Froth Flotation Cell Design Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
- 20.0% of the field sits with five companies. 977 of 4,896 records in scope belong to the top five assignees, with a longer tail spread across the remaining ranked leaders.
- Filings peaked in 2018 at 411 and have since cooled. The 2021-to-2024 window shows a 43% decline (214 to 122), though 2025-2026 figures are still filling in due to publication lag.
- B03D dominates, but the field spills far beyond flotation itself. 40.9% of records classify under flotation proper, while metal extraction, water treatment and hydrocarbon processing each carry a meaningful share of the same corpus.
Filing growth compares 2021 (214 records) with 2024 (122) — 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 4,896 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Froth flotation cell design sits at the intersection of mineral processing hardware and process control: impeller geometry, air injection, froth depth management and the hydrodynamics that govern bubble size distribution and residence time inside the cell. This landscape draws on 4,896 published records filed or published between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine flotation-cell terminology with hydrodynamic parameters such as air holdup, superficial gas velocity and froth depth.
The scope is not limited to mining. The same search terms pull in hydrocarbon froth treatment, industrial water and wastewater separation, and general mixing equipment, because flotation hydrodynamics are shared across those applications. Readers scanning for freedom-to-operate should treat the IPC composition below as a guide to which adjacent fields carry the encumbering prior art, not as a mining-only picture.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 4,896 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which technical subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing trend: a 2018 peak, then a cooling cycle
Filings ran from 215 in 2017 to a peak of 411 in 2018. The 2021-to-2024 window, the most recent period that can be read as complete once publication lag is accounted for, shows a decline from 214 to 122 filings — a 43% drop. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete and should not be read as a continuation of that decline.
Technology composition: flotation core plus adjacent processing
B03D (flotation) covers 40.9% of the 4,896 records, the largest single subclass but well short of a majority — meaning most records also touch at least one other technical area. C22B (metal extraction) at 20.2% and C02F (water treatment) at 15.1% show flotation hardware claims reaching well past ore beneficiation into environmental and hydrocarbon processing, where B01D separation equipment (14.3%) and C10G hydrocarbon oil processing (7.7%) also register.
Shares are the percentage of the 4,896 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Froth Flotation Cell Design with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about froth flotation cell design and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative and most-cited filings
US20130299394A1 — Method and apparatus for froth flotation control
The invention provides a method of controlling operation of a froth flotation cell, the method comprising: introducing gas into a liquid in the cell, thereby to create a froth on the surface of the liquid, the froth having a depth from the surface of the liquid to an overflow point at which the froth overflows and leaves the cell; and controlling the froth depth to optimise the gas recovery with respect to the froth depth. Optimisation of the gas recovery with respect to the froth depth leads to the recovery of a froth concentrate of both high grade and high product recovery.Filed by Imperial Innovations Limited, published 2013-11-14 — included here as representative of the froth-depth control approach that recurs across the dataset.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5968349A | Extraction of bitumen from bitumen froth and biotreatment of bitumen froth tailings generated from tar sands | 500 |
| 2 | US5316664A | Process for recovery of hydrocarbons and rejection of sand | 415 |
| 3 | US5340467A | Process for recovery of hydrocarbons and rejection of sand | 390 |
| 4 | US20050069997A1 | Purification of biologically-produced 1,3-propanediol | 290 |
| 5 | US20080174115A1 | Power systems utilizing the heat of produced formation fluid | 258 |
| 6 | US20110092726A1 | System for cultivation and processing of microorganisms, processing of products therefrom, and processing in … | 232 |
| 7 | US7635023B2 | Time sequenced heating of multiple layers in a hydrocarbon containing formation | 231 |
| 8 | US7549470B2 | Solution mining and heating by oxidation for treating hydrocarbon containing formations | 230 |
| 9 | US7533719B2 | Wellhead with non-ferromagnetic materials | 219 |
| 10 | US6254981B1 | Fused glassy particulates obtained by flame fusion | 218 |
Citation counts favour older filings within any searched corpus and should be read as a signal of influence, not current technical relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the data means for a filing or FTO decision
Three read-throughs from the concentration, trend and classification figures above.
The top of the field is moderately concentrated, not locked up
Five assignees hold 20.0% of the 4,896 records in scope, and the top ten hold 27.3%. That leaves close to three-quarters of the corpus distributed across a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants — a structure that suggests room to file around specific hardware configurations rather than a field closed off by a handful of blocking portfolios.
