Differential Pressure Flow Measurement Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
- Concentrated at the top. The five most active assignees combined hold 30.6% of all 1,906 records in scope, with the leader alone accounting for 243 families.
- Filing has cooled from its peak. Activity peaked in 2021 at 99 filings and fell 68% to 32 by 2024, the last year the data can treat as complete.
- Flow measurement is the core, but not the whole story. G01F carries 57.9% of records, while body-fluid infusion (A61M) and wellbore control (E21B) each pull a meaningful share into adjacent claim territory.
Filing growth compares 2021 (99 records) with 2024 (32) — 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 1,906 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Differential pressure flow measurement infers flow rate from the pressure drop across a known restriction — an orifice plate, a flow nozzle, or a venturi — and it remains one of the most widely deployed metering principles in industrial process control. The claim language in this dataset clusters around beta ratio selection, discharge coefficient calibration, permanent pressure loss reduction, straight run requirement workarounds, impulse line design, and wet gas correction — the six technical anchors used to build this search.
The 1,906 records in scope span both classical process instrumentation and infusion-pump metering that borrows the same differential-pressure primary element, which explains why the technology composition reaches well beyond the core G01F flow-measurement class into medical devices and wellbore control.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 1,906 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim language.
A 2021 peak followed by a sharp pullback
Filings rose from 60 in 2017 to a peak of 99 in 2021, then fell 68% to 32 by 2024 — the last year the dataset can treat as complete, since publication typically lags filing by around 18 months and 2025-2026 counts will still fill in.
Flow measurement dominates, but infusion and wellbore claims are sizeable
G01F (flow, level & volume measuring) covers 57.9% of the 1,906 records. Behind it, A61M (body-fluid devices) at 9.7%, E21B (drilling and wells) at 7.2%, and G05D/G05B control classes together indicate that differential-pressure primary elements are being claimed as components inside larger control and delivery systems, not just as standalone meters.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,906 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Differential Pressure Flow Measurement with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about differential pressure flow measurement and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative filing
US20160238423A1 — Flow Metering
Methods and apparatus for the metering of two-component, single-phase fluid flow. A primary element of a differential pressure flow meter is used as a joint mixer and flow meter. Diagnostic techniques can be applied to detect and help determine the cause of erroneous meter readings. A volume meter can also be provided downstream of the differential pressure meter, and the respective outputs can be cross-referenced to produce a mass flow rate, volume flow rate and density output with no prior knowledge of fluid density required.Filed by Western Energy Support & Technology, Inc. on 2016-08-18, this filing illustrates how differential-pressure elements get combined with downstream volume meters to derive density without prior fluid knowledge — a pattern worth checking against before claiming similar cross-referencing schemes.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US7255012B2 | Process fluid flow device with variable orifice | 1,072 |
| 2 | US20130177455A1 | System, Method, and Apparatus for Infusing Fluid | 463 |
| 3 | US20130336814A1 | Apparatus for Infusing Fluid | 354 |
| 4 | US20160158437A1 | Apparatus and Method for Infusing Fluid Through a Tube by Appropriately Heating the Tube | 257 |
| 5 | US5529093A | Flow conditioner profile plate for more accurate measurement of fluid flow | 253 |
| 6 | US6654697B1 | Flow measurement with diagnostics | 250 |
| 7 | US5495872A | Flow conditioner for more accurate measurement of fluid flow | 240 |
| 8 | US5495769A | Multivariable transmitter | 231 |
| 9 | WO2013176770A2 | Apparatus for infusing fluid | 216 |
| 10 | US5606513A | Transmitter having input for receiving a process variable from a remote sensor | 215 |
Citation counts reward older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations within this searched corpus — read them as a signal of influence on later filers, not as a ranking of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three read-throughs from the concentration, timing and classification data above.
The top of the field is settled, but 69% is not
With the five most active assignees holding just under a third of all records, and the leader alone at 243, the remaining share is spread across a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants. That tail is where freedom-to-operate analysis needs the most care, since it is not covered by a small number of dominant portfolios.
Activity has pulled back sharply from its 2021 peak
Filings rose steadily from 60 in 2017 to 99 in 2021, then dropped to 32 by 2024. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025-2026 figures in the raw trend understate current activity and should not be read as a continuation of the decline.
