Cold Spray Additive Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- Filing has cooled since its 2023 peak. 25 families published that year against 20 in 2017, with the curve flattening rather than climbing through the decade.
- Coating and surface deposition still dominates the claim space. 198 of 201 records sit in IPC class C23C, with spraying/atomising (B05B) and powder metallurgy (B22F) as the largest secondary clusters.
- The United States receives more than a third of all filings. 71 of the tracked records were filed at the USPTO, more than double the next-largest office, Europe's EPO at 36.
Filing growth compares 2021 (3 records) with 2024 (7) — 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 201 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the cold spray patent record shows
Cold spray additive manufacturing builds or repairs metal surfaces by accelerating powder particles to supersonic velocity so they bond on impact without melting. That solid-state deposition mechanism is the reason the technology shows up in wear-resistant coatings, turbine repair and structural build-up rather than in fusion-based additive processes. The patent record tracked here spans 201 families published between 2015 and mid-2026, concentrated overwhelmingly in coating and surface-deposition classifications.
Filing activity rose through the late 2010s, peaked at 25 families in 2023, and has since leveled off — a pattern more consistent with a maturing, incrementally-improved process than an emerging one. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures understate actual filing activity and should be read as provisional.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 201-family dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how those filings distribute across IPC subclasses.
A flat-to-declining filing curve
Annual filings moved from 20 in 2017 to a peak of 25 in 2023, passing through 15 at the 2022 midpoint. The 2026 figure of 3 is a partial year and not a genuine drop-off; even so, the multi-year trajectory reads as plateauing rather than accelerating.
Coating deposition dominates the classification mix
C23C (coating and surface deposition) appears in 198 of 201 records, effectively defining the field. B05B (spraying and atomising, 58 records), B22F (powder metallurgy, 26) and B05D (coating processes, 25) form the next tier, with welding/brazing, alloys, heat treatment and turbine applications each appearing in fewer than 15 records.
Shares are the percentage of the 201 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Cold Spray Additive Technology Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about cold spray additive technology landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe foundational and most-cited filings
US9109291B2 — Cold spray coating process
A cold spray coating process positions a nozzle relative to a rotating bearing assembly and directs powdered babbitt material through the nozzle onto the bearing surface, where it adheres to form a coating. A second configuration rotates the nozzle itself rather than the bearing assembly. Both routes avoid melting the powder, relying on kinetic-impact bonding to build the coating layer.Filed by GE Infrastructure Technology LLC, published 2015-08-18.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6780458B2 | Wear and erosion resistant alloys applied by cold spray technique | 99 |
| 2 | US20040202885A1 | Component having wear coating applied by cold spray process | 63 |
| 3 | US20040110021A1 | Wear and erosion resistant alloys applied by cold spray technique | 61 |
| 4 | JP2006052449A | Cold spray coating film formation method | 52 |
| 5 | US20190233946A1 | Cold spray metallic coating and methods | 32 |
| 6 | US20180180125A1 | Cold spray laser coated of iron/aluminum brake discs | 30 |
| 7 | EP2206804A1 | System and Method of Joining Metallic Parts Using Cold Spray Technique | 26 |
| 8 | WO2005061116A1 | Cold spray apparatus having powder preheating device | 26 |
| 9 | US9609874B1 | Metallic glassy alloy powders for antibacterial coating | 25 |
| 10 | US20170173611A1 | Cold spray nozzle assembly and a method of depositing a powder material onto a surface of a component using t… | 24 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had more time to accumulate citations within the searched corpus; treat this as a measure of historical influence, not of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns stand out once volume, classification and geography are read together.
Growth has plateaued, not accelerated
Filings ran from 20 in 2017 through a 2023 peak of 25, with 15 at the 2022 midpoint — a shape more typical of steady process refinement than of a technology in a growth phase. New entrants should expect to compete on process detail rather than open ground.
Coating deposition claims are the crowded core
Nearly every record in this dataset touches C23C, the coating and surface-deposition classification. Secondary clusters in spraying equipment (B05B) and powder metallurgy (B22F) are far thinner, which is where process-specific claims still have room to differentiate.
