Cell Sealing & Laser Welding Patents: Who Leads, Where Gaps Are 2026
- Concentrated but not locked up. the top 5 assignees hold 13.2% of all 1,928 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 21.4% — a leader well ahead of the field with a long tail behind it.
- Filing is still climbing, not cooling. 2021 to 2024 filings rose 97 to 100, +3% over that span, with 2022 the peak year so far at 133; the 2025-2026 dip reflects publication lag, not a slowdown.
- Welding process claims dominate the class mix. B23K covers 87.7% of records, while battery-specific H01M claims sit at just 7.4% — most of the documented art is generic joining technique, not cell-specific sealing.
Filing growth compares 2021 (97 records) with 2024 (100) — 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. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 1,928 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks 1,928 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine cell sealing or laser welding terminology with process-control language: weld penetration, spatter, leak tightness, heat-affected zone, degassing port sealing and helium leak testing. That combination captures the manufacturing-equipment side of battery assembly rather than cell chemistry — the claims here are about how a can or pouch gets closed and verified leak-tight, not what goes inside it.
Filing activity is distributed across automotive OEMs, cell makers and industrial welding-equipment suppliers, with receiving-office volume led by the United States and China ahead of Europe, Japan, WIPO and India. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any trend understate real filing activity.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 1,928-record dataset: filing volume over time, and where those records sit across IPC subclasses.
A decade of steady growth, not a spike
Filings moved from 89 in 2017 to a peak of 133 in 2022, then held near that level through 2024 (97 to 100, +3%). The tail-off shown for 2025 and 2026 is a publication-lag artefact, not a real contraction — treat the most recent two years as incomplete.
Welding process, not cell design, carries the claim density
B23K (welding, soldering and brazing) touches 87.7% of records, an order of magnitude ahead of H01M (batteries and cells) at 7.4%. Testing and measurement classes — G01N, G01B — each sit near 2.5%, meaning verification methods are a much smaller, more open slice of the art than the joining process itself.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,928 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Cell Sealing and Laser Welding with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about cell sealing and laser welding and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative and most-cited records
US9352416B2 — Niobium-based SCRF cavities joined by laser welding
Covers niobium or niobium-alloy superconducting radio-frequency cavities where components are laser-welded from the inside surface of the cavity wall to achieve more than half-thickness to full-depth penetration with minimum heat-affected zone, while minimising distortion and shrinkage. The filing also covers the welding nozzle system and welding rigs used to perform this internal-surface welding.Filed by The Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy, Govt. of India; published 2016-05-31.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20160039045A1 | Methods and Systems for Characterizing Laser Machining Properties by Measuring Keyhole Dynamics Using Interfe… | 239 |
| 2 | US5554837A | Interactive laser welding at elevated temperatures of superalloy articles | 165 |
| 3 | US6593540B1 | Hand held powder-fed laser fusion welding torch | 144 |
| 4 | US3769117A | Laser welding plastic tubes | 141 |
| 5 | US6204469B1 | Laser welding system | 129 |
| 6 | WO2014138939A1 | Methods and systems for characterizing laser machining properties by measuring keyhole dynamics using interfe… | 118 |
| 7 | US4000392A | Fusion zone purification by controlled laser welding | 113 |
| 8 | US20060011592A1 | Laser welding control | 102 |
| 9 | US5395584A | Nickel-base superalloy compositions | 102 |
| 10 | US5866870A | Enhanced laser beam welding | 92 |
Citation counts reflect age as much as importance — older laser-welding fundamentals accumulate citations that newer, more specific sealing patents have not yet had time to earn.
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 read-throughs from the concentration, growth and class data above.
A leader well ahead, then a long tail
The leading assignee holds 69 records against a fifth-place figure of 35 and a tenth-place figure of 30 — a steep drop-off after the top few names. That pattern means most of the 100 ranked assignees hold only a handful of families each, which is where freedom-to-operate searches should focus rather than on the leader alone.
Growth has flattened, not reversed
The three-year span from 2021 to 2024 shows filings essentially holding steady at a high level after the 2022 peak of 133. Several of the largest historical filers show 0 or negative filings in the latest tracked year, but with an 18-month publication lag that reads as a reporting gap more than a strategic retreat.