Core flow-measurement claims still dominate, but adjacent classes are active
G01F carries the majority of records, but A61M, E21B, G05D and G05B together show differential-pressure primary elements being claimed inside infusion pumps, wellbore tools and control loops. A search limited to G01F alone would miss a meaningful share of relevant prior art sitting in those adjacent classes.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to differential pressure flow measurement, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and what has gone quiet
The assignee ranking spans 100 companies counted across the 1,906 records in scope — not a top-50 or top-100 cut, but the full ranking the data returns.
A single assignee holds the largest share by a wide margin
The leading assignee's 243 records sit well ahead of fifth place at 57 and tenth place at 31, meaning the drop-off after the top position is steep before the field flattens into a long tail.
Several historically active filers show no recent-year activity
Multiple assignees that built substantial portfolios, including the two largest, show zero filings in the latest year, with year-over-year drops of -100% where prior-year activity existed. This is consistent with the broader 2021-2024 pullback rather than an exit signal on its own, given the publication lag.
Filing activity clusters inside corporate families
The strongest co-assignee pairings link entities under the same corporate umbrella, with the top pairing appearing together on 27 records. This points to internal group filing strategy — subsidiaries and holding entities co-assigned on the same applications — rather than cross-company joint development.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Rosemount Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| DEKA Products LP | 0 | -100% |
| Dieterich Standard Inc. | 0 | — |
| Schlumberger Holdings Limited | 0 | — |
| MKS Instruments Inc. | 0 | — |
| Cameron International Corporation | 0 | — |
| Schlumberger Technology B.V. | 0 | — |
| Wave LTD V | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this
The dataset points to where claim space is dense and where it is thin. Turning that into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision means going deeper on the specific sub-areas that matter to your own product.
Map your own claims against the leader's portfolio
With one assignee holding 243 records, any new filing in core orifice-plate or beta-ratio territory should be checked against that portfolio specifically, not just the field average.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaTest the under-claimed branches
Wet gas correction, impulse line diagnostics and straight-run-free conditioning show thinner claim density than core G01F filings — worth a targeted novelty search before committing claim language.
Run a white space search in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
One assignee leads with 243 records in this dataset, well ahead of the fifth-ranked assignee at 57 and the tenth at 31. That gap indicates a steep drop-off after the top filer rather than a tightly bunched group of equally sized competitors. Beyond the leading names, the remaining share of the 1,906 records in scope is spread across a long tail of companies with far fewer filings each, so a freedom-to-operate check should not assume the field is fully covered by a handful of large portfolios.
Filing volume rose from 60 in 2017 to a peak of 99 in 2021, then fell 68% to 32 by 2024. Because patent publication typically lags the underlying filing date by around 18 months, 2025 and 2026 figures in any raw trend chart are still incomplete and should not be read as evidence of continued decline. Based on the complete years available, the honest read is a pullback from a 2021 peak rather than a technology in growth mode.
The core class is G01F (flow, level and volume measuring), covering 57.9% of the 1,906 records in scope. A meaningful share also falls in A61M (body-fluid devices, 9.7%), E21B (drilling and wells, 7.2%), G01L (force and pressure measurement, 6.8%), G01N (material analysis, 6.0%), and the control classes G05D and G05B. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100%, and a search limited to G01F alone would miss relevant prior art sitting in the adjacent classes.
US20160238423A1, filed by Western Energy Support & Technology, Inc. on 2016-08-18, covers methods for metering two-component, single-phase fluid flow using a differential pressure primary element as both a mixer and a flow meter, combined with diagnostics to detect erroneous readings and an optional downstream volume meter whose output is cross-referenced against the differential pressure reading to derive mass flow, volume flow and density without prior knowledge of fluid density. Anyone designing a system that infers density from a cross-referenced pair of flow measurements in a two-component stream should review this filing's specific claim scope before finalizing an approach. It is one representative record in a much larger corpus, not the only relevant prior art.
The technology composition data shows several branches with comparatively thin claim density relative to the dominant G01F flow-measurement class, including wet gas correction algorithms, impulse line self-diagnostics, beta ratio auto-selection logic, and permanent-pressure-loss-reducing geometries. These are not empty spaces, but the filing density is lower than in core orifice-plate and discharge-coefficient claims, which is where most of the top assignees' portfolios concentrate. A targeted novelty search in these specific sub-areas is more productive than a broad search against the whole G01F class.
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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.