Aluminum-Lithium Alloy Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filing has cooled from its 2025 peak of 13 families after a flat middle stretch (7 in 2022), suggesting the field is consolidating around known routes rather than expanding into new ones.
- China dominates filing location with 60 records more than double the next three receiving offices (EPO, US, Japan) combined, reshaping where freedom-to-operate actually needs to be checked.
- Heat treatment claims (C21D, 18 records) trail alloy composition claims (C22C, 112) by a wide margin pointing to a gap between how the alloy is made and how it is processed afterward.
Filing growth compares 2021 (5 records) with 2024 (11) — 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 131 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks patent families addressing aluminum-lithium alloy composition and processing where claims explicitly reference precipitation strengthening, grain refinement, T1 phase control or aging treatment — the microstructural levers that determine strength, density and toughness in these alloys. The search spans C22F1/057, C22C21/00 and C21D classifications, capturing both the alloy formulation side and the downstream heat-treatment side of the same problem.
131 published families sit inside the window from 2015 through the July 2026 cut-off. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent one to two years of activity will read lower than they eventually settle — the 2026 figure in particular is a partial year, not a slowdown signal on its own.
Filing trend and technical composition
Two views of the same 131 families: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which classification codes carry the claim density.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings rose from 3 in 2017 to a peak of 13 in 2025, with a flat mid-period (7 in 2022) that shows growth was not steady — it built, plateaued, then stepped up again before the current partial year.
IPC subclass distribution
C22C (alloys, 112) and C22F (non-ferrous treatment, 103) carry almost all the claim volume; C21D (heat treatment, 18), B21B (rolling, 11) and the remaining process classes (casting, powder metallurgy, sheet-metal working, extrusion) are each in single or low double digits — the composition side of the problem is far more crowded than the shaping and post-processing side.
Shares are the percentage of the 131 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 Microstructure Control with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about aluminum-lithium alloy microstructure control and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaKey cited patents
US4842822A — Aluminum-lithium alloy and method of investment casting an aluminum-lithium alloy
Aluminum-lithium alloy and method of investment casting an aluminum-lithium alloy including the steps of providing an aluminum-lithium alloy melt having a composition consisting essentially of about 2.0 to about 2.8 w/o lithium, about 1.2 to about 1.8 w/o copper provided that the combined lithium and copper content does not exceed 4.0 w/o, about 0.8 to about 1.0 w/o magnesium, the balance essentially aluminum, adding an effective amount of a grain refining agent to the aluminum-lithium alloy melt investment casting the melt, solution heat treating the aluminum-lithium alloy investment casting for up to 30 hours at continuously increasing temperatures to within approximately 30 to 40 degrees of the alloy's melting point.Filed by Howmet Research Corporation, granted 1989 — one of the earliest investment-casting routes in this corpus and a frequent reference point for later composition-window claims.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO2021008428A1 | 一种超高强铝锂合金及其制备方法 | 47 |
| 2 | US5389165A | Low density, high strength Al-Li alloy having high toughness at elevated temperatures | 45 |
| 3 | CN110423927A | 一种超高强铝锂合金及其制备方法 | 37 |
| 4 | CN105648283A | 低密度、高刚度铸造铝锂合金及其制备方法 | 33 |
| 5 | US4795502A | Aluminum-lithium alloy products and method of making the same | 29 |
| 6 | US4603029A | Aluminum-lithium alloy | 27 |
| 7 | US5178695A | Strength enhancement of rapidly solidified aluminum-lithium through double aging | 25 |
| 8 | CN110423966A | 一种提高铝锂合金产品综合性能的制备工艺 | 20 |
| 9 | WO1993023584A1 | Low density, high strength al-li alloy having high toughness at elevated temperatures | 19 |
| 10 | US5520754A | Spray cast Al-Li alloy composition and method of processing | 17 |
Citation counts are drawn from a searched corpus and favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations — read them as a measure of influence on later filings, not as a ranking of current commercial importance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Volume and composition data point to a field that is well-trodden on formulation but still open on process integration.
Growth has plateaued, not accelerated
After holding near 7 filings a year through the 2022 midpoint, the count doubled into 2025. That is a step change, not a trend line — it is worth checking whether it reflects one or two assignees filing in bulk rather than broad-based entry.
China is now the primary filing venue
With 60 records against 23 at the EPO and 19 in the US, most new claim scope is being established under Chinese examination first. Freedom-to-operate work that only checks US and EPO registers will miss the majority of active filings.
