Aluminum-Lithium Alloy Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filing has gone flat since its 2018 peak. four families that year against a single filing at the 2022 midpoint, with no output recorded in the most recent year of the cut-off.
- Claim density sits almost entirely in two IPC subclasses. C22C (alloys) and C22F (non-ferrous treatment) cover 136 and 101 of the 148 records, while casting, rolling, extrusion and powder-metallurgy routes each hold single digits.
- The most-cited record is 109 citations deep and over three decades old. US5198045A still anchors the field, meaning later filers have had to design compositions and processing routes around a foundational strength-density claim, not a recent one.
Filing growth compares 2021 (2 records) with 2024 (4) — 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 148 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks patent families whose titles or abstracts name an aluminum-lithium alloy or Al-Li alloy and whose claims address strength-toughness balance, fatigue resistance, fracture toughness or anisotropy, filtered to the alloy composition, heat-treatment and mechanical-testing IPC classes (C22C21/00, C22F1/057, G01N3). It spans filings from 2015 through the 2026 cut-off date.
Filing volume is modest and concentrated in a narrow technical band. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the tail end of the trend understates real activity, but the flat trajectory from the 2018 peak through the 2022 midpoint is consistent enough to read as a genuine slowdown rather than a reporting artifact.
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Filing trends and technology composition
148 patent families sit inside this search, spread thinly across receiving offices and concentrated in two IPC subclasses.
A peak in 2018, then a plateau
Filings rose to a peak of four in 2018, fell back to one at the 2022 midpoint, and show no output in the final, still-incomplete year of the window. That shape points to a technology area whose core composition and heat-treatment claims were largely staked out by the late 2010s, with newer entrants filing infrequently rather than in a wave.
Alloy and treatment classes dominate
C22C (alloys) and C22F (non-ferrous metal treatment) account for 136 and 101 of the 148 records respectively — most families sit in both. Casting (B22D, 21), heat treatment (C21D, 6), rolling (B21B, 5), extrusion/drawing (B21C, 3) and powder metallurgy (B22F, 3) trail far behind, and the presence of solar heat collectors (F24S, 8) signals a small cluster of thermal-application crossover filings rather than a distinct processing route.
Shares are the percentage of the 148 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Aluminum-Lithium Alloy Mechanical Properties with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about aluminum-lithium alloy mechanical properties and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe documents doing the most work
US4816087A — Process for producing duplex mode recrystallized high strength aluminum-lithium alloy products with high fracture toughness
A method of producing a recrystallized aluminum-lithium product having improved levels of strength and fracture toughness is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of: providing a lithium-containing aluminum base alloy comprised of 0.5 to 4.0 wt. % Li, 0 to 5.0 wt. % Cu, 0 to 5.0 wt. % Mg, 0.10 to 1.0 wt. % of a grain structure control element selected from the class consisting of Zr, Cr, Hf, Ti, V, Sc, and Mn, 0.5 wt. % max. Fe, and 5 wt. % max. Si, with the balance consisting essentially of aluminum and incidental elements and impurities; heating the body to a high presoak temperature to homogenize the alloy; cooling the alloy to a first hot working temperature; reheating the alloy…Filed by Aluminum Company of America, granted 1989-03-28.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5198045A | Low density high strength Al-Li alloy | 109 |
| 2 | US4816087A | Process for producing duplex mode recrystallized high strength aluminum-lithium alloy products with high frac… | 75 |
| 3 | US4861391A | Aluminum alloy two-step aging method and article | 56 |
| 4 | US5415220A | Direct chill casting of aluminum-lithium alloys under salt cover | 55 |
| 5 | US6702982B1 | Aluminum-lithium alloy | 48 |
| 6 | US5389165A | Low density, high strength Al-Li alloy having high toughness at elevated temperatures | 45 |
| 7 | US5383986A | Method of improving transverse direction mechanical properties of aluminum-lithium alloy wrought product usin… | 33 |
| 8 | WO1998033947A1 | Method of improving fracture toughness in aluminum-lithium alloys | 31 |
| 9 | US4795502A | Aluminum-lithium alloy products and method of making the same | 29 |
| 10 | US4603029A | Aluminum-lithium alloy | 27 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus skew toward older filings simply because they have had longer to accumulate references; read them as a measure of influence on later drafting, not of current commercial relevance.
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Three patterns stand out once the records are pulled apart by geography, citation weight and technical class.
