Battery Formation and Aging Process Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
- Filing already peaked and has cooled. 2017 was the high point at 5 filings; the 2022 midpoint sits at just 2, and the trend line has not recovered since.
- Toyota's two entities file jointly, not separately. The strongest co-assignee pair in the dataset links Toyota Motor Europe and Toyota Motor Corporation on the same filings — a sign of centralized formation R&D rather than a scattered effort.
- China dominates the filing office, not the citation record. China accounts for 11 of the tracked filings, but the most-cited documents in the set are WO and US publications tied to lithium-ion formation protocols.
What this landscape covers
Battery formation and aging is the step where a fresh lithium-ion cell gets its first controlled charge-discharge cycles, its solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) forms, trapped gas gets removed, and cells are graded by capacity before shipment. This dataset tracks patent families claiming formation protocol, cycle time reduction, gas removal, capacity grading and equipment utilization methods within the H01M10, H01M4 and G01R31 classification space. It is a narrow, process-engineering slice of battery manufacturing rather than a materials or cell-chemistry landscape.
The 21 families in scope span 2015 through mid-2026, with the most recent year necessarily undercounted because grants and publications typically lag filing by around 18 months. Read the tail end of any trend chart here as a floor, not a ceiling.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Twenty-one patent families is a small, specific corpus — enough to show where activity concentrated and where it stalled, not enough to support fine-grained statistical claims.
A peak in 2017, then a decline
Filings hit their high point of 5 in 2017 and have not returned to that level since; the 2022 midpoint of 2 filings confirms a flat-to-declining trajectory rather than a temporary dip.
Concentrated almost entirely in H01M
All 21 records sit in H01M (batteries, cells and fuel cells), with a much smaller overlap into G01R (electric and magnetic measurement, 2 records) and a single record touching B65G (conveying and material handling) — suggesting formation-line automation is barely claimed as its own category here.
Shares are the percentage of the 21 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Battery Formation and Aging Process with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about battery formation and aging process and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited formation process filings
WO2017144117A1 — Lithium-ion battery formation process (Toyota Motor Europe)
A method of performing a formation process for a lithium-ion cell comprising an anode, a cathode, an electrolyte and a separator, the formation process including: performing a charge-discharge cycle, wherein the cell is charged up to a first predetermined voltage level (V1) and discharged until a second predetermined voltage level (V2) being lower than the first predetermined voltage level, determining a resistance R of the cell during discharge, wherein R = (V1-V2)/I, I being the discharge current, and repeating the charge-discharge cycle until the determined resistance of the cell reaches a predetermined lower resistance limit (Rmin).Filed 2017-08-31. The claim ties formation completion to a measured resistance threshold rather than a fixed cycle count or time budget.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO2017148500A1 | Lithium-ion battery formation process | 8 |
| 2 | CN106299484A | 一种锂离子电池串联闭口化成设备 | 7 |
| 3 | WO2017144117A1 | Lithium-ion battery formation process | 5 |
| 4 | WO2017162308A1 | Lithium-ion battery formation process | 4 |
| 5 | US20190245250A1 | Lithium-ion battery formation process | 3 |
| 6 | CN116960489A | 锂离子电池化成工艺及锂离子电池 | 2 |
| 7 | CN118522976A | 一种用于锂离子电池的铁基补锂剂的使用方法 | 1 |
| 8 | CN114335691A | 一种锂离子电池化成方法 | 1 |
| 9 | US10741886B2 | Lithium-ion battery formation process | 1 |
| 10 | US20190372177A1 | Lithium-ion battery formation process | 1 |
Citation counts reflect influence within this searched corpus and skew toward older filings; they are not a measure 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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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for filing strategy
Three patterns stand out once the ranking and trend data are read together: where filing has concentrated, where citation weight sits, and where the corpus goes quiet.
Formation-process filing has cooled since its 2017 peak
The 2022 midpoint of 2 filings and the absence of recent-year momentum across every tracked assignee point to a technology area that saw an early wave of protocol claims and has not seen a comparable second wave.
China leads filing volume, WO and US lead citations
China's 11 filings outnumber the United States (4), WIPO (4) and Europe (2) combined, but the most-cited documents in the set are WO and US publications — a split between where formation-process IP is filed and where it is being watched.