Composition claims outnumber process claims by 6:1
Alloy composition (C22C) and non-ferrous treatment (C22F) together cover the bulk of the corpus, while dedicated heat-treatment classification (C21D) and the shaping classes (rolling, casting, extrusion, powder metallurgy) are comparatively thin. That imbalance is where downstream process claims have more room to be filed without running into dense prior art.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to aluminum-lithium alloy microstructure control, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gate stands
Assignee activity is led by a small mix of aerospace incumbents and Chinese universities, with recent-year momentum concentrated in one academic filer.
The only assignee still filing at pace
Shanghai Jiao Tong University shows one filing in the latest year while every other tracked assignee — including Boeing Company (Boeing) and Central South University — shows zero, with Central South University down 100% year over year.
Co-filing is rare and mostly academic-industry
Only three co-assignee pairs appear in the corpus. The strongest link, Boeing Company with its Japanese-registered counterpart The Boeing Company at 4 shared filings, is an internal corporate pairing rather than a cross-industry collaboration; the other two pairs both involve Shanghai Jiao Tong University partnering with materials suppliers.
Legacy aerospace holders sit alongside newer academic filers
Names like Honeywell International Inc. (Honeywell), Reynolds Metals Company (Reynolds Metals) and Kaiser Aluminum Corporation (Kaiser Aluminum) anchor the older aerospace-alloy filings, while institutions such as Central South University and Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences represent more recent, research-driven entries into the same classification space.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Shanghai Jiao Tong University | 1 | — |
| Boeing Company | 0 | — |
| Central South University | 0 | -100% |
| Honeywell International Inc. | 0 | — |
| Reynolds Metals Company | 0 | — |
| Kaiser Aluminum Corporation | 0 | — |
| Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences | 0 | — |
| Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific follow-up questions rather than a single conclusion — each depends on which side of the alloy-versus-process divide matters to your work.
Check China-first filings before committing claim language
With 60 of 131 records filed through China, a freedom-to-operate review anchored only in US or EPO registers will systematically under-count active scope.
Explore China filings in Eureka →Map the C21D heat-treatment gap against your own process claims
Heat treatment classification carries a fraction of the volume seen in composition classes — worth confirming whether that gap is real white space or simply under-classified prior art.
Run a classification deep-dive in Eureka →Common questions on this landscape
Based on citation counts within this corpus, the most-referenced records include WO2021008428A1 and CN110423927A, both titled around ultra-high-strength Al-Li alloy preparation, alongside older US filings like US5389165A and US4795502A that established early composition and toughness claims. Citation counts favour older documents simply because they have had more time to be cited, so treat this list as a map of foundational influence rather than a ranking of which patents matter most today. Newer high-value filings may still be under-cited simply because the corpus hasn't caught up to them yet.
China accounts for 60 of the 131 families in this dataset, more than the EPO, US, Japan, Canada and WIPO combined. This reflects both the scale of Chinese materials research output in aerospace-grade alloys and the presence of active university filers such as Shanghai Jiao Tong University in the assignee set. Anyone assessing freedom to operate in this space needs to review Chinese-language filings directly rather than relying on English-language abstracts alone.
Filing activity has been uneven rather than steadily rising: it moved from 3 records in 2017 to a flat midpoint of 7 in 2022, then peaked at 13 in 2025. The 2026 figure looks low, but publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the most recent year in any dataset like this is always undercounted and should not be read as a real decline yet. The overall pattern looks like plateau-then-step-up rather than continuous growth.
US4842822A, assigned to Howmet Research Corporation and granted in 1989, claims an investment-casting method for an Al-Li alloy within a specific lithium, copper and magnesium composition window, combined with a grain-refining agent addition and a long solution heat-treatment schedule near the alloy's melting point. Because it is narrowly tied to investment casting and a defined composition range, it constrains that specific route rather than aluminum-lithium alloy processing broadly. Filings using different casting methods, different composition ranges, or wrought rather than cast processing sit outside its literal claim scope, though a full clearance review should check dependent claims and any related family members.
The clearest gap sits between alloy composition claims (112 records under C22C) and process-side claims — heat treatment carries only 18 records, and shaping-related classes like rolling, casting, extrusion and powder metallurgy each sit in single or low double digits. That imbalance suggests downstream process integration, particularly aging schedules tied to T1 phase control and powder-metallurgy consolidation routes, is comparatively under-claimed relative to how crowded the base alloy compositions have become.
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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.