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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/centrifugal-pump-sealing-technology-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Mechanical Engineering & MachineryCentrifugal Pump Sealing Patents: Who Files, Where the Claim Space Sits
- Filing has flattened, not grown. Activity peaked at 18 families in 2020 and the 2022 midpoint of 15 sits below that peak — this is a mature, contested claim space, not an emerging one.
- China dominates the filing office count. 101 of the tracked receiving-office filings are Chinese, more than four times the next-largest office (Europe or Japan at 22), which shapes where freedom-to-operate risk actually concentrates.
- The most-cited prior art is decades old. The top-cited record, US5482432A, dates back well before this coverage window — current filers are building around seal architectures established long ago, not displacing them.
230
Published Records
30%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-43%
3-Yr Growth (lag-adjusted)
CN
Leading Jurisdiction
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What this landscape covers
Centrifugal pump sealing sits at the intersection of two IPC families: F04D, which covers the pump itself, and F16J, which covers the seal and gasket hardware fitted to it. This dataset tracks 230 patent families published between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine language around centrifugal pumps or impellers with claims on mechanical seals, shaft sealing, dynamic seals or gland packing. Publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the final year of any trend here understates real activity.
The bulk of the corpus sits in F04D and F16J, with smaller but consistent overlap into electric-motor integration (H02K), bearing and shaft coupling design (F16C), and lubrication (F16N) — evidence that sealing claims are rarely filed in isolation from the rest of the pump drivetrain.
Filing activity and IPC composition, 2017-2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Centrifugal Pump Sealing Technology covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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The data
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 230-family corpus: how filing volume has moved year on year, and how claims distribute across IPC subclasses.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings rose from 9 in 2017 to a peak of 18 in 2020, held near that level through the 2022 midpoint of 15, and have since eased — a flat-to-declining pattern typical of a technology where the core seal architectures are already well claimed and incremental refinement, rather than new filing volume, is where activity now concentrates.
IPC subclass distribution
F04D (non-positive-displacement pumps) and F16J (seals and gaskets) account for the great majority of records, consistent with the search definition. The presence of H02K, F16C and F16N filings alongside these two core subclasses shows sealing innovation is frequently bundled with motor, bearing or lubrication claims in the same family.
Shares are the percentage of the 230 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Centrifugal Pump Sealing Technology covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
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Most-cited prior art and a representative filing
Representative record
AU2019440859A1 — Vertical cryogenic liquid centrifugal pump
INSTITUTE OF HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS
A vertical cryogenic liquid centrifugal pump combining a room-temperature motor assembly with a low-temperature impeller assembly, separated by a vacuum flange. A dynamic seal structure sits at the vacuum flange itself, so the seal is doing double duty: isolating rotating machinery from cryogenic process fluid while also holding the vacuum boundary between the two thermal environments.Filed by the Institute of High Energy Physics, published 2021-08-26.
View full recordHighest-cited records in this corpus
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5482432A | Bearingless automotive coolant pump with in-line drive | 51 |
| 2 | US5624245A | Centrufugal pump with thermally isolated and dynamically air cooled shaft seal assembly | 43 |
| 3 | US5553867A | Triple cartridge seal having one inboard and two concentric seals for chemical processing pump | 34 |
| 4 | US4342538A | Face-type shaft seal | 34 |
| 5 | US5306124A | Slurry pump and seal system | 33 |
| 6 | JP2007332825A | Submerged pump | 26 |
| 7 | US6224322B1 | Seal assembly for centrifugal pumps with barrier ring | 25 |
| 8 | GB1301309A | No title available | 25 |
| 9 | US4961678A | Reactor coolant pump having double dam seal with self-contained injection pump mechanism | 24 |
| 10 | US5484267A | Cooling device for a pump and corresponding barrier tank | 23 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older records that have had more time to accumulate citations; treat this as a signal of influence on the field, not of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Centrifugal Pump Sealing Technology covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the numbers mean for filing strategy
Three patterns stand out once the raw counts are read against filing behaviour and citation structure.
Filing momentum
18 in 2020, 15 by 2022
peak vs. midpoint
Growth has plateaued
The peak year (2020) has not been exceeded since, and the count at the 2022 midpoint already sits below it. That is consistent with a technology where core seal geometries are settled and remaining filings are defensive or incremental rather than exploratory.
Trend, 2017-2026
Geographic concentration
101 of the tracked office filings
China receiving office
Risk concentrates in China
China's receiving-office count is more than four times that of Europe or Japan, and roughly five times the United States. Any freedom-to-operate check on new seal hardware for the Chinese market needs to weight this corpus accordingly.
Receiving offices
Prior-art depth
51 citations, US5482432A
top-cited record
Old seal architectures still anchor the field
The most-cited records in this corpus — bearingless coolant pumps, thermally isolated seal assemblies, triple cartridge seals — predate the 2015 coverage start by years. Current filings are refinements layered on top of these established seal families rather than replacements for them.
