Directed Energy Deposition Patents: Leaders, Trends & Gaps 2026
- Filing peaked in 2024 at 27 records, then the most recent full year shows momentum flattening rather than accelerating further.
- No single assignee dominates: the strongest recent-year filer logs just 1 record with 0% YoY change, pointing to a fragmented field rather than a consolidated one.
- India leads receiving offices with 37 filings, ahead of the United States at 31 and the EPO at 26 — filing strategy here is not US-centric.
Filing growth compares 2021 (20 records) with 2024 (27) — 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 130 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the filings cover
Directed energy deposition and repair sits at the intersection of welding, powder metallurgy and additive manufacturing: the search set spans 130 patent families filed between 2015 and mid-2026, built from a query that combines directed energy deposition, laser cladding repair and wire arc additive manufacturing with the process-control terms that separate a working claim from a generic one — deposition rate, dilution, distortion, in-situ monitoring and functionally graded structure. The IPC spread confirms the field is a hybrid: B23K (welding, soldering and brazing) touches 106 of the 130 records, B33Y (additive manufacturing) touches 86, and B22F (powder metallurgy) touches 69, meaning most filings claim across at least two of these classes at once.
Filing activity ran at zero in 2017 and built steadily to a peak of 27 records in 2024, with the 2022 midpoint at 8 filings — a trajectory that looks less like a technology plateauing and more like one still finding its claim boundaries. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025-2026 counts in any trend chart understate real filing activity for those years.
Let an AI agent run this analysis on your own technology
Pick a task. Every answer cites the patents behind it.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 130-family dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim weight.
Filing trend, 2015-2026
Filings sat at zero through 2017, climbed through the early 2020s, reached a peak of 27 in 2024, and stand at 8 for the most recent (partial) year — read the tail end as a floor, not a ceiling, given publication lag.
IPC subclass composition
B23K (welding, soldering & brazing) anchors the corpus at 106 of 130 records, with B33Y (additive manufacturing, 86) and B22F (powder metallurgy, 69) close behind; smaller counts in C22C (alloys, 10), G05B (control systems, 9), B23P (metal working, 5) and G06N (AI-based computing, 5) mark where control-loop and materials-composition claims are starting to appear but remain thin.
Shares are the percentage of the 130 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Directed Energy Deposition and Repair with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about directed energy deposition and repair and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRecords that anchor the field
Methods of forming a multi-principal element alloy (US20230191495A1)
The claim describes selecting a targeted multi-element composition, calculating a theoretical relative feed rate across two or more feedstock materials, stepping through a series of relative feed rates, and forming a functionally graded material article in a directed energy deposition test process by matching deposition feed rate to each step — then analyzing the resulting graded structure.Assignee: Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC · Published 2023-06-22
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20190184494A1 | Systems and methods for global thermal control of additive manufacturing | 28 |
| 2 | US20230264264A1 | Structural simulation of additively manufactured components | 13 |
| 3 | US20250196265A1 | Laser cladding repair method and apparatus for surface damage of part, and part | 9 |
| 4 | US20210276096A1 | Distortion mitigation in directed energy deposition | 9 |
| 5 | EP3045254A1 | Method and directed energy deposition material addition system using neuro-fuzzy logic for controlling materi… | 9 |
| 6 | WO2022090983A1 | Methods and apparatus for cognitive robotic additive manufacturing system based on the directed energy deposi… | 7 |
| 7 | US20240017340A1 | Systems for Horizontal Additive Manufacturing and Methods Thereof | 5 |
| 8 | US10406760B2 | Neuro-fuzzy logic for controlling material addition processes | 5 |
| 9 | US20240009740A1 | Additive manufacturing systems and methods for compression of material during material deposition | 4 |
| 10 | US20220193990A1 | In-situ digital image correlation and thermal monitoring in directed energy deposition | 4 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older, earlier-published records — treat this as a signal of influence on later filers, not a ranking of current technical importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Eureka on the web
When you want the answer in the next five minutes.
The agent works the prompt against patents and technical literature, citing every source.
Run your analysis now →MCP server & REST API
When it has to run inside your own pipeline.
Patent search, landscape analysis and assignee resolution as MCP tools. Drop them into any agent framework, or call REST directly.
Browse MCP servers →What the numbers say about the field
Three read-throughs from the filing trend, the IPC composition and the citation table.
Growth has flattened, not accelerated
The climb from 0 filings in 2017 to a peak of 27 in 2024, followed by a drop-off into the partial most-recent year, suggests the field built out its core claim space over roughly seven years rather than continuing to expand. A midpoint of 8 filings in 2022 confirms the growth phase was concentrated in 2022-2024.
Welding-class claims still dominate
B23K appears in 106 of 130 records, more than any other subclass, with B33Y (86) and B22F (69) layered on top in most filings. The smaller counts in G05B (9) and G06N (5) show that closed-loop control and AI-assisted monitoring claims exist but are far from saturated.
