Cold Rolling Mill Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- 31.0% of all 458 records sit with just five assignees, and 45.9% with ten — this field concentrates fast at the top.
- B21B metal rolling covers 57.0% of records, but alloy (C22C, 26.2%) and heat treatment (C21D, 22.9%) classes run close behind, showing rolling claims rarely stand alone.
- Filings fell 29% from 2021 to 2024 (17 to 12 for the leader's cohort), though 2025-26 figures are still filling in under normal publication lag.
Filing growth compares 2021 (17 records) with 2024 (12) — 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 458 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the cold rolling mill patent record shows
Cold rolling mill technology sits at the intersection of mechanical equipment claims and metallurgical process claims. A search built around tandem and reversing mill configurations, cross-referenced against operational problems like strip breakage, chatter vibration and thickness tolerance, returns 458 published records spanning 2015 through the 2026 cut-off. The mix of equipment and process language explains why so many records also carry alloy and heat-treatment classes alongside the core metal-rolling class.
Filing activity peaked in 2019 at 43 records and has since eased, with the most recent complete comparison — 2021 to 2024 — showing a 29% decline. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 counts in the trend chart are still incomplete and should not be read as a further drop.
Filing trend and IPC composition
Two views of the same 458-record dataset: filing activity over time, and how records distribute across International Patent Classification subclasses. Because a single record can carry several IPC codes, the class shares below sum to more than 100% of records.
Filing activity, 2017–2026
Filings ran from 32 in 2017 to a peak of 43 in 2019, before easing to 5 in the still-incomplete 2026 count. The 2021-to-2024 window, the most recent comparison unaffected by publication lag, shows a 29% decline from 17 to 12.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
B21B (metal rolling) anchors 57.0% of the 458 records in scope. C22C (alloys) and C21D (heat treatment of metals) follow at 26.2% and 22.9%, reflecting how rolling equipment claims are routinely bundled with material and thermal-processing claims. Narrower classes — lubricants (C10M), in-line measurement (G01B) and surface coating (C23C) — each cover under 8% of records, marking areas of comparatively light claim density.
Shares are the percentage of the 458 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Cold Rolling Mill Technology with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about cold rolling mill technology and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited records
EP2514534B1 — Cold-rolled material manufacturing equipment and cold rolling method
Filed by Primetals Technologies Japan, this record discloses cold-rolled material manufacturing equipment and a rolling method aimed at small- to medium-scale plants (roughly 300,000 to 600,000 tons per year). Input coils are joined into a buildup coil of no more than Φ3000 outside diameter, then subjected to reversible cold rolling a set number of times between winding and unwinding devices — a configuration built to hold high cost-effectiveness and yield without the capital scale of larger tandem lines.Abstract shortened for length; see the full record for complete claim language.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | JP1994210308A | Manufacture of supporting body for planographic printing plate | 53 |
| 2 | US5090225A | Method for cooling and lubricating chiplessly shaped metals | 46 |
| 3 | CN103785694A | 预防启车断带的方法 | 33 |
| 4 | US4481800A | Cold rolling mill for metal strip | 32 |
| 5 | CN106011714A | 卷式冷轧法生产薄TA4钛材的方法 | 31 |
| 6 | US4244025A | Rolling mill gauge control system | 28 |
| 7 | US20090282884A1 | Method for Lubricating and Cooling Rollers and Metal Strips On Rolling In Particular On Cold Rolling of Metal… | 27 |
| 8 | US3787667A | Computer controlled metal rolling mill | 27 |
| 9 | US20070106400A1 | System and method for online property prediction for hot rlled coil in a hot strip mill | 25 |
| 10 | CN113198866A | 一种薄规格中高牌号无取向硅钢酸轧生产工艺 | 23 |
Citation counts are shaped by corpus age — older records accumulate more citations regardless of current commercial relevance — so treat this table as a signal of historical influence, not present-day importance.
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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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for filing strategy
The concentration, class distribution and citation patterns in this dataset point to specific decisions: where claim space is already crowded, where influence sits with older filings, and where recent activity has gone quiet.
The field concentrates early
Five assignees hold 142 of 458 records and ten hold 210 — nearly half the dataset sits with a small group. A new entrant filing core mill or process claims should expect to run into this cluster's prior art before reaching the long tail.
Rolling claims rarely stand alone
Metal rolling (B21B) anchors the field, but over a quarter of records also carry alloy composition claims (C22C) and nearly a quarter carry heat-treatment claims (C21D). Equipment-only filings that ignore adjacent material or thermal claims risk leaving gaps a competitor can claim around.
