Electrode Drying Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Four assignees account for all 26 records in scope, meaning the entire ranked field — not just the top tier — sits with a small group of filers.
- F26B (drying) and H01M (batteries) each cover 69.2% of records, confirming that claims are drawn as much from thermal-process engineering as from cell chemistry.
- Filing peaked at 12 records in 2023, with the most recent year understated by the usual publication lag rather than a genuine slowdown.
What this landscape covers
Electrode drying governs how fast a coated electrode can move through an oven without cracking its active layer or letting binder migrate to the surface, and NMP solvent recovery determines how much of the process solvent used in cathode coating is captured rather than vented or destroyed. Patents in this space sit at the intersection of drying-process control and cell manufacturing, which is why the IPC composition below spans thermal engineering classes as heavily as battery classes. Publication lag of roughly 18 months means the most recent filing year is always undercounted relative to where it will eventually land.
The 26 records in scope run from 2015 through the 2026 cut-off, concentrated among a small number of assignees rather than spread across a long tail of single-filing entrants.
Let an AI agent run this analysis on your own technology
Pick a task. Every answer cites the patents behind it.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 26 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims are drawn from.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings rose from a standing start toward a peak of 12 records in 2023, then move into a data window that will fill in further as later-filed applications publish; treat the tail years as a floor, not a ceiling.
IPC subclass composition
F26B (drying) and H01M (batteries, cells and fuel cells) each cover 69.2% of the 26 records, with H01L (semiconductor devices) at 23.1% and H10K (organic semiconductors, including OLED) at 19.2% showing that drying-process claims are frequently drafted broadly enough to read across adjacent coated-film manufacturing. G05D (control of non-electric variables) at 15.4% and B05C (coating apparatus) at 3.8% mark the thinner, more specialised ends of the classification spread.
Shares are the percentage of the 26 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Electrode Drying and Solvent Recovery with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about electrode drying and solvent recovery and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited records
Electrode drying system and electrode drying method
The present application provides an electrode drying system and an electrode drying method that number adjustment of first drying zones and heat quantity compensation in drying zones around the first drying zones can be automatically performed by determining locations of first drying zones in a constant rate section state, to which a drying target electrode moves, based on an electrode surface temperature, and adjusting the desired adhesive force and drying rate of the drying target electrode.Filed by LG Energy Solution Ltd., published 2025-12-24 as EP4668347A1.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | KR1020250062140A | Electrode drying system and electrode drying method | 4 |
| 2 | US20200135946A1 | Method for manufacturing organic solar cell and organic solar cell manufactured using same | 3 |
Citation counts reward older records simply for having had more time to be cited; read them as a signal of influence within this corpus, not as a ranking of current relevance.
Publication numbers are shown where the record carries one (2 of 2 rows); 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 data means for filing strategy
Three read-outs from the composition and concentration figures above, translated into what they mean for a team deciding where to file.
The whole field sits with four assignees
The top 5 and top 4 combined figures are identical at 26 of 26 records, because only four assignees appear in the ranking at all. There is no long tail of small filers to route around here; anyone entering this space is filing directly against a small, concentrated set of holders.
Drying-process claims dominate as much as battery claims
F26B (drying) and H01M (batteries) each cover the same 69.2% share of the 26 records, showing that most filings claim the thermal process itself, not just its application to a cell. That overlap is where cross-industry drying patents (coating, OLED manufacture) become relevant prior art.
Activity peaked in 2023, not in the latest window
The filing trend rises to a peak of 12 records in 2023 before the most recent years, which are understated by publication lag rather than a real drop-off. Recent-year momentum by assignee shows flat or declining counts, but this reflects the reporting window more than a cooling field.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to electrode drying and solvent recovery, with the prior art for and against each one.
Leading assignees and where they are not yet claiming
Four assignees make up the entire ranked field for this search, with LG-affiliated entities filing most heavily and two other assignees showing no filings in the latest year.
LG-affiliated filers lead by a wide margin
The leading assignee holds 17 of the 26 records in scope, making it the dominant filer in electrode drying and solvent recovery claims within this dataset. Its representative filing, EP4668347A1, claims automatic zone-based heat compensation tied to electrode surface temperature.
No assignee shows fresh activity in the latest year
Recent-year momentum is flat at zero for every ranked assignee, with two showing a -100% year-over-year change. Given the 18-month publication lag, this is expected rather than a sign that the field has gone quiet.
A small, closed set of holders
With only four assignees returned by the ranking and all 26 records accounted for among them, this is not a fragmented field with room for a quiet entry — any new filer is negotiating claim space directly against these holders.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| LG Energy Solution Ltd. | 0 | — |
| LG Chem Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Northvolt AB | 0 | -100% |
| SK On Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The figures above describe the shape of the field; the next steps depend on whether you are clearing a filing or scouting a gap.
Check freedom-to-operate against the leader's claims
With one assignee holding 17 of 26 records, a freedom-to-operate review should start with its zone-based drying and heat-compensation claims before looking elsewhere.
Explore claims in EurekaMap the white space chips against your process
The under-claimed branches above are starting points, not conclusions; a closer read of the underlying claims will show whether they are truly open or simply under-indexed by this search string.
Run a deeper search in EurekaCommon questions about electrode drying and solvent recovery patents
Within this 26-record dataset, one assignee leads with 17 records, well ahead of the other three ranked filers. All four ranked assignees together account for the entire 26-record set, so there is no long tail of smaller filers in this particular search. Anyone assessing the competitive landscape should treat this as a concentrated field rather than a fragmented one.
The two largest IPC subclasses are F26B (drying) and H01M (batteries, cells and fuel cells), each covering 69.2% of the 26 records, meaning most filings combine a thermal-process claim with a battery-manufacturing application. Smaller but notable shares fall in H01L (semiconductor devices) and H10K (organic semiconductors), which suggests drying-process claims sometimes read across into coated-film manufacturing outside batteries. Coating apparatus (B05C) is the thinnest class at 3.8%, and G05D (non-electric variable control) sits at 15.4%.
The filing trend peaked at 12 records in 2023, with fewer records showing in the years immediately after. That drop is very likely an artefact of publication lag — patents typically take around 18 months from filing to publication — rather than a genuine decline in filing activity. A growth rate cannot be reliably computed from the recent years for the same reason, so treat any apparent slowdown at the tail of the chart with caution.
EP4668347A1, filed by LG Energy Solution Ltd. and published 2025-12-24, claims an electrode drying system that automatically adjusts the number and location of first drying zones and compensates heat in surrounding zones based on electrode surface temperature, in order to hit target adhesive force and drying rate. It is a representative filing from the leading assignee in this dataset, which holds 17 of the 26 records in scope. Anyone designing a zone-based, temperature-responsive drying oven for electrode coating should review this claim set closely before finalising a control architecture.
The IPC composition points to thinner coverage in coating-apparatus integration (B05C, 3.8% of records) relative to the dominant drying and battery classes, and the search terms suggest condensation-based solvent recovery loops and in-line crack-formation detection are not heavily claimed on their own. These are starting hypotheses based on class shares and citation patterns, not a guarantee of open claim space, so they warrant a targeted freedom-to-operate search before committing engineering resources.
Research Electrode Drying and Solvent Recovery in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole electrode drying and solvent recovery 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.