Toyota's two entities are the only tightly bound pair
The strongest co-assignee link in the dataset — Toyota Motor Europe with Toyota Motor Corporation, appearing together nine times — is far ahead of any other pairing, all of which appear only once.
Formation-line automation is barely claimed on its own
Only a single record in the set touches material-handling classification (B65G), even though gas removal, capacity grading and cycle-time reduction all imply physical line automation — most of that engineering appears to be claimed, if at all, under the core H01M umbrella instead.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to battery formation and aging process, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and who isn't filing recently
Six named assignees appear in the recent-year momentum data, and every one of them shows zero filings in the latest tracked year — consistent with the broader decline shown in the trend chart.
Toyota Motor Europe
Files jointly with its parent, Toyota Motor Corporation, on formation-process protocols tied to resistance-threshold charge-discharge cycling — the clearest example of centralized formation R&D in this dataset.
Guangdong Lyric Robot (Liyuanheng)
Appears among the China-side filers building formation and closed-loop cycling equipment, part of the broader cluster of domestic equipment makers claiming formation-line hardware rather than cell chemistry.
Hubei EVE Power
Named in the recent-year momentum data with no filings in the latest tracked year, part of a wider pattern where every assignee tracked here has gone quiet in the most recent period covered by the dataset.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Toyota Motor Europe | 0 | — |
| Toyota Motor Corporation | 0 | — |
| Shenzhen Greeneed Energy Group Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Jiuquan Narada Power Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Hubei EVE Power Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Zhejiang Chaoheng Power Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Jiangxi Hanyao Furi Lithium Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Jiangsu Zhengpin New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The filing and citation data point to specific next questions rather than a single conclusion.
Check the resistance-threshold claim family
Toyota's resistance-based cycle-termination approach is the most-cited method in this set across three related WO filings; anyone designing a formation protocol should map their termination logic against it before finalizing claims.
Explore formation protocol claimsTest the equipment-automation gap
With only one record touching material-handling classification, it is worth verifying whether formation-line automation is being claimed under H01M umbrella patents instead of going unclaimed entirely.
Search adjacent IPC classesWatch for a second filing wave
Filing has been flat to declining since 2017 with no recent-year momentum from any tracked assignee — a shift in EV battery volumes or new SEI chemistries could trigger a second wave worth monitoring early.
Track filing momentumCommon questions about battery formation and aging patents
It covers the manufacturing step after a lithium-ion cell is assembled but before it ships: the first controlled charge-discharge cycles that build the SEI layer, removal of gas generated during that process, and grading cells by measured capacity or resistance. In this dataset the relevant claims sit under IPC classes H01M10, H01M4 and G01R31, and cover formation protocols, cycle-time reduction, gas removal, capacity grading and equipment utilization specifically. It does not cover electrode material composition or cell-level chemistry patents unless they are tied directly to a formation or aging step.
By citation count within this dataset, the most-referenced documents are a cluster of WO and US filings describing lithium-ion battery formation processes, with one Chinese filing for series-connected closed formation equipment also ranking highly. Toyota Motor Europe and Toyota Motor Corporation, filing jointly, are the most tightly linked assignee pair in the set. Citation weight in a corpus like this tends to favor earlier filings, so treat these as influential rather than currently dominant.
Based on this dataset, filing peaked in 2017 at 5 records and has trended down since, with the 2022 midpoint at only 2 filings and no assignee in the recent-year momentum data showing any filings in the latest tracked year. That said, publication lag of roughly 18 months means the most recent one to two years are understated in any patent trend chart, including this one. The honest read is flat-to-declining rather than a technology in active growth.
The clearest gap is around formation-line automation and material handling: only one record in this 21-family dataset touches B65G classification, despite gas removal, capacity grading and cycle-time reduction all implying physical automation on the formation line. Resistance-threshold cycle termination is claimed by a small, tightly linked group, but adjacent areas like automated grading handoff and multi-cell series formation closing appear thinly covered by comparison. That thinness could reflect real openness or simply different claim drafting choices, so it is worth checking directly before filing.
China accounts for 11 of the 21 tracked filings, more than the United States, WIPO and Europe combined, largely reflecting the concentration of battery cell and formation-equipment manufacturing there. The most-cited documents in this dataset, however, are WO and US publications describing lithium-ion formation processes, which suggests those filings are being watched and built upon more broadly even though volume is heavier in China. Filing volume and citation influence are measuring different things and should not be read as the same signal.
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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.