DED In-situ Process Monitoring Patent Snapshot 2026
The patent corpus for directed energy deposition in-situ process monitoring is nascent, with only 4 patent families on record and GKN Aerospace Services holding the largest single position. The United Kingdom is the dominant filing jurisdiction, and Rolls-Royce’s recent entries signal early-stage competitive broadening in what remains a highly open field.
GKN Aerospace leads a highly concentrated, early-stage field
GKN Aerospace Services Ltd holds the top-ranked position with 2 patent records, accounting for half the identifiable corpus. The top five filers collectively account for all of the ranked applicants visible in this query’ combined total, reflecting extreme concentration in a field that has attracted only a handful of applicants to date.
There is effectively no tier gap to speak of: all remaining filers — JB Institute of Inventors Association, Rolls-Royce Corp, and Rolls-Royce PLC — each hold a single patent record. The absence of a mid-tier signals that no challenger has yet built a material portfolio behind the leader.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GKN Aerospace Services Ltd | 2 | |
| 2 | JB Institute of Inventors Association | 1 | |
| 3 | Rolls-Royce Corp | 1 | |
| 4 | Rolls-Royce PLC | 1 |
GKN Aerospace’s position, focused on additive manufacturing process control and image-based monitoring, suggests an early-mover advantage in aerospace-grade DED quality assurance. However, with so few total families, even a modest new filing campaign by any entrant could materially shift rankings.
The most recent 18–24 months of filings are subject to publication lag and likely under-represent current activity; the 2024–2025 data points should be treated as floors rather than final counts. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Sparse filing history with a recent revival and a dominant additive-manufacturing classification
The annual filing trend and technology composition together reveal a field that produced an initial cluster of activity in 2017, then went dormant, and has only recently seen renewed filings in 2024–2025. The IPC mix confirms that additive manufacturing classifications anchor the corpus, with secondary branches in image processing and powder metallurgy.
Annual filing trend
Two filings appeared in 2017, followed by zero activity through 2023, then single filings in 2024 and 2025. Given publication lag, 2024–2025 counts are almost certainly undercounted and should not be read as the full picture of current activity.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
B33Y (additive manufacturing) covers all 4 records, marking it as the defining classification. B29C (shaping/plastics — here applied to extrusion-based AM process control) and G06T (image data processing) each cover 2 records, pointing to vision-based monitoring as the core technical approach. B22F (powder metallurgy), G06N (AI models), and A61B (diagnosis/surgery) each appear once, indicating exploratory adjacent applications.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
Defect detection and correction
Boundary detection for an object manufactured by 3D printing comprises receiving 21 an, IR or near-infrared, first image of a first layer of the object. A computer aided design (CAD) model representing the object is sliced 23 into slices, a slice corresponding to the first layer is selected 24 and output 25 as a second image having a border representing an… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Defect detection and correction | 2 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
Assignee snapshot from the current evidence set
The applicants below are visible in this query result. Because the evidence set is relatively small, read this section as a directional snapshot rather than a full competitive ranking.
GKN Aerospace Services Ltd
GKN Aerospace Services holds 2 patent records, the largest position in the corpus, concentrated in B29C 64 (AM process shaping), B33Y 50 (AM data/control), and G06T 7 (image data processing). This combination indicates a vision-based, closed-loop monitoring approach for DED quality assurance. No momentum data was available for the prior period, so trajectory cannot be directly compared, but its early 2017 filings established the field’s initial prior-art baseline.
patent records: 2Rolls-Royce Corp & Rolls-Royce PLC
Rolls-Royce Corp and Rolls-Royce PLC each hold 1 patent record and are both tagged as new entrants in the most recent filing window, indicating their DED monitoring activity is a recent strategic addition. Their technical focus spans B22F 10, B22F 12, and B22F 5 — all powder metallurgy subclasses — pointing to process monitoring integrated with metal powder feed and layer formation rather than optical/vision approaches. The intra-group co-filing structure suggests a coordinated global filing strategy.
patent records: 1 eachFrequently asked questions
The evidence covers 4 patent families in scope. This is a very small corpus, indicating the field is in an early or pre-growth stage with substantial room for new entrants to establish foundational positions.
GKN Aerospace Services Ltd holds the largest position with 2 patent records, placing it at the top of the applicant ranking. All other filers — JB Institute of Inventors Association, Rolls-Royce Corp, and Rolls-Royce PLC — each hold 1 patent record.
The United Kingdom is the lead office with 2 patent records, followed by India and the United States with 1 each. Major manufacturing jurisdictions such as Germany, Japan, and China do not appear in the current evidence.
B33Y (additive manufacturing) covers all 4 records and is the defining classification. B29C (shaping, applied here to AM process control) and G06T (image data processing) each cover 2 records. B22F (powder metallurgy), G06N (AI models), and A61B (diagnosis and surgery) each appear once.
Both Rolls-Royce Corp and Rolls-Royce PLC are tagged as new entrants based on applicant momentum data, meaning their DED in-situ monitoring filings appear only in the most recent filing window. They filed jointly as part of an intra-group co-filing, focusing on powder metallurgy process subclasses.
Defect detection and correction is identified as the subject of the most-cited patent record in the corpus, with 2 citations. This aligns with the G06T (image processing) branch present in GKN Aerospace’s portfolio and points to closed-loop quality assurance as the field’s central technical challenge.
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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.
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