Expanded Perlite & Vermiculite Patents: Top Companies, Trends 2026
- Filing has flattened, not grown. the field peaked at 32 filings in 2019 and sat at 24 by 2022 — a plateau, not an expansion.
- Ceramics and refractories dominate the claim space. C04B alone covers 57.7% of the 1,372 records in scope, dwarfing every other IPC subclass.
- No single assignee controls the field. the leader holds 56 records and the top 5 combined account for just 16.4% of all 1,372 records — a long tail follows.
What this dataset covers
This landscape draws on 1,372 published patent records filed between 2015 and mid-2026 that reference expanded perlite, exfoliated vermiculite, or lightweight mineral aggregate in claims tied to bulk density, expansion ratio, cryogenic insulation, filter-aid grade, dust handling, or fireproofing board applications. The scope spans lightweight construction aggregates, filtration media, polymer additive systems and horticultural substrates built on these two minerals.
Filing activity is concentrated in China, the United States and the United Kingdom, with a smaller but active pool of European and PCT filings. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent year in any trend here understates real activity.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 1,372 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which technical classes carry the claim density.
A decade of flat-to-declining filing
Filings rose from 30 in 2017 to a peak of 32 in 2019, then eased back to 24 by the 2022 midpoint before continuing to soften. This is a mature, cyclical field rather than one in active expansion — new entrants are filing into established claim territory rather than opening new ground.
Ceramics and refractories carry the weight
C04B (ceramics, cement and refractories) appears on 57.7% of the 1,372 records, far ahead of separation processes (B01D, 7.9%), polymer additives (C08K, 7.6%) and catalysis-related processes (B01J, 7.1%). Building structures (E04B, 5.4%) and horticulture (A01G, 4.7%) trail further back, marking them as smaller but less contested pockets of the same dataset.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,372 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
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Try EurekaThe records shaping this field
US9011708B2 — Thermal insulator using closed cell expanded perlite
Filed by Kyungdong One Corporation, this patent claims a thermal insulator built from 10–84 wt% expanded perlite with a closed-cell surface, combined with 15–85 wt% liquid binder and 0.25–5 wt% reinforcing fiber. The claimed formulation reduces compression ratio during molding to lower density while improving constructability.Published 2015-04-21
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US4159302A | Fire door core | 251 |
| 2 | US4454267A | Lightweight joint compound | 181 |
| 3 | US8038790B1 | High performance non-combustible gypsum-cement compositions with enhanced water durability and thermal stabil… | 170 |
| 4 | US4051056A | Abrasive scouring compositions | 148 |
| 5 | US5395438A | Mineral wool-free acoustical tile composition | 146 |
| 6 | US4343127A | Fire door | 141 |
| 7 | US4462835A | Lightweight building material and method of producing the same | 140 |
| 8 | US4288959A | Roofing or siding article | 135 |
| 9 | US5256222A | Lightweight building material board | 131 |
| 10 | US5465547A | Lightweight cementitious roofing | 117 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus and favour older filings; they are not a measure of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Four patterns stand out once the ranking, the trend line and the class breakdown are read together.
No dominant gatekeeper
The leading assignee holds 56 records out of 1,372, and the top 5 combined reach only 16.4% of the field. Compare that to the tenth-ranked assignee at 21 records — the drop from leader to rank ten is steep, then the tail flattens into many single- and few-filing entrants.
Ceramics claims crowd the space
More than half of all records touch C04B — ceramics, cement and refractories. That density makes new fireproofing-board or lightweight-cement claims harder to clear without running into prior art; the smaller classes (E04B, A01G) carry comparatively less prior claim traffic.
A plateaued field
Filing volume peaked in 2019 and has not returned to that level since. None of the assignees with recent-year momentum data show growth into the most recent year, suggesting incumbents are maintaining rather than expanding portfolios.
