Biological Safety Cabinets Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- One assignee leads with 14 records, while the fifth-ranked holder has just 3 and the tenth has 1 — a short head over a long tail of single-filing entrants.
- Filing fell 50% from 2021 to 2024, the last year with complete data, after peaking at 5 records in 2023.
- Sterilising and disinfecting claims (A61L) cover 54.3% of the 35 records, while robotics (B25J) and radiation shielding (G21F) each sit at just 8.6%.
Filing growth compares 2021 (2 records) with 2024 (1) — 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.
What this dataset covers
This landscape draws on 35 published records filed between 2015 and 2026 that combine biological safety cabinet, flexible film isolator or glove port terminology with containment-performance language such as containment factor, decontamination cycle or glove integrity testing. The scope is narrow by design: it isolates documents that describe how a cabinet or isolator is built, tested or decontaminated, rather than every filing that merely mentions a biosafety cabinet in passing.
Records here span sterilant delivery systems, airflow and control architecture, and the mechanical hardware of glove ports and transfer stations. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, counts for 2025 and 2026 are still filling in and should not be read as a slowdown.
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Filing trend and technology mix
Two views of the same 35-record dataset: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
A peak in 2023, then a drop against a complete-year baseline
Filings rose from zero in 2017 to a peak of 5 in 2023. Measured against the last complete year, 2021's 2 filings fell to 1 by 2024 — a 50% decline over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures will revise upward as publication catches up.
Sterilising and disinfecting dominates; robotics and shielding are thin
A61L (sterilising and disinfecting) appears in 54.3% of the 35 records, more than double the next largest classes, B01J (chemical/physical processes) and G05D (control of non-electric variables), each at 25.7%. B25J (robots and manipulators) and G21F (radiation shielding) each appear in only 8.6% of records, and since a record can carry several classes, these shares add up to more than 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 35 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Biological Safety Cabinets and Isolators with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about biological safety cabinets and isolators and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records in this dataset
Biological safety cabinet with a falling-film evaporator
A method for decontaminating a biological safety cabinet with a falling-film evaporator: the evaporator sits within the cabinet cavity, a liquid decontaminant is conveyed to an evaporation element so it flows along the element's surface, and a carrier gas is conveyed through the cavity to distribute the resulting vapour for decontamination.Filed by American Sterilizer Company, published as US20140105785A1, dated 2014-04-17.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20120321511A1 | Gaseous chlorine dioxide decontamination system and method | 17 |
| 2 | US20100266448A1 | Chlorine dioxide decontamination system and method | 12 |
| 3 | US20140105785A1 | Biological safety cabinet with a falling-film evaporator | 11 |
| 4 | US20230002088A1 | Isolator system for filling a container with a liquid, transfer station for transferring a container and meth… | 7 |
| 5 | US8524167B2 | Chlorine dioxide decontamination system and method | 7 |
| 6 | US9213341B2 | Biological safety cabinet with a falling-film evaporator | 6 |
| 7 | US20190151488A1 | Decontamination assembly | 4 |
| 8 | WO2010120865A1 | Chlorine dioxide decontamination system and method | 4 |
| 9 | WO2014058517A2 | Biological safety cabinet with a falling-film evaporator | 2 |
| 10 | US20250187763A1 | Isolator system for filling a container with a liquid, transfer station for transferring a container and meth… | 1 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations inside this corpus; treat them as a signal of influence, not of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the data means for filing strategy
Three findings that shape where a new filing would sit relative to existing claims.
A single leader, then a fast drop-off
The top-ranked assignee holds 14 records, while fifth place holds only 3 and tenth place just 1. That gap suggests one organisation built a sustained filing programme around decontamination hardware while most other entrants filed opportunistically, often around a single mechanism.
Sterilising and disinfecting claims dominate the field
More than half of the 35 records touch A61L sterilising and disinfecting art, concentrated around chlorine dioxide and vapour-phase decontamination systems. Control architecture (G05D) and chemical process claims (B01J) trail at a quarter of records each, and mechanical branches like robotics and shielding are comparatively open.
