Centrifugal Pump Structural Design Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
- Filing has cooled since its 2019 peak. 17 families that year fell to essentially flat activity by 2022, with 2026 data still incomplete due to publication lag.
- China and the US dominate filing venues. 102 records route through China and 94 through the US, well ahead of Europe, Australia, Canada and the PCT route combined.
- The most-cited prior art sits in high-pressure and medical pump systems. Citation leaders include a blood pump impeller design and a cluster of high-pressure pump system filings, not general-purpose casings.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks 385 patent families filed between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine centrifugal pump, pump impeller or centrifugal pumping terminology with claim language on impeller design, volute casing design, hydraulic design or structural optimization, classified under F04D29/22, F04D29/42 or F04D1/00. The core subclass, F04D (non-positive-displacement pumps), accounts for every record by construction, with secondary classification activity spilling into turbines (F01D), data processing (G06F) and separation equipment (B01D), among others.
Filing volume peaked in 2019 and has not recovered; by the 2022 midpoint, annual filings had dropped to a single-digit pace. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent two years in the trend understate actual filing activity and should be read with that caveat.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 385-family dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how those filings classify across IPC subclasses beyond the core pump code.
A flat-to-declining trend since the 2019 peak
Annual filings ran at 15 in 2017 and reached a peak of 17 in 2019, before falling to around 1 by the 2022 midpoint. The tail years are still filling in as publications catch up, but the shape points to a maturing filing cycle rather than an accelerating one.
F04D dominates; secondary classes point to adjacent applications
Every record carries an F04D non-positive-displacement pump classification. The next-largest secondary classes are F01D (turbines, 29 records) and G06F (digital data processing, 20 records), with smaller but consistent overlap into filtration (B01D), load-handling vehicles (B60P), liquid dispensing (B67D), sewerage (E03F) and body-fluid devices (A61M) — each at 16 or 9 records, signalling niche cross-industry reuse of core pump structural claims.
Shares are the percentage of the 385 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Centrifugal Pump Structural Design with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about centrifugal pump structural design and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaKey patents and the representative filing
US20030170112A1 — Submersible pump impeller design for lifting gaseous fluid
A gas-handling centrifugal pump has impellers for pumping gaseous materials containing up to 50% by volume free gas. The impellers have split vanes with high exit angles up to about 90 degrees and preferably greater than 50 degrees. The split vanes define flow passages that contain large diameter balance holes that typically range between 45% to 100% of the width between each split vane. The gas-handling centrifugal pump can be used as a charge pump for a centrifugal pump in a lower tandem configuration within a well.Filed by Baker Hughes, this filing anchors gas-handling split-vane impeller claims that later filers in downhole and multiphase pumping have had to design around.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5458459A | Centrifugal blood pump with impeller blades forming a spin inducer | 180 |
| 2 | US9829002B2 | Pump system for high pressure application | 172 |
| 3 | US10465689B2 | Pump system for high pressure application | 165 |
| 4 | US20180045202A1 | Pump system for high pressure application | 164 |
| 5 | US7037069B2 | Impeller and wear plate | 112 |
| 6 | US20050095124A1 | Impeller and wear plate | 105 |
| 7 | US3953150A | Impeller apparatus | 91 |
| 8 | CN101956711A | 一种基于CFD的离心泵多工况水力优化方法 | 67 |
| 9 | US5201848A | Deep well electrical submersible pump with uplift generating impeller means | 61 |
| 10 | US4936744A | Centrifugal pump | 55 |
Citation counts favour older filings inside this searched corpus and should be read as a signal of influence, not current commercial relevance.
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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Reading the trend, the venue mix and the citation table together gives a clearer picture of where claim density sits and where it does not.
The filing cycle has already turned over
Annual filings ran at 15 in 2017, peaked at 17 in 2019, and had fallen to roughly 1 by 2022. That is not a market walking away from centrifugal pump structural design — it more likely reflects a wave of filings around a design generation that has now been claimed, with newer activity not yet visible due to publication lag.
China and the US carry the bulk of filing activity
Of the six receiving offices tracked, China (102) and the United States (94) together account for the large majority of records, with Europe, Australia, Canada and the PCT route each in the twenties. A design cleared in one of the smaller venues is not necessarily clear in the two largest.