China leads by filing count
China's 316 filings lead the United States (237) and United Kingdom (159), with Europe, Canada and WIPO/PCT filings trailing. A filer prioritising defensive coverage in this field would weight China and the US first based on filing volume alone.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to expanded perlite and vermiculite products, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranked leaders hold a modest share of the field individually, but a small number of co-filing relationships reveal where sustained collaborative programs exist.
A modest lead, not a monopoly
The top assignee's 56 records represent a real but non-dominant position; with the top 5 combined reaching only 16.4% of all 1,372 records, no single organisation can be said to control the claim space.
A few durable filing partnerships
The strongest co-assignee pair appears together 6 times, with two other pairs recurring 4–5 times. These recurring pairings likely reflect named-inventor or joint R&D arrangements rather than one-off collaborations.
Incumbents have gone quiet recently
Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum shows zero filings in the latest year. Given the roughly 18-month publication lag, some of this is an artefact of timing rather than an actual stop in R&D — but the pattern is consistent across leaders, not isolated to one firm.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| United States Gypsum Co. | 0 | — |
| Advanced Minerals Corp | 0 | — |
| Jiang Wenlan | 0 | — |
| Promat Research & Technology Center | 0 | — |
| Windsor Tech Ltd | 0 | — |
| Georgia Pacific Gypsum LLC | 0 | — |
| Johns Manville Corp | 0 | — |
| Reckitt & Colman Products Limited | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a mature field with concentrated technology claims but no dominant single filer — the next step is testing a specific formulation or claim against that backdrop.
Check freedom-to-operate against the C04B cluster
With 57.7% of records touching ceramics and refractories, any new cementitious or fireproofing formulation should be checked against this cluster first, not treated as a peripheral search.
Run a claim check in Eureka →Map the under-claimed branches to a filing strategy
The smaller classes — building structures, horticulture, catalysis-adjacent processes — carry less prior art density and may offer cleaner claim territory for new formulations.
Explore white space in Eureka →Common questions about this landscape
The ranking covers 100 assignees drawn from 1,372 records, and it is a long-tail field rather than one led by a single dominant player. The top-ranked assignee holds 56 records, and the top 5 combined account for only 16.4% of all records in scope. That means competitive intelligence work in this space needs to track a broad set of mid-sized filers rather than assuming one or two companies set the pace.
Filing peaked at 32 records in 2019 and had eased to 24 by the 2022 midpoint, with further softening since. This points to a mature, plateaued field rather than one in active expansion. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent years in any dataset will always look lower than they eventually turn out to be, so treat the very last year or two as provisional.
Ceramics, cement and refractories (IPC class C04B) dominate, appearing on 57.7% of the 1,372 records in scope — far ahead of separation processes, polymer additives and catalysis-related classes, each in the 7-8% range. That concentration means new fireproofing board, lightweight cement or structural panel claims are likely to run into dense prior art, while smaller classes like horticulture or building structures carry comparatively less claim traffic.
US9011708B2, held by Kyungdong One Corporation, claims a thermal insulator combining 10-84 wt% closed-cell expanded perlite, 15-85 wt% liquid binder and 0.25-5 wt% reinforcing fiber, with the closed-cell surface structure specifically reducing compression ratio and density during molding. Anyone developing a perlite-based thermal insulator with a comparable closed-cell structure and overlapping weight-percent ranges should review this claim scope closely, since the composition ranges are broad. Formulations that fall outside these wt% bands or use an open-cell or uncoated particle structure sit further from this claim.
The smaller IPC classes in this dataset — building structures (E04B at 5.4%), horticulture (A01G at 4.7%) and general-purpose materials (C09K at 4.8%) — carry noticeably less claim density than the dominant C04B ceramics cluster at 57.7%. That does not guarantee an easy filing, but it does mean fewer competing claims to design around. Cryogenic insulation grades and filter-aid dust-handling formulations, both named in the underlying search scope, are worth checking individually since they sit within these lighter-claimed classes rather than the crowded ceramics core.
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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.