DED Machine & Melt-Pool Monitoring Patent Snapshot
The indexed corpus for DED machine and melt-pool monitoring is extremely small, with only 2 patent families in scope and all activity concentrated in the United States. Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems are the only identified filers, signalling that this specific monitoring sub-domain remains nascent or largely unpublished at the patent level.
Rolls-Royce leads a highly concentrated, early-stage corpus
The applicant ranking shows three filers — Rolls-Royce Corp, Rolls-Royce PLC, and BAE Systems PLC — each contributing one patent record, making this one of the most concentrated fields in the additive-manufacturing space.
The top five filers collectively account for 100% of the ranked applicants visible in this query’ combined total, a concentration level that indicates effectively no secondary tier of challengers has yet emerged in the indexed corpus.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rolls-Royce Corp | 1 | |
| 2 | Rolls-Royce PLC | 1 | |
| 3 | BAE Systems PLC | 1 |
Rolls-Royce’s presence through two distinct legal entities (Corp and PLC) suggests coordinated IP activity across its US and UK operations, while BAE Systems’ single record indicates exploratory rather than committed filing behaviour.
The corpus covers a 10-year window; the most recent 18–24 months are typically under-counted due to patent publication lag, so the true breadth of recent activity may be larger than these figures reflect. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Sporadic filing pattern; powder metallurgy and additive manufacturing dominate the IPC mix
Two charts together reveal both the temporal pace of filings and the technology branches that filers are pursuing within the DED melt-pool monitoring sub-domain.
Annual filing trend
Activity appears only in 2021 and 2024, with all other years recording zero filings. This sparse, non-consecutive pattern reflects an early-stage or niche sub-domain rather than a sustained research programme. Given publication lag, any 2024–2026 filings may not yet be fully visible.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
B22F (Powder metallurgy) and B33Y (Additive manufacturing / 3D printing) each appear against both records, confirming that powder-bed and directed-energy deposition process control is the core technical framing. Secondary classes G06N (AI-based computing) and G16C (Computational chemistry) appear once each, hinting at data-driven and simulation-linked monitoring approaches.
↗ 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.
Adaptive focus for advanced directed energy deposi…
An additive manufacturing system includes an energy delivery device configured to deliver energy to a build surface of an additively-manufactured component being manufactured to form a melt pool in the build surface of the component. The system further includes a powder delivery device, a melt pool monitor configured to observe the melt pool, and a… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
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.
Rolls-Royce Corp
Rolls-Royce Corp holds 1 patent record, concentrated in B22F powder metallurgy sub-classes (B22F 5, B22F 10, B22F 12), indicating a focus on process control during metal powder DED operations. Momentum is flagged as a new entrant, consistent with its single recent filing.
families: 1BAE Systems PLC
BAE Systems PLC contributes 1 patent record spanning B22F (powder metallurgy), B29C (shaping of plastics), and B33Y (additive manufacturing), suggesting a broader process scope that includes both metal and polymer AM monitoring. No momentum data is recorded for BAE Systems in the applicant momentum evidence.
families: 1Frequently asked questions
The indexed corpus contains 2 patent families in scope. This is a very small corpus, and the true volume of relevant IP may be larger once publication-lag effects and broader search strategies are accounted for.
The three identified applicants are Rolls-Royce Corp, Rolls-Royce PLC, and BAE Systems PLC, each holding 1 patent record. Rolls-Royce’s two entities together represent the visible presence in the indexed corpus.
All 2 patent records in the corpus are filed in the United States. No other jurisdictions appear in the current evidence, reflecting the US-centric IP strategy of the identified defence and aerospace filers.
B22F (Powder metallurgy) and B33Y (Additive manufacturing / 3D printing) each appear against both records and are the visible classes. G06N (AI-based computing), G16C (Computational chemistry), and B29C (Shaping of plastics) each appear once as secondary classifications.
The only recorded co-filing is between Rolls-Royce Corp and Rolls-Royce PLC, which represents intra-group coordination. No external partnerships with other companies, universities, or research institutes appear in the collaboration evidence.
The lifecycle evidence classifies the field at a Maturity stage, with annual filings plateaued near their peak. However, given that the peak volume is a single filing (2021) and the corpus contains only 2 records, this classification reflects a plateau at a very low absolute base rather than the saturation seen in large established technology fields.
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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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