Copper Alloy SLM Powder Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
Patent landscape analysis of copper alloy selective laser melting powder feedstock: filing trends, leading assignees, IPC composition and white space, based on 16 records published through 2026.
Filing growth = 2021 (1 records) → 2024 (3); 2024 is the last year we treat as complete. Top-5 share = the 5 largest assignees ÷ all 16 records in scope (CR5), not the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent filings at the intersection of copper alloy powder metallurgy and selective laser melting (SLM) feedstock — the compositions, particle-size control and atomisation routes used to make copper and copper-alloy powders printable. The scope is narrow by design: it captures documents that specifically claim a powder feedstock for copper-alloy SLM or laser-based additive processes, rather than every copper-containing additive manufacturing patent.
With only 16 published records in scope, this is a young, thinly populated corner of additive manufacturing IP. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent filing years understate real activity; the growth signal from 2021 to 2024 is the more reliable read on momentum.
Filing trend and technology composition
Sixteen published records, most routed through Chinese receiving offices, sketch a market still being staked out rather than divided up.
Filing trend: a small base, recent acceleration
Filings peaked at 5 in 2018, then thinned before rebuilding: 1 filing in 2021 rose to 3 in 2024, a 200% increase over that three-year span. Treat 2025 and 2026 figures as provisional given publication lag — they are not evidence of a slowdown.
Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in. Growth rates on this page therefore end at 2024; running them to the last bar would understate the field.
IPC composition: powder metallurgy and alloys dominate
B22F (powder metallurgy) and B33Y (additive manufacturing) each appear in all 16 records in scope, and C22C (alloys) in 14 of the 16 — confirming this is fundamentally a materials-and-process field. Smaller adjacent classes — A61L, B23K, C22F, C23C and C23F — each appear in just 1 of the 16 records, marking branches like sterilising applications, welding/brazing integration, post-processing heat treatment, coating and corrosion resistance as thinly claimed rather than absent.
Shares are the percentage of the 16 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
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Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited records
CN109530707A — Copper-chromium alloy powder for selective laser melting forming
The filing discloses a copper-chromium alloy powder for SLM forming, with chromium at 5%-50% by mass and copper as the balance. Pure copper powder is made by vacuum gas atomisation and screened to a 10-53 micron particle size range, chromium powder is produced by high-energy ball milling, and the two are combined via vacuum ball milling before drying, cooling and sieving. The method is presented as giving tight control over particle size and a uniform chromium distribution, producing a dense, compositionally uniform alloy powder.Filed by Xian Bright Additive Technology, dated 2019-03-29.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CN111992708A | 一种制备高性能金刚石/铜复合材料的方法 | 30 |
| 2 | CN114799206A | 用于催化电极多级结构高熵合金材料的制备方法及应用 | 11 |
| 3 | WO2019002122A1 | Method for producing a component containing copper using selective laser sintering | 9 |
| 4 | CN111872404A | 一种用于3D打印的铝铜合金粉末及其制备方法 | 7 |
| 5 | CN111394608A | 一种激光选区熔化增材制造用铜合金粉末的制备方法 | 7 |
| 6 | US20210154770A1 | Method for producing a component containing copper using selective laser sintering | 4 |
| 7 | CN114888305A | 一种铜合金激光选区熔化成形的方法 | 3 |
| 8 | CN109530707A | 一种用于激光选区熔化成形的铜铬合金粉末及其制备方法 | 3 |
| 9 | CN118268591A | SLM技术制备高强度高导电率铜铬合金的工艺方法 | 2 |
| 10 | CN112916849A | 一种适用于激光增材制造的无铍高强度铜合金粉末及其制备方法 | 2 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus and skew toward older filings; they are not a measure of current commercial 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 a filing decision
Four data points shape where a new filing would sit relative to existing claims.
The top of the field is compact, not crowded
The top 5 assignees together account for 56.3% of all 16 records in scope, with a single leader holding 4. That is concentration in absolute terms, but the base is small enough that a well-differentiated composition claim still has room to stand apart from the leader's filings rather than colliding with them directly.
Momentum is real but recent, and probably understated
Filings rose from 1 in 2021 to 3 in 2024. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, 2025-2026 figures will keep filling in for some time yet — the honest read is that interest is building, not that it has already peaked in 2018.
Filing activity sits overwhelmingly in China
Of the 16 records, 13 were filed at the Chinese receiving office, against 1 each for the EPO, the US and WIPO's PCT route. A filer targeting protection outside China in this niche is currently filing into largely open territory rather than against dense prior art.
Adjacent branches are barely claimed
Every record touches powder metallurgy (B22F) and additive manufacturing (B33Y), and most touch alloys (C22C), but sterilising, welding integration, post-treatment, coating and corrosion-resistance classes each carry only a single filing. These are the branches where a first mover could establish a clean claim rather than design around an incumbent.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to copper alloy selective laser melting powder feedstock patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps rather than a single conclusion.
Map the leader's claim boundaries precisely
With one assignee holding 4 of 16 records, understanding exactly what compositional ranges and process parameters that portfolio covers is the first task before drafting a competing claim.
Explore the leader's filings in Eureka →Test claim language against the under-claimed branches
Corrosion resistance, coating and post-processing heat treatment each carry only a single filing — draft a candidate claim and check it against that thin prior art before assuming the space is truly open.
Run a claim check in Eureka →Watch the 2021-2024 growth line for confirmation
The +200% rise to 2024 is the most recent complete-year signal; tracking whether 2025-2026 filings continue that trajectory, once publication catches up, will confirm whether this is a durable inflection or a one-off cluster.
Track filing trends in Eureka →Common questions about this landscape
This landscape identifies 16 published records worldwide through the 2026 data cut-off, spanning 16 patent families under the assignee ranking. That makes it a genuinely small, specialised field compared with broader additive manufacturing patent categories. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the true current total is somewhat higher than what has been published so far.
The ranked leaders span 13 companies, with a single assignee holding 4 of the 16 records and the fifth-ranked and tenth-ranked assignees holding progressively fewer. The top 5 assignees combined account for 56.3% of all 16 records, which is meaningful concentration in a field this small but still leaves room for new entrants, since no single filer holds anything close to a majority.
Filings rose from 1 in 2021 to 3 in 2024, a 200% increase over that three-year span, which is the clearest recent growth signal in the data. The historical peak year was 2018 with 5 filings. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete due to normal publication lag, so they should not be read as a slowdown.
CN109530707A, filed by Xian Bright Additive Technology, claims a copper-chromium alloy powder for SLM forming with chromium at 5-50% by mass, produced via vacuum gas atomisation, ball milling and a specific 10-53 micron particle size screen. It blocks copper-chromium compositions and process steps that fall within those disclosed ranges, but alloy systems outside the Cu-Cr pairing, or particle-size and atomisation methods clearly outside its stated ranges, sit outside its literal claim scope. A freedom-to-operate review should compare any new formulation's exact composition range and production method against this filing's specific numeric limits.
The IPC data shows sterilising applications (A61L), welding/brazing integration (B23K), post-processing heat treatment (C22F), surface coating (C23C) and corrosion resistance (C23F) each present in only 1 of the 16 records, against powder metallurgy and additive manufacturing classes present in all of them. That imbalance suggests the core powder-composition and atomisation claims are where existing filers concentrated their effort, leaving downstream processing and functional-property claims comparatively open for new filings.
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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.