Filing has cooled since the 2023 peak
Activity climbed to a peak of 5 records in 2023 but fell across the 2021-2024 window on a complete-year basis. Co-assignee pairs cluster around a small group of individual inventors rather than corporate teams, hinting at fragmented, small-scale R&D rather than a single dominant lab.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to biological safety cabinets and isolators, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the openings sit
The ranking below covers all 11 assignees returned for this dataset — not a top-50 or top-100 cut.
A sustained decontamination-hardware programme
The top-ranked assignee's filings cluster around chlorine dioxide and vapour decontamination systems for biological safety cabinets, the same subject matter behind several of the most-cited records in this dataset.
A tight inventor cluster around glove-port hardware
Three individual filers appear together repeatedly as co-assignees, each pairing appearing on 3 records. That pattern points to a small, close-knit group working glove-port and access-ergonomics mechanics rather than a corporate R&D team.
Activity has shifted to a new entrant
The only assignee with a filing in the latest year is a new name to this ranking, while several previously active filers, including one with a -100% year-on-year change, show no recent activity.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| SHREEPAD HEGDE | 1 | — |
| STERIS Corporation | 0 | — |
| GRONINGER GMBH & CO KG | 0 | -100% |
| Syntegon Technology GmbH | 0 | — |
| LORCHEIM PAUL W | 0 | — |
| REGITS MICHAEL A | 0 | — |
| LUFTMAN HENRY S | 0 | — |
| Bausch+Stroebel Maschinenfabrik Ilshofen GmbH+Co. KG | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The filing counts and citation table point to a field with one entrenched decontamination-hardware programme and several open mechanical branches.
Map the decontamination sub-field in detail
Chlorine dioxide and vapour-phase systems account for several of the most-cited records here; a claim-by-claim comparison would show exactly how narrow the leader's coverage is.
Explore in Eureka →Test a robotics or shielding claim for freedom to operate
B25J and G21F each cover only 8.6% of the 35 records, which is worth confirming against full claim text before committing R&D spend to either branch.
Run a freedom-to-operate check →Common questions about this landscape
One assignee leads this dataset with 14 records, well ahead of the rest of the field; the fifth-ranked holder has only 3 and the tenth has 1. That leader's filings concentrate on chlorine dioxide and vapour-phase decontamination hardware, which also shows up among the most-cited records in the dataset. The remaining ranked assignees, including several individual inventors who co-file together, hold much smaller, narrower positions.
Filing peaked at 5 records in 2023 and, measured on the last complete year available, fell 50% from 2021's count of 2 to 2024's count of 1. Counts for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by about 18 months, so it is too early to call the current trend a genuine slowdown. The more reliable read is that activity has been modest and uneven rather than steadily rising.
Sterilising and disinfecting technology, IPC class A61L, appears in 54.3% of the 35 records in scope, making it the single largest technology area by a wide margin. Control systems (G05D) and chemical or physical process claims (B01J) each cover about a quarter of records, while cleaning hardware (B08B) and packaging (B65B) cover smaller shares. Robotics (B25J) and radiation shielding (G21F) are the thinnest areas, each present in only 8.6% of records.
US20140105785A1, assigned to American Sterilizer Company, claims a method of decontaminating a biological safety cabinet using a falling-film evaporator: a liquid decontaminant flows along an evaporation element inside the cabinet cavity while a carrier gas conveys the resulting vapour through the space. It is the third most-cited record in this dataset, with 11 citations, which signals it has shaped later filings in vapour-phase decontamination. It blocks that specific combination of a falling-film evaporator geometry with carrier-gas vapour distribution, not decontamination methods generally, so designs using different evaporation or vapour-delivery mechanisms sit outside its claims.
The clearest openings sit in branches with the lowest IPC coverage relative to the rest of the dataset: robotics and manipulator integration (B25J) and radiation shielding (G21F) each appear in only 8.6% of the 35 records. Access-ergonomics features, glove integrity testing automation and airflow velocity profile sensing also show thin, scattered coverage rather than a dense cluster of blocking claims. A first filing in any of these areas would face far less prior art than one in sterilising and disinfecting hardware, where more than half the dataset already sits.
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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.