly alloyed hydrogen-resistant press hardening steel should check their composition against this specific elemental range and ratio before finalising a formulation.
Heat treatment of metals (IPC class C21D) is the single densest class at 36.9% of the 111 records, followed closely by vehicle body structures (B62D) and alloy composition (C22C), each at 33.3%. Welding and sheet-metal working classes follow at meaningful but lower shares. This distribution shows that claims cluster around the thermal treatment step, the alloy chemistry and the downstream structural part together, more than around the coating deposition step itself, which sits at a comparatively lower 16.2%.
Sub-areas such as laser ablation of the Al-Si coating before welding, scale-free forming process windows, and furnace dwell-time control for thin-gauge blanks show lighter filing density than the core alloy-and-stamping claims that dominate the top assignees' portfolios. These are narrower, process-specific branches rather than compositional claims, and they sit adjacent to the heavily claimed core rather than replacing it. A first claim in these branches would typically need to specify a concrete process parameter window, not a general method, to clear the existing prior art.
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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.