Most-cited records
Family scope
198 F04D vs. 83 F16J
co-occurring IPC subclasses
Sealing claims rarely stand alone
More families touch F04D than F16J, and smaller but real overlaps into H02K, F16C and F16N show sealing IP is usually filed as part of a broader pump or drivetrain claim, not as a standalone seal patent.
IPC composition
Eureka AI Agent
Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to centrifugal pump sealing technology, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Centrifugal Pump Sealing Technology covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Players
Who is filing, and where momentum has stalled
The assignee ranking is long-tailed: a handful of established pump and seal manufacturers alongside many single- or few-filing entrants, mostly Chinese manufacturers of pump and valve hardware.
Momentum check
0 in the latest year
across leading assignees
Even the top filers have gone quiet recently
Assignees with the deepest filing history in this corpus — including established pump and seal manufacturers — show zero filings in the most recent tracked year. Given the 18-month publication lag, some of this is a reporting artefact, but the pattern is consistent across multiple leading names, not one.
Recent-year momentum
Filing base
230 families
total tracked
A long tail of narrow, specific filers
Beyond the handful of names with multi-year filing histories, most assignees in this corpus appear once or twice, often tied to a specific seal geometry or a specific industrial application such as slurry, chemical processing or cryogenic transfer.
Assignee ranking
Collaboration
7 co-assignee pairs
across the whole corpus
Co-filing is rare
Only seven co-assignee pairs appear across 230 families, and none repeats more than once. Sealing IP in this space is overwhelmingly filed by a single assignee rather than jointly developed.
Co-assignee pairs
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Yixing Zeus Pump Industry Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| KSB AG | 0 | — |
| SULZER PUMPEN | 0 | — |
| Sulzer Management AG | 0 | — |
| ENVIRONAMICS CORP | 0 | — |
| AES Engineering Ltd. (AESSEAL) | 0 | — |
| Metso Paper, Inc. | 0 | — |
| 株式会社荏原制作所 | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Centrifugal Pump Sealing Technology covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's next
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, sourcing new claim territory, or tracking a competitor.
Run a freedom-to-operate check weighted to China
With 101 of the tracked receiving-office filings in China, any new seal hardware destined for that market should be checked against this corpus first, not last.
Explore in EurekaProbe the under-claimed branches
Cryogenic dynamic sealing and motor-integrated cooling loops show thinner coverage than the F04D/F16J core — a first claim there has more room to move.
Explore in EurekaTrack the top-cited prior art forward
The seal architectures behind the highest-cited records still anchor current filing. Forward-citation tracking on those records shows who is building on them now.
Explore in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Centrifugal Pump Sealing Technology covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions on centrifugal pump sealing patents
This landscape tracks 230 patent families published between 2015 and mid-2026, drawn from a search combining centrifugal pump and impeller terminology with mechanical seal, shaft sealing, dynamic seal and gland packing language, restricted to the F04D29/12, F16J15/34 and F16J15/16 IPC classes. Families are the fairer unit to cite than raw document counts because they neutralise duplicate filings across jurisdictions and continuation applications within one country. The true current total is likely higher than 230 once the most recent filing year finishes publishing, given the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication.
Filing is long-tailed: a small group of established pump and mechanical-seal manufacturers hold the deepest filing histories, while most assignees in the corpus appear only once or twice, often tied to a narrow seal geometry or application. Several of the assignees with the longest filing histories show zero filings in the most recent tracked year, though the publication lag means some of that apparent slowdown may not be real yet. Co-filing between assignees is uncommon, with only seven co-assignee pairs identified across the full 230-family set.
Growth has flattened rather than continued. Filings rose from 9 in 2017 to a peak of 18 in 2020, but the 2022 midpoint of 15 already sits below that peak, and the trend has eased since. That pattern is typical of a field where the core seal architectures are already well claimed and most current filing is incremental refinement or defensive positioning rather than new technical territory.
The densest claim coverage sits squarely in F04D and F16J, the two subclasses that define the search itself. Thinner but real activity around cryogenic vacuum-flange dynamic seals, motor-integrated cooling loops for dynamic seals, and thermally isolated shaft seal assemblies suggests these adjacent branches carry more room for a defensible first claim than the crowded core. Any white-space assessment should still be checked against the most-cited prior art, since several foundational seal architectures predate this coverage window by years.
The most-cited records in this corpus, including patents on bearingless coolant pumps, thermally isolated dynamically cooled shaft seals, and triple cartridge seal systems, are older filings that have simply had more time to accumulate citations inside a searched set. High citation counts mark historical influence on how the field's seal architectures were framed, not that these designs remain the most commercially relevant today. Current filers are largely building refinements around these established architectures rather than replacing them outright.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Centrifugal Pump Sealing Technology covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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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.