Thermal control set the reference point early
The most-cited record in this set addresses global thermal control of additive manufacturing, cited 28 times — well ahead of the next tier, which clusters around 9-13 citations for distortion mitigation, structural simulation and cladding repair method claims.
No assignee has pulled away
Recent-year momentum figures show the most active filers logging just 0 or 1 record in the latest year, several down -100% year over year from a prior single filing. That pattern is consistent with a long tail of occasional filers rather than a small group filing repeatedly.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to directed energy deposition and repair, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and how concentrated is activity
Co-assignee pairs are rare here — only 4 across the dataset — and recent-year filing counts per assignee are low, both signs that this is not yet a field with an entrenched incumbent.
Collaboration is the exception
Only 4 co-assignee pairs appear across 130 families, mostly linking related entities within the same corporate group rather than independent partners. Cross-organisation joint filing is not yet a common route into this space.
Several early filers have gone quiet
More than one assignee that filed in a prior year shows 0 filings in the latest year, a -100% year-over-year drop. Whether that reflects a shift to trade secret protection, project completion, or a lag in publication is not visible from filing counts alone.
India leads receiving offices, ahead of the US
India accounts for 37 filings, more than the United States (31) or the EPO (26), with WIPO PCT filings (12) and smaller counts in Australia and Singapore rounding out the set. A filing strategy built only around the USPTO and EPO would miss the largest single office in this dataset.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| GE Avio S.r.l. | 1 | 0% |
| DELHI TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY | 1 | -67% |
| Norsk Titanium | 0 | -100% |
| Relativity Space | 0 | -100% |
| BAE Systems plc | 0 | — |
| Raytheon Technologies Corporation | 0 | -100% |
| Rolls-Royce plc | 0 | — |
| Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati | 0 | — |
Where to take this
The filing and citation data point to a field still setting its claim boundaries rather than one with settled leaders.
Map the control-loop white space
G05B and G06N together touch just 14 of 130 records — closed-loop control and AI-assisted monitoring claims are comparatively open relative to the crowded welding and powder-metallurgy classes.
Explore in Patsnap Eureka →Watch for a consolidating filer
No assignee currently files more than 1 record per year in the recent-year momentum data; a shift to repeat filing from any single organisation would be an early signal worth tracking.
Set up monitoring in Patsnap Eureka →Reassess India-first filing strategy
With India ahead of both the US and EPO in receiving-office volume, competitive filers should confirm whether their own portfolio reflects that geographic weighting.
Run a geography analysis in Patsnap Eureka →Common questions on directed energy deposition patents
This category covers processes that add or repair metal by melting feedstock (wire or powder) with a directed energy source, most commonly a laser, electron beam or electric arc, directly onto a surface or into a build. It includes wire arc additive manufacturing and laser cladding repair, and the patent set here spans welding (IPC B23K), additive manufacturing (B33Y) and powder metallurgy (B22F) classes because most real filings claim across more than one of these areas at once. Process-control elements like deposition rate, dilution and distortion are central to how these claims are differentiated from generic welding or 3D-printing patents.
The dataset does not show a dominant filer: recent-year momentum figures put the most active assignees at just 0 or 1 filing in the latest year, and several organisations that filed previously show a -100% year-over-year drop to zero. This points to a fragmented competitive landscape with a long tail of occasional filers rather than a small number of firms filing repeatedly. Anyone assessing freedom to operate should look at the full ranking table rather than assuming a handful of household names control the space.
Filings were at zero in 2017, rose through the early 2020s to a midpoint of 8 in 2022, and peaked at 27 in 2024 before dropping in the most recent partial year. That drop should not be read as a real decline: publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so counts for 2025 and 2026 will keep rising as more applications publish. The overall shape — a build-up followed by a plateau — suggests the core claim space filled in over roughly seven years.
The IPC composition shows dense coverage in welding (B23K, 106 of 130 records), additive manufacturing (B33Y, 86) and powder metallurgy (B22F, 69), but much thinner coverage in control and computing classes: G05B (control systems) and G06N (AI-based computing) touch only 9 and 5 records respectively. That gap suggests closed-loop deposition control, AI-assisted in-situ defect monitoring, and functionally graded transition-zone claims are comparatively open relative to the crowded core process claims.
India leads with 37 filings in this dataset, ahead of the United States at 31 and the European Patent Office at 26. WIPO PCT filings account for 12, with Australia and Singapore each in single digits. This geographic weighting toward India is notable and means a filing or freedom-to-operate strategy built solely around the US and Europe would miss the largest single receiving office in the set.
Research Directed Energy Deposition and Repair in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole directed energy deposition and repair corpus yourself, in your own scope.
Every answer comes back with patent numbers you can open.
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.