Bearing Standardization Patent Snapshot 2026
Bearing standardization is a small, highly concentrated field dominated by a single independent inventor and a handful of established industrial bearing manufacturers, with the United States as the primary filing jurisdiction. Annual activity peaked around 2020–2021 and has since eased, placing the field in a decline stage that warrants selective rather than broad-front R&D commitment.
A single inventor leads a field dominated by established bearing OEMs
The bearing standardization corpus is led by José Luis Jiménez de Castro Fernández, an independent inventor who holds the top position in the applicant ranking. Established industrial names — Nidec Corporation, NSK Ltd, Schaeffler Technologies, NTN Corporation, and SKF entities — occupy the remaining top positions.
The top five filers account for 46% of the combined output of the ranked applicants visible in this query, a high concentration level for such a specialized field. There is a clear tier gap between the top-ranked independent inventor and the corporate challengers, each of whom holds a comparatively modest share.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | JIMENEZ DE CASTRO FERNANDEZ JOSE LUIS | 6 | |
| 2 | Nidec Corporation | 4 | |
| 3 | NSK Ltd | 3 | |
| 4 | SCHAEFFLER TECHNOLOGIES AG & CO KG | 2 | |
| 5 | Yanshan University | 2 | |
| 6 | NTN Corporation | 2 | |
| 7 | Accelleron Switzerland Ltd | 2 | |
| 8 | SKF Industrie S.p.A. | 2 | |
| 9 | Daido Metal Co Ltd | 2 | |
| 10 | AB SKF | 2 |
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | SAVRUKHIN ANDREJ VIKTOROVICH | 1 | |
| 12 | BorgWarner Inc | 1 | |
| 13 | Lockheed Martin Energy Systems Inc | 1 | |
| 14 | R K S | 1 | |
| 15 | LYOVINA SVETLANA MIKHAILOVNA | 1 | |
| 16 | Wang Fei | 1 | |
| 17 | Wafangdian Bearing Group State Bearing Engineering Technology Research Center | 1 | |
| 18 | Dalian Riqian Motor | 1 | |
| 19 | SKF GmbH | 1 | |
| 20 | VOROTNIKOV VALERY GENNADYEVICH | 1 |
The leaders’ positions suggest that bearing standardization activity is driven partly by individual innovation and partly by incremental OEM work on proprietary unitized systems, rather than by broad industry-wide standardization consortia. No collaborative co-filing is evident in the data.
Filings from 2024 onward should be treated as under-counted due to publication lag; the apparent low activity in those years does not necessarily reflect reduced inventive output. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Activity peaked in 2020–2021; core bearing IPC class dominates
The annual filing trend and the technology composition chart together show a field that surged briefly and is now contracting, with technical activity anchored firmly in core bearing mechanics rather than sensing or digitalization.
Annual filing trend
Filings grew from a single record in 2017, reached a plateau of four records in both 2020 and 2021, and have declined sharply since — consistent with the lifecycle evidence indicating an easing from the 2020 peak. The 2024–2026 bars should be read as provisional given publication lag.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
F16C (Shafts, Bearings & Couplings) accounts for the large majority of IPC classifications, confirming the field’s mechanical engineering core. Secondary branches — H02K (Electric Motors & Generators), B60B (Vehicle Wheels & Tyres), F01D (Turbines), and F16D (Clutches & Brakes) — each represent a small share, signaling limited cross-domain integration in the existing filing base.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
Modular bearing unit
A modular bearing unit, including a plurality of bearings and bearing shells, wherein each bearing shell incorporates a main body, composed of two coaxial ball-races between which a ball ring, a coaxial neck, an external diameter of which matches an internal diameter of an interior cylindrical ring of the bearing shell, with a threaded surface, is… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rolling bearing device and ring with sensor of the… | 43 |
| 2 | Wheel hub unit for a vehicle | 42 |
| 3 | A wheel hub unit for a vehicle | 27 |
| 4 | Eccentric bearing | 17 |
| 5 | Slide bearing unit | 17 |
| 6 | Cassette-type bearing unit | 12 |
| 7 | Sealed rolling bearing | 7 |
| 8 | JP1981007119U | 6 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
Assignee snapshot from the current evidence set
The applicants below are visible in this query result. Because the evidence set is relatively small, read this section as a directional snapshot rather than a full competitive ranking.
Jiménez de Castro Fernández, José Luis
The top-ranked applicant with 6 patent records, focused entirely within F16C — specifically sub-classes covering rolling bearing geometry (F16C 19), shaft bearing arrangements (F16C 13), and bearing fixing and attachment (F16C 35). This depth across multiple F16C sub-classes suggests a systematic attempt to standardize bearing interfaces at the component level. No momentum data is available for this applicant in the recent-vs-prior comparison.
patent records: 6Nidec Corporation
Nidec Corporation holds 4 patent records and is the highest-ranked corporate challenger. Its technical emphasis spans both F16C 33 (bearing elements and construction) and H02K 5 (motor housings and bearings within electric motors), reflecting Nidec’s core business of integrating precision bearings into high-volume electric motor systems. No momentum trend data is available for Nidec in the evidence; no new-entrant signal is recorded.
patent records: 4Frequently asked questions
The corpus in scope contains 16 patent families. This is a small and specialized corpus, so individual filings have an outsized effect on trends and concentration metrics.
José Luis Jiménez de Castro Fernández, an independent inventor, leads the applicant ranking with 6 patent records, all concentrated within the F16C (Shafts, Bearings & Couplings) class.
F16C (Shafts, Bearings & Couplings) is the visible IPC class by a wide margin. Secondary branches include H02K (Electric Motors & Generators), B60B (Vehicle Wheels & Tyres), F01D (Turbines), and F16D (Clutches & Brakes), each representing a small share of the IPC classification counts.
The United States is the lead filing jurisdiction with 14 patent records, followed by Europe (EPO) with 11 and Japan with 5. China holds 3 records and WIPO (PCT) 2, indicating a predominantly US-and-Europe-first prosecution strategy.
The field is assessed as being in a Decline stage, with annual filings having eased back from a peak in 2020–2021. Note that filings from 2024 onward are likely under-counted due to publication lag and should not be interpreted as definitively low activity.
No co-applicant or consortium filing relationships are present in the corpus. Bearing standardization appears to be pursued by individual inventors and single-entity OEMs rather than through pre-competitive collaborative programs.
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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.
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