The most influential prior art is not general-purpose
The most-cited record in this corpus is a blood pump impeller design, followed closely by a cluster of high-pressure pump system filings. That skews the citation table toward specialised applications rather than generic volute or impeller geometry, which is useful context before treating citation rank as a proxy for blocking power in a standard industrial pump.
Co-filing is limited and mostly bilateral
Only ten co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, and the strongest pairing recurs at a modest scale. This is a field of largely independent filers rather than joint-venture or consortium-style development.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to centrifugal pump structural design, with the prior art for and against each one.
Assignee landscape and momentum
Filing is spread across a long tail of manufacturers, research institutes and individual inventors, with no single assignee showing sustained recent-year growth in this dataset.
Recent-year momentum has stalled across the board
Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum, including established pump manufacturers and university research groups, shows zero filings in the latest tracked year, with one recording a -100% year-on-year change. This is consistent with the broader flat-to-declining trend rather than an isolated slowdown at any one firm.
A small number of individual-inventor pairings lead co-filing
The strongest co-assignee relationship in the dataset is between two named individual inventors, well ahead of the next pairings, which involve a corporate assignee filing jointly with named engineers rather than another company.
A genuinely multi-jurisdiction filing base
With meaningful volume across China, the US, Europe, Australia, Canada and the PCT route, assignees in this space are not concentrating filings in a single home market, which raises the bar for freedom-to-operate clearance across regions.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Weir Minerals Australia Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Jiangsu University | 0 | — |
| Jiangsu Guoquan Pump Manufacturing Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| WATER MANAGEMENT SYST LLC | 0 | — |
| MUHS DAVID | 0 | — |
| Sulzer Management Ltd. | 0 | — |
| PARMA GIANFRANCO | 0 | — |
| Environmental Technology Pump Systems, Inc. | 0 | — |
Where to take this
The dataset points to a mature, geographically spread filing base with cooling volume — useful context before committing engineering or legal resources to a specific claim direction.
Map freedom-to-operate against the top citation cluster
Before finalising an impeller or volute design, check it against the high-pressure pump system and split-vane gas-handling filings that dominate the citation table, since these anchor the densest prior art in this corpus.
Explore prior art in EurekaWatch for the publication-lag rebound
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the apparent 2022-onward decline may partially reverse as recent filings publish. Re-run this landscape periodically rather than treating the current trend line as final.
Track this landscape in EurekaTest claims in the under-claimed branches
Sensor-integrated impeller monitoring and digital-twin hydraulic design show thinner filing density than core structural claims, making them worth a closer freedom-to-operate and novelty check before committing R&D spend.
Run a white-space search in EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
The most-cited record in this dataset is US5458459A, a centrifugal blood pump impeller design, followed by a cluster of high-pressure pump system filings covering both granted patents and their published applications. This means the densest cited prior art in the corpus leans toward specialised medical and high-pressure applications rather than general industrial volute or casing designs. Anyone filing in a standard industrial pump application should still check these records, since courts and examiners often cite influential impeller geometry patents across adjacent pump types.
Based on this dataset, filing activity peaked in 2019 at 17 families and had fallen to roughly 1 by the 2022 midpoint, indicating a flat-to-declining trend rather than growth. Recent years are likely understated because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so some rebound may still surface as 2023-2025 filings publish. Treat the most recent one to two years of any trend chart in this space as provisional.
China leads with 102 records in this dataset, followed by the United States at 94, with Europe, Australia, Canada and the PCT route each contributing between roughly 20 and 40 filings. This spread means clearance work in this field genuinely needs to cover multiple major jurisdictions rather than a single home market. Filers targeting export markets should budget for review across at least the top two or three venues.
Relative to the core impeller and volute casing claims that dominate this dataset, areas like split-vane gas-handling impellers, sensor-integrated impeller monitoring and digital-twin-style hydraulic design (which overlaps with data-processing classifications) show thinner filing density. These are not unclaimed, but they carry less accumulated prior art than mainstream structural impeller and casing claims. A freedom-to-operate check in these branches is likely to turn up fewer blocking records than a check on core geometry claims.
This dataset shows a long tail: only 10 co-assignee pairs exist across 385 families, and no single assignee shows sustained recent-year filing growth, with several leading assignees recording zero filings in the latest tracked year. That points to a fragmented filing base of manufacturers, research institutes and individual inventors rather than a market dominated by a handful of large portfolio holders. Competitive monitoring should therefore track a broader set of filers rather than a short list of dominant players.
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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.