Filing is EPO-heavy, not US-heavy
Fifty records route through the European Patent Office against 26 for the United States, 18 for China, 14 for Canada, 11 via PCT and 7 for Germany. For a materials technology this old, that split suggests aerospace-linked European filers have kept prosecuting steadily even as US-origin activity has thinned.
Influence sits with a handful of 1990s-era grants
The five most-cited records span 48 to 109 citations each and were all granted in the late 1980s to mid-1990s. New filers are still drafting around compositions and aging methods set out decades ago, which is unusual for a mechanical-properties niche and points to a narrow, well-mapped composition space.
Alloys and treatment, little else
Casting, rolling, extrusion and powder metallurgy together account for well under a quarter of records. Processing-route innovation exists but is a minority activity next to composition and heat-treatment claims — a signal that novel forming methods remain comparatively open ground.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to aluminum-lithium alloy mechanical properties, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the ground, and where the collaboration lines run
Assignee activity is thin at the recent end — every named assignee shows zero filings in the latest year — but historical co-filing patterns show where legacy aerospace and metals groups worked together.
Reynolds Metals Company + Martin Marietta Corporation
The strongest co-assignee pair in this dataset links a rolled-products metals producer with a former aerospace-materials conglomerate, at five joint filings. That pairing reflects an era when alloy producers and airframe manufacturers co-developed composition and processing claims directly.
The Boeing Company + The Boeing Company
A Boeing-linked pairing across two name variants accounts for four joint filings, consistent with an OEM filing mechanical-property claims tied to airframe application rather than bulk alloy production.
No active filer in the most recent year
Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum — including the two largest legacy players and Pechiney Rolled Products — shows zero filings in the latest year of the window. Given the 18-month publication lag, some of this is reporting delay rather than a full stop, but the multi-year plateau preceding it is real.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Reynolds Metals Company | 0 | — |
| The Boeing Company | 0 | — |
| Alcoa Inc. | 0 | — |
| Kaiser Aluminum Corporation | 0 | — |
| Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) | 0 | — |
| PECHINEY ROLLED PRODUCTS LLC | 0 | — |
| Constellium Rolled Products Ravenswood, LLC | 0 | — |
| Martin Marietta Corporation | 0 | — |
Taking this further
The dataset flags where claim space is dense and where it thins out; turning that into a filing or freedom-to-operate position takes a closer read of the specific claims.
Check freedom-to-operate against the top-cited grants
US5198045A and US4816087A anchor decades of downstream drafting. Any new composition or duplex-aging process claim in this space should be checked against their specific claim scope before drafting.
Run a claim comparison in Patsnap EurekaMap the under-claimed processing routes
Powder metallurgy, extrusion and rolling-texture control each carry single-digit record counts against 136 for alloy composition. That gap is either unclaimed opportunity or unpublished prior art — worth confirming before committing R&D spend.
Explore white space in Patsnap EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
The most-cited records in this space were granted to Aluminum Company of America and related legacy metals and aerospace groups, with US5198045A (109 citations) and US4816087A (75 citations) anchoring the field. These grants date from the late 1980s to mid-1990s and cover foundational composition and duplex-aging claims. Later filers, including Reynolds Metals and Boeing-linked entities, built co-filed claims around these foundational patents rather than displacing them.
The dataset shows a peak of four filings in 2018 falling to a single filing at the 2022 midpoint, with no recorded output in the final year of the window. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the very last year is always undercounted, but the multi-year decline before that is consistent enough to reflect a real plateau. It suggests the core composition and heat-treatment claim space was substantially staked out by the late 2010s.
Powder metallurgy (3 records), extrusion and drawing (3 records) and rolling (5 records) sit far behind alloy composition (136 records) and non-ferrous treatment (101 records). Casting is somewhat more active at 21 records. A new filer targeting fatigue resistance or fracture toughness through an unconventional forming route, rather than a new composition, is filing into comparatively open ground.
Co-assignee activity is limited to six documented pairs, the strongest being a legacy metals producer and a former aerospace-materials conglomerate at five joint filings. No single assignee shows filing activity in the most recent year across the tracked group, which includes major historical names like Alcoa, Kaiser Aluminum and Pechiney Rolled Products. Ownership is concentrated among a small set of legacy aerospace and metals companies rather than spread across many active recent filers.
Recorded filings have thinned considerably since the 2018 peak, and every tracked assignee shows zero filings in the latest year, though the 18-month publication lag means the most recent one to two years understate true activity. The technology itself remains commercially relevant in aerospace structures, but claim activity on mechanical-property improvements specifically has slowed. New activity, if any, is more likely to surface in adjacent processing routes than in core composition claims.
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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.