Filing strategy still centers on the US
The USPTO receives roughly twice the filings of the EPO, with WIPO/PCT, South Korea, China and Japan each in the mid-to-low teens. A US-first filing strategy remains the norm for this technology rather than a simultaneous multi-region push.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to cold spray additive technology landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| MCALPINE SAMUEL | JEPEAL STEVEN | 8 |
| Research Institute of Industrial Science & Technology (RIST), Postech | POSCO | 6 |
| Westinghouse Electric Company | Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation | 6 |
| Plasma Technology Industries Co., Ltd. | PLASMA GIKEN USA | 2 |
| Research Institute of Industrial Science & Technology (RIST), Postech | KWEON YOUNG GAK | 1 |
| Research Institute of Industrial Science & Technology (RIST), Postech | KIM HYUNG JUN | 1 |
Only 6 co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, the strongest linking individual inventors McAlpine and Jepeal on 8 shared records — co-development here tends to be bilateral rather than consortium-based.
Who holds the claim space
Filing activity is spread across industrial manufacturers, a research foundation and individual inventor teams, with no single assignee showing sustained momentum into the most recent year.
No assignee is currently accelerating
Of the assignees tracked for recent-year momentum, only Harz Labs shows any filing in the latest year (1), while General Electric, Postech, Plasma Technology Industries, Boeing and the University of Michigan's board of regents each show zero. This points to a lull in new filing activity across incumbents rather than a shift to a new leader.
Collaboration is limited and mostly institutional
The strongest co-assignee links pair Postech's research institute with its integrated steel arm, and Westinghouse Electric with the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation — both academic-industrial or intra-group pairings rather than cross-competitor alliances.
Early wear-coating patents still anchor the field
The most-cited record in the corpus, on wear- and erosion-resistant alloys applied by cold spray, has drawn 99 citations — a legacy filing that continues to shape how later coating-composition claims are drafted around it.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Harz Labs | 1 | — |
| The Regents of the University of Michigan | 0 | — |
| General Electric Company | 0 | — |
| Research Institute of Industrial Science & Technology (RIST), Postech | 0 | — |
| Plasma Technology Industries Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| The Boeing Company | 0 | — |
| Westinghouse Electric Company | 0 | — |
| United Technologies Corporation | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a mature core with narrow but real openings at its edges.
Map claims against the under-claimed branches
Cross-reference a candidate filing's claim language against the thin sub-areas identified here — nozzle control, turbine-specific repair, and post-process heat treatment — before drafting.
Explore white space in EurekaTrack the assignees still active
With most incumbents showing no filings in the latest tracked year, watch for the next filer to signal renewed competitive interest in this space.
Monitor assignee activity in EurekaCommon questions about cold spray patents
This dataset tracks 201 patent families filed between 2015 and mid-2026 that claim cold spray, cold spray additive manufacturing, or cold gas dynamic spraying under coating and powder-metallurgy classifications. It captures solid-state deposition processes used for coatings, repair and build-up, rather than fusion-based metal additive manufacturing like powder-bed fusion. The IPC composition confirms this: 198 of 201 records sit in C23C, the coating and surface-deposition classification.
The trend is flat to declining rather than growing. Filings moved from 20 in 2017 to a peak of 25 in 2023, passing through 15 at the 2022 midpoint, and the partial 2026 count of 3 should not be read as a collapse since publication lags actual filing by around 18 months. Overall the shape suggests a technology consolidating around known process improvements rather than expanding into new claim territory.
Filing is spread across industrial manufacturers, universities and individual inventor teams rather than concentrated under one dominant assignee. Recent-year momentum data shows most tracked incumbents, including General Electric, Boeing and Postech's research institute, recorded zero filings in the latest year, with only Harz Labs showing a single filing. Co-assignee patterns are similarly narrow, with just 6 pairs identified across the whole dataset.
US9109291B2, assigned to GE Infrastructure Technology LLC and published in 2015, covers cold spray coating of a bearing assembly using powdered babbitt material, in configurations where either the nozzle or the bearing rotates. Anyone building a bearing-repair or babbitt-coating process using cold spray should review its claims closely for overlap on nozzle-to-part relative motion. It is one of the more frequently cited application-specific filings in this space, indicating its claims are actively referenced by later filers.
The clearest gaps sit outside the dense coating-composition core: in-situ nozzle temperature control for particle bonding, turbine-specific repair geometries that overlap with F01D turbine classifications, post-deposition heat treatment of cold-sprayed layers, and high-deposition-rate multi-nozzle configurations all show thin representation relative to the 198-record C23C core. These are not guaranteed openings, but their low density relative to the core cluster makes them worth checking against prior art before drafting a new filing.
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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.