Citation leaders are not recent filings
The most-cited records in this dataset date from earlier in the coverage window. High citation counts here reflect accumulated influence over a searched corpus, not that these are the technologies to watch now — recent filings simply have not had time to accumulate citations.
Filing geography skews toward India and the US
India (108) and the United States (77) lead receiving offices, ahead of Europe (51), Japan (48), China (36) and Canada (29). That spread suggests commercial rollout and enforcement priorities differ meaningfully by jurisdiction rather than following a single global filing pattern.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to cold rolling mill technology, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where activity has cooled
The assignee ranking returns 100 companies counted in records — not a top-50 or top-100 cut, but the full ranking the data endpoint returns. A single leader holds 47 records, with fifth place at 16 and tenth at 10, meaning the drop-off outside the top handful is steep.
One assignee well ahead of the field
The leading assignee's 47 records put it well clear of fifth place at 16 — a gap wide enough that competitive-intelligence teams should treat this filer's portfolio as the reference point for freedom-to-operate checks in core mill and process claims.
A steep drop-off after the top ten
Tenth place holds 10 records, and the top ten combined account for 45.9% of all 458 records. Everything below that line thins quickly into single- and double-digit filers, suggesting most of the remaining 90 ranked companies hold only a handful of records each.
Several established filers show no recent activity
More than one of the leading assignees, including some with -100% year-on-year change, show zero records in the latest tracked year. Given the roughly 18-month publication lag, this likely reflects filings still working through the pipeline rather than a genuine stop in R&D.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| JFE Steel Corporation | 2 | — |
| JSW Steel Ltd | 0 | -100% |
| Nippon Steel Corporation | 0 | — |
| Danieli & C. Officine Meccaniche S.p.A. | 0 | — |
| SMS Group GmbH | 0 | -100% |
| Quaker Chemical Corporation | 0 | — |
| Cockerill Maintenance & Ingenierie SA | 0 | — |
| JOHN COCKERILL & CO | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, white-space filing, or tracking a competitor's pipeline.
Run a freedom-to-operate check against the leader's portfolio
With 47 records concentrated in one assignee's hands, any new filing in core tandem or reversing mill claims should be checked against that portfolio first, not just the top 5 combined.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaTest claim language in the under-claimed classes
G01B, C10M and C23C each cover under 8% of the 458 records in scope — draft and search a first claim there before committing to crowded B21B territory.
Draft and search claims in EurekaTrack the 2025-26 filings as they publish
Because publication lags filing by about 18 months, the most informative signal for current strategy will arrive over the next few quarters as 2025 records complete.
Set a monitoring alert in EurekaCommon questions on cold rolling mill patents
One assignee leads with 47 records in this dataset, well ahead of the fifth-ranked company at 16. The top 5 assignees combined hold 31.0% of all 458 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 45.9%. Below that, filing activity spreads thinly across a long tail of the remaining ranked companies, most holding only a handful of records each.
Filings peaked at 43 in 2019 and the most recent complete comparison, 2021 to 2024, shows a 29% decline from 17 to 12 records. However, publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the 2025 and 2026 counts in any trend chart are still incomplete and should not be read as continued decline. A clearer read on the current trajectory will only be available once those years finish publishing.
Metal rolling itself (IPC class B21B) covers 57.0% of the 458 records in scope, but alloy composition claims (C22C) appear in 26.2% and heat treatment claims (C21D) in 22.9%. This overlap means a rolling equipment or process patent is frequently filed alongside, or in combination with, material composition or thermal treatment claims rather than standing alone as a pure mechanical filing.
The narrower IPC classes in this dataset carry noticeably lighter filing density: in-line dimensional measurement (G01B) at 3.1% of records, lubricant chemistry for rolling emulsions (C10M) at 5.0%, and surface coating (C23C) at 2.8%. These lower shares suggest less-crowded claim space around measurement instrumentation, emulsion formulation and post-rolling surface treatment compared with the dense core rolling and alloy classes.
India leads receiving offices with 108 filings in this dataset, ahead of the United States at 77, Europe (EPO) at 51, Japan at 48, China at 36 and Canada at 29. This distribution indicates that filing strategy in this field is not concentrated in a single traditional steel-technology hub, and that India in particular has become a significant filing destination alongside the more expected US and European offices.
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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.