Most claims are process, not cell-specific
The overwhelming majority of records sit in general welding, soldering and brazing classification rather than in battery-specific classification. That gap suggests a filer targeting cell-specific sealing geometry or degassing-port design is competing against far less prior art than one targeting generic weld-quality control.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to cell sealing and laser welding, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and what to watch
Automotive OEMs, cell manufacturers and industrial laser and welding-equipment suppliers all appear in the ranked assignees, reflecting the fact that this search string sits at the intersection of battery assembly and general joining technology.
Clear pace-setter, thin margin below
The top-ranked assignee holds nearly double the fifth-place count of 35, putting it well clear of the field. Its recent-year momentum has slowed sharply, which is consistent with either portfolio maturity in this specific claim space or a lag in newly filed records reaching publication.
Automotive supplier pairs dominate joint filings
The strongest co-assignee links run between an automotive OEM and its component-supply affiliates, plus one OEM-inventor pairing. Ten identified pairs is a modest number against 1,928 records, meaning most filing in this space happens under a single assignee rather than through formal joint development.
US and China lead office-level volume
The United States and China together account for the largest share of receiving-office filings, ahead of Europe, Japan, WIPO and India. That split points to where enforcement and freedom-to-operate risk concentrates for equipment makers selling into those markets.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. | 1 | -75% |
| Toyota Motor Corporation | 0 | — |
| Illinois Tool Works Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| JFE Steel Corporation | 0 | — |
| GM Global Technology Operations LLC | 0 | — |
| LG Energy Solution Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Samsung SDI Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Jaguar Land Rover Ltd. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, whitespace filing or competitive monitoring.
Run a freedom-to-operate check on the long tail
With most of the 100 ranked assignees holding only a handful of families each, a narrow FTO search around a specific sealing geometry or weld-verification method is more useful than a broad clearance against the leader alone.
Explore assignee detail in EurekaDraft claims toward the under-claimed branches
Degassing-port sealing and in-line leak or keyhole verification sit well below the density of general weld-quality claims, leaving room for narrowly scoped, defensible filings.
Map white space in EurekaTrack momentum, not just headcount
Several of the largest historical filers show flat or declining recent-year counts; confirming whether that is publication lag or a genuine pivot needs a citation and continuation check on their most recent families.
Set up assignee alerts in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
The dataset ranks 100 assignees by patent family count, with the leader holding 69 records and a steep drop to 35 at fifth place and 30 at tenth. The names span automotive OEMs, battery cell manufacturers and industrial laser and welding-equipment suppliers, reflecting that this search area sits at the boundary of general joining technology and battery-specific assembly. No single company controls the field: the top 10 combined account for only 21.4% of all 1,928 records in scope, leaving most filing activity spread across a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants.
Filing volume rose from 89 records in 2017 to a peak of 133 in 2022, then held roughly steady through 2024 with a +3% change from 97 to 100 filings across that three-year span. The apparent decline shown for 2025 and 2026 is a publication-lag artefact — patent applications typically take about 18 months to publish, so the two most recent years in any dataset always understate real activity. Based on the through-2024 figures, filing has plateaued at a high level rather than genuinely slowing.
US9352416B2 claims niobium or niobium-alloy superconducting radio-frequency cavities where components are laser-welded from the inside surface of the cavity wall, achieving more than half-thickness to full-depth penetration with minimum heat-affected zone while limiting distortion and shrinkage. It also covers the specific welding nozzle system and welding rigs built to perform that internal-surface weld. Its scope is narrow and application-specific to SCRF cavities rather than to battery cell sealing broadly, so it constrains a specific internal-surface, deep-penetration welding technique rather than laser welding in general.
IPC composition shows B23K (general welding, soldering and brazing) covering 87.7% of the 1,928 records, while battery-specific H01M classification covers only 7.4%, and testing-and-measurement classes like G01N and G01B each sit near 2.5%. That gap suggests cell-specific sealing geometry, degassing-port design, and in-line leak or weld verification methods carry much lower claim density than generic weld-quality control. A first claim in one of these narrower branches faces meaningfully less prior art than a claim written around general laser-welding process parameters.
The most-cited records in this landscape date back to the 1990s and 1970s for foundational laser-welding technique, simply because older patents have had more years to accumulate citations within the searched corpus. This does not mean those techniques are more commercially relevant today; it means citation count is a lagging signal of influence rather than a measure of current importance. When evaluating what to watch now, recent filing momentum and IPC composition are more informative than raw citation rank.
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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.