Aspirating Smoke Detection Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
- Concentrated at the top. The five leading assignees combined hold 70.3% of all 101 records in scope, with one company alone accounting for 21 of them.
- Filing peaked in 2020. Activity reached 13 records that year before easing off, with the most recent year understated by publication lag.
- Alarm logic dominates the claims. G08B signalling and alarm classes touch 74.3% of records, while control-of-airflow and particle-analysis claims sit further down the stack.
Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 101 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the aspirating smoke detection patent record shows
Aspirating smoke detection systems draw air through a sampling pipe network into a central detector, so the patent activity around them splits cleanly between two problems: getting representative air to the sensor, and deciding what the sensor’s readings mean. The dataset behind this page spans 101 published records filed between 2015 and 2026, drawn from a search built around sampling pipe network, airflow monitoring, particle counting, dilution effect and response-time claim language. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent year on the trend chart understates real filing activity.
Reading the assignee ranking alongside the IPC composition gives a fuller picture than either alone: a small group of specialist fire-detection manufacturers holds most of the pipe-network and detector-hardware claims, while control and data-processing classes remain comparatively thin — a sign of where new entrants have more room to stake unclaimed ground.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 101 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
Filing activity, 2017–2026
Filings rose to a peak of 13 records in 2020 before tapering; 2026 shows 0 because the year is still open and recent filings have not yet published. Read the last one to two years as incomplete rather than as a genuine decline.
IPC subclass composition
G08B (signalling and alarm systems) appears in 74.3% of the 101 records, well ahead of G01N (material analysis and testing) at 51.5%. Because a single record can carry several IPC codes, these shares add up to more than 100% of the record total — they describe overlap, not a partition.
Shares are the percentage of the 101 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Aspirating Smoke Detection with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about aspirating smoke detection and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records in this space
Improvements in and relating to aspirating smoke detectors (US20160086468A1)
Discloses an aspirating smoke detection system with at least two different types of detector and a processor that combines their signals to determine an alarm status — an all-clear state, a critical state, or an intermediate state between the two.Filed by Protec Fire Detection, published 2016-03-24.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20120325502A1 | Fire sprinkler system having combined detection and distribution piping | 52 |
| 2 | US5917417A | Smoke detection system | 50 |
| 3 | US5896088A | Incipient fire detection system | 32 |
| 4 | US9242130B2 | Fire sprinkler system having combined detection and distribution piping | 27 |
| 5 | WO2011106840A1 | Particle precipitator | 23 |
| 6 | US20160350519A1 | Threat-monitoring systems and related methods | 22 |
| 7 | US20160101306A1 | Fire sprinkler system having combined detection and distribution piping | 18 |
| 8 | US9576458B2 | Aspirating smoke detectors | 18 |
| 9 | US20210197000A1 | System integrating aspiration smoke detector with deluge fire suppression system | 17 |
| 10 | US20160086468A1 | Improvements in and relating to aspirating smoke detectors | 17 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had longer to be cited; treat them as a signal of influence within this corpus, 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 patterns in the data matter more than the raw counts on their own.
The field is not fragmented
Five assignees account for 70.3% of all 101 records in scope, and the leading company alone holds 21. A new entrant filing pipe-network or detector-hardware claims is filing directly against a small, well-established group, not a diffuse field.
Activity has cooled from its 2020 peak
Filing rose to 13 records in 2020 and has eased since, though the last one to two years are understated by publication lag rather than by an actual drop in R&D activity.
Detection logic outweighs airflow mechanics in claim volume
G08B alarm-system claims (74.3% of records) and G01N particle/material-analysis claims (51.5%) dominate, while G05D control claims (18.8%) and G01P velocity/acceleration claims (16.8%) are comparatively thin — exactly where airflow and dilution-effect mechanics would sit.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to aspirating smoke detection, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and who has gone quiet
The ranked leaders are a small, specialist set of fire-detection manufacturers rather than a broad industrial field, and recent-year momentum has cooled across the board.
One assignee sets the pace
The top-ranked assignee holds 21 of the 101 records in scope, well ahead of the field, concentrated in core aspirating-detector hardware and alarm-logic claims.
A tight cluster behind the leader
Fifth place holds 6 records and tenth place holds 3, showing a fast drop-off from the leader rather than a gradual long tail — the top 10 combined already reach 90.1% of all records.
Even established filers show no latest-year activity
Several of the most active historical assignees show 0 filings in the latest year, which is consistent with publication lag across the field rather than a sign that any single company has exited.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Xtralis Technologies | 0 | — |
| Carrier Corporation | 0 | — |
| AIRSENSE TECH | 0 | — |
| HENNEGAN MICHAEL L | 0 | — |
| Garrett Thermal Systems | 0 | — |
| VSK Electronics | 0 | — |
| PROTEC FIRE DETECTION | 0 | — |
| AJAY KEMAL | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps rather than a single conclusion.
Check freedom-to-operate against the top holders
With 70.3% of records held by five assignees, any new pipe-network or detector-hardware filing should be checked against their claim scope first.
Explore assignee claims in EurekaTest the under-claimed control and airflow branches
G05D and G01P classes remain comparatively thin relative to alarm-logic claims, suggesting room for airflow-compensation and control-focused filings.
Map white space in EurekaTrack the most-cited prior art
The highest-citation records anchor the field's technical baseline; understanding what they actually claim clarifies what any new filing must design around.
Review cited records in EurekaCommon questions about aspirating smoke detection patents
The assignee ranking covers 27 companies across 101 published records, and it is concentrated rather than fragmented: the top five assignees combined hold 70.3% of all records, with the leading company alone holding 21. This is a specialist field dominated by established fire-detection manufacturers rather than a broad set of industrial entrants. Anyone assessing freedom to operate should start with this small group before looking further down the ranking.
Filing activity rose from 2 records in 2017 to a peak of 13 records in 2020, then eased in the years since. The apparent decline in the most recent one to two years should be read cautiously, because publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months, so recent activity is understated in any dataset cut off close to the present. There are too few complete recent years to state a reliable growth rate.
The largest share of records, 74.3%, falls under G08B signalling and alarm systems, followed by G01N material analysis and testing at 51.5% — together reflecting the core detect-and-decide function of these systems. Smaller but notable shares cover G05D control of non-electric variables (18.8%), G01P velocity and acceleration sensing (16.8%), and A62C fire-fighting (12.9%). Because a record can carry more than one IPC code, these shares overlap rather than sum to a whole field.
Relative to the dense alarm-logic and pipe-hardware claim space, control-of-airflow claims (G05D, 18.8% of records) and velocity/acceleration sensing claims (G01P, 16.8%) are comparatively lightly claimed. Specific sub-areas worth checking include airflow self-calibration under dusty conditions, dilution-effect compensation algorithms, and particle-counting sensor drift correction — branches that support the core detection function but are not yet as densely occupied as the alarm-decision claims themselves.
US20160086468A1, filed by Protec Fire Detection and published in 2016, claims an aspirating smoke detection system that combines signals from at least two different detector types through a processor to determine one of three alarm states: all-clear, critical, or an intermediate status between the two. It blocks approaches that use this specific multi-detector, tiered-alarm-state architecture, but does not by itself cover single-detector systems or alarm logic built around a different state structure. Anyone designing around it should look closely at how their own signal-fusion and alarm-state logic differs from this specific tiered model.
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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.