Activity has cooled from its 2018 peak
Filings peaked at 411 in 2018 and the 2021-to-2024 window shows a 43% decline, from 214 to 122. That is a genuine slowdown in the completed-year data, though 2025-2026 figures remain understated by publication lag and should not be read as confirming further decline.
Flotation-specific claims are a plurality, not a majority
B03D flotation classifications cover 40.9% of records, with C22B metal extraction (20.2%), C02F water treatment (15.1%) and B01D separation processes (14.3%) each carrying a substantial share of the same corpus. Because records can carry multiple IPC classes, this overlap indicates that flotation-cell claims are frequently drafted alongside adjacent processing steps rather than as standalone hardware claims.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to froth flotation cell design, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and how recent activity is shifting
The ranked leaders span mining equipment OEMs, mineral-sands and hydrocarbon majors, and research organisations, but recent-year momentum is uneven even among the largest filers.
One filer sits well ahead of the field
The top-ranked assignee holds 340 records, more than three times the fifth-place total of 95 — a gap that marks out equipment-manufacturer scale filing rather than incidental patenting.
Recent-year activity is concentrated in one filer
Metso Outotec Finland recorded 17 filings in the latest year, a +750% year-on-year jump, while several other named assignees in the recent-momentum data show flat or zero activity in the same period — suggesting renewed investment is not evenly spread across the historical leaders.
Filing geography follows mining and hydrocarbon jurisdictions
The United States leads with 1,168 records, followed by Australia (676), Canada (583), the EPO (482), WIPO/PCT (477) and South Africa (211) — a spread that tracks major mining and oil-sands operating regions rather than a single dominant jurisdiction.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Metso Outotec Finland Oy | 17 | +750% |
| CIDRA Corporate Services Inc. | 1 | -50% |
| Outotec (Finland) Oy | 0 | — |
| FLSmidth & Co. A/S | 0 | -100% |
| Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) | 0 | — |
| Shell Internationale Research Maatschappij B.V. | 0 | — |
| Shell Oil Company | 0 | — |
| Georgia-Pacific Chemicals LLC | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The figures above establish the shape of the field. Turning that into a filing or clearance decision means drilling into specific claim sets and drafting around the densest ones.
Map claims against the under-claimed sub-areas
Cross-check the gate chips above against live claim sets in Eureka to confirm which specific hardware or control-method combinations remain lightly claimed before committing a drafting budget.
Explore in EurekaTrack the momentum leader's recent filings
Metso Outotec Finland's sharp year-on-year jump is worth monitoring directly — a fast-moving leader can reshape which sub-areas are still open within a single filing cycle.
Explore in EurekaRead the most-cited filings in full
The most-cited records skew toward older hydrocarbon and bitumen froth patents; read their claims directly to understand what they actually block versus what later filings have designed around.
Explore in EurekaCommon questions on froth flotation cell design patents
One assignee leads the ranked list with 340 records, well ahead of the fifth-placed company at 95. The top five assignees combined hold 977 records, which is 20.0% of the 4,896 records in scope, and the top ten hold 27.3%. That leaves a long tail of companies with only a handful of filings each, so leadership at the top does not mean the field is closed to new entrants.
Filings peaked in 2018 at 411 and have declined since. Looking at the most recent complete years, 2021 to 2024, filings fell from 214 to 122, a 43% drop. Figures for 2025 and 2026 appear lower still, but that is largely an artefact of publication lag — patent applications typically take around 18 months to publish, so recent years always look artificially thin until the data catches up.
The core classification is B03D (flotation), covering 40.9% of the 4,896 records in scope. But a large share of the same corpus also falls under C22B (metal extraction and refining, 20.2%), C02F (water and wastewater treatment, 15.1%), B01D (separation processes, 14.3%) and smaller shares of B03B, C10G, B01F and C01B. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these figures overlap rather than sum to 100%, and a freedom-to-operate search limited to B03D alone would miss a substantial part of the relevant prior art.
The composition data points to lighter claim density in areas that combine flotation hydrodynamics with real-time sensing and control — such as bubble size distribution sensing, froth depth control tuned to variable feed grade, and air holdup measurement applied to hydrocarbon froth rather than mineral ore systems. These are inferences from where the classification and citation density is thinner, not a guarantee of allowability, so any filing