Basic Oxygen Furnace Patents: Who Leads, Where Gaps Are 2026
Basic Oxygen Furnace Blowing Practice Patents: Who Holds the Ground
63.4% concentration. The top five assignees hold 97 of the 153 records in scope — filing here is dominated by a small group, not fragmented across the industry. Annual counts moved from 6 in 2017 to a peak of 24 in 2019. The apparent drop to 0 by 2026 reflects the publication lag inherent in patent data, not an actual halt in filing.
- 1AIR PROD & CHEM INC31
- 2LHOIST RECH & DEV SA30
- 3SUMITOMO METAL IND LTD13
- 4TENOVA13
- 5TATA STEEL LTD10
See the full basic oxygen furnace blowing practice analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions on BOF blowing practice patents
Who holds the most patents on basic oxygen furnace blowing practice?
One assignee leads the ranked list with 31 of the 153 records in scope, well ahead of the rest of the field. The top five assignees combined hold 97 records, or 63.4% of all records in scope, and the top ten hold 85.6%. This is a concentrated field: most of the filing activity sits with a small group of companies rather than being spread evenly across many entrants.
What is endpoint prediction in BOF steelmaking, and why does it attract so many patents?
Endpoint prediction covers methods for determining when the oxygen blow has reached the target carbon and temperature without over-blowing or under-blowing the heat. It sits inside the C21C steelmaking classification, which touches 85.0% of the 153 records in this dataset, making it one of the most heavily claimed operational areas in BOF practice. Precise endpoint control affects yield, refractory wear and cycle time, which is why it draws sustained filing activity across multiple assignees rather than one company alone.
Is there still room to file new patents in bottom stirring or lance height control?
The technology mix suggests uneven density: C21C steelmaking classifications are heavily claimed at 85.0% of records, but the G01B measuring and dimensional-control classification, which would cover lance-height or profile sensing specifically, appears in only 2.0% of the 153 records. That gap indicates the instrumentation layer underneath bottom stirring and lance control is thinner than the process-control layer above it, which is where a narrowly drafted claim is more likely to find open ground.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Basic Oxygen Furnace Blowing Practice covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.