DLC Coatings for Lubricated Engine Contacts Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
- Filing has plateaued, not grown. the trend peaked at 8 records in 2022 and has since flattened, with the most recent year understated by publication lag.
- The field is moderately concentrated. the top 5 assignees hold 41.1% of all 90 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 63.3%.
- Coating deposition dominates the class mix. C23C (coating & surface deposition) appears on 24.4% of records, more than any other IPC subclass, with force/pressure sensing (G01L) a distant second at 16.7%.
Filing growth compares 2021 (3 records) with 2024 (2) — 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 90 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks 90 published patent records matching diamond-like carbon (DLC) coating claims tied to friction, wear, adhesion, surface morphology or running-in behaviour — the technical language that distinguishes lubricated-contact coating work from decorative or purely electronic DLC use. The scope spans filings from 2015 through the 2026-07-31 data cut-off, and captures both dedicated cam-follower and valve-train coating claims and a wider set of adjacent DLC applications that share the same underlying deposition and tribology art.
Because DLC coating claims are frequently pursued across several receiving offices and refiled as continuations, the 90-record set is best read as patent families rather than raw filing volume — the ranking below already reflects that unit. Readers should treat any drop in the most recent year as a publication-lag artefact rather than a real slowdown, since grants and publications typically trail filing by around 18 months.
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Filing trend and technology composition
The filing curve and the IPC mix together describe a field that grew steadily into the early 2020s, plateaued, and now sits with claim density concentrated in a handful of coating and measurement classes.
A flat-to-declining trend after a 2022 peak
Filings rose from a single record in 2017 to a peak of 8 in 2022, then held roughly flat through the remainder of the window. With 2022 as the midpoint of that run, the shape reads as plateaued rather than growing — a sign that core deposition and tribology claim space filled early in the period and later filers are working narrower variations rather than opening new ground.
Coating deposition leads; sensing and electronics follow
C23C (coating & surface deposition) is the single most-claimed subclass at 24.4% of the 90 records, consistent with DLC's core identity as a deposition technology. G01L (force & pressure measurement) follows at 16.7%, reflecting how often DLC-coated contacts are claimed alongside sensing or measurement functions rather than as standalone tribological coatings. Smaller shares in H01G, H10N, H01L, B32B, H05K and A61C show the coating's claim footprint reaching into capacitors, solid-state devices, laminates, circuit assemblies and even dental applications — evidence that DLC's wear and adhesion properties are being claimed well beyond engine valve trains.
Shares are the percentage of the 90 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on DLC Coatings for Lubricated Engine Contacts with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about dlc coatings for lubricated engine contacts and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative and most-cited filings
US8603632B2 — Diamond like carbon coating of substrate housings
Embodiments comprise articles with a diamond-like carbon coating or doped DLC coating on one or more surfaces of a plastic substrate or enclosure. The coatings reduce gas permeation of the plastic to hydrogen or helium, provide surface resistivity in the 10^7 to 10^14 ohm/square range, and reduce transmittance relative to the underlying substrate across a defined wavelength band.Filed by Entegris, Inc.; granted 2013-12-10.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5393572A | Ion beam assisted method of producing a diamond like carbon coating | 94 |
| 2 | US20190114526A1 | Smartcard constructions and methods | 80 |
| 3 | JP2007283726A | Shaped article and manufacturing method for the same | 30 |
| 4 | US20100017346A1 | Diamond like carbon coating of substrate housings | 20 |
| 5 | US5922415A | Lubrication of magnetic disk storage media | 15 |
| 6 | US10599972B2 | Smartcard constructions and methods | 14 |
| 7 | US20130075977A1 | Piston ring for engine and manufacturing method thereof | 14 |
| 8 | US20080217172A1 | Apparatus For Measuring Electrochemical Corrosion | 14 |
| 9 | US20150377730A1 | Process pressure transmitter with seal having diamond like carbon coating | 10 |
| 10 | US20140247560A1 | System and method to facilitate thermal transfer for motor drive features using diamond like carbon coating | 10 |
Citation counts favour older filings within the searched corpus and should be read as a signal of influence, not current commercial weight.
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
Three patterns stand out once the ranking, the trend and the class mix are read together: moderate concentration at the top, a plateaued filing rate, and a class footprint wider than the tribology use case alone would suggest.
Leadership is real but not locked in
The top 5 assignees hold 41.1% of all 90 records and the top 10 hold 63.3% — enough to show a genuine leadership cluster, but with nearly 37% of records held outside the top 10, there is still room for a well-differentiated new entrant.
The curve has flattened since its peak
Filings climbed from a single record in 2017 to 8 in 2022 and have not exceeded that level since. Combined with an 18-month publication lag, this points to a field where the core deposition art is largely staked out rather than one still in a growth phase.
The oldest foundational patent still carries the most weight
US5393572A, an ion-beam-assisted DLC deposition method, leads citations at 94 — well ahead of newer entries. That gap is typical of citation counts in a searched corpus, which structurally favour older records rather than indicating current commercial relevance.
Deposition claims dominate, but adjacent classes are active
C23C carries the largest single share of records, yet G01L, H01G, H10N and H01L together show DLC coating claims reaching into sensing, capacitor and solid-state device contexts well beyond engine tribology.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to dlc coatings for lubricated engine contacts, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the ground, and where filing has stalled
The ranked assignee list spans 50 companies across 90 records, led by a top filer with 10 records; the fifth-ranked assignee holds 5 and the tenth-ranked holds 4. None of the most active named assignees show any filings in the latest year, consistent with the field's flat recent trend rather than a signal specific to any one company.
A single leader, then a fast drop-off
The top-ranked assignee holds 10 records, more than double the fifth-place holder's 5 — a steep early drop that flattens out through the rest of the ranked list.
Collaboration is limited and clustered
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, with the strongest pairs each sharing 4 co-filed records — evidence of a handful of close working relationships rather than broad industry-wide collaboration.
Recent-year activity has gone quiet across the leaders
None of the most active named assignees in the ranking recorded a filing in the latest year, which lines up with the overall plateau in the trend line rather than pointing to any single company exiting the space.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Rosemount Inc. | 0 | — |
| STUART MARTIN A | 0 | — |
| Southwest Research Institute | 0 | — |
| Entegris, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Oerlikon Surface Solutions AG, Pfäffikon | 0 | — |
| Nittan Valve Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| OBEID VICTOR K | 0 | — |
| NEARY MICHAEL D | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The data points to a field with a settled core and unclaimed edges. Two directions follow directly from what the ranking and class mix show.
Map claims against the top-cited prior art
Before drafting in the C23C core, check new claim language against the highest-cited records in this set, since deposition method claims from the 1990s still anchor much of the citation graph.
Explore citation map in Eureka →Probe the under-claimed adjacent classes
H10N, H05K and A61C carry single-digit record shares but show DLC's wear and adhesion properties are being claimed outside tribology altogether — worth a freedom-to-operate check before assuming the space is empty.
Run a white space search in Eureka →Frequently asked questions
Diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings are applied to lubricated contact surfaces such as cam followers and valve train components to reduce friction and wear under boundary and mixed lubrication conditions. The coatings are typically deposited using ion-beam-assisted or plasma-based methods, and claims in this landscape frequently tie coating composition to measured friction coefficient, adhesion strength or surface morphology after running-in. Beyond engine parts, the same coating chemistry appears in this dataset applied to plastic housings, capacitors and semiconductor devices, showing the tribological benefit is claimed well outside the automotive context alone.
The ranked assignee list in this dataset covers 50 companies across 90 records, led by a single filer with 10 records. Filing is moderately concentrated: the top 5 assignees hold 41.1% of all records and the top 10 hold 63.3%, leaving a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants. No individual leader shows filing activity in the most recent tracked year, consistent with the field's overall plateau.
Not currently. Filings rose from a single record in 2017 to a peak of 8 in 2022, and have not exceeded that level since, indicating a plateau rather than continued growth. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent year in any such dataset will always look artificially low, so a flattening trend should be read with that lag in mind rather than assumed to be a hard stop.
US8603632B2, assigned to Entegris, Inc. and granted in 2013, claims diamond-like carbon or doped DLC coatings on plastic substrates or enclosures, specified by gas permeation reduction, a defined surface resistivity range and a defined transmittance reduction. It is scoped to plastic and thermoplastic substrates rather than metal engine components, so its blocking effect is narrower than the coating technology generally; anyone working on doped DLC over plastic housings with similar resistivity or permeation targets should review its claim language closely, while metal-substrate tribological coating work sits further from its literal scope.
The IPC composition shows C23C (coating and deposition) carrying the largest share of records at 24.4%, while several adjacent classes — H10N, H05K and A61C among them — each carry single-digit shares of the 90 records in scope. That gap suggests DLC's friction, wear and adhesion properties are comparatively under-claimed in printed-circuit, solid-state device and dental contexts relative to the deposition core, making those adjacent branches worth a closer freedom-to-operate look before assuming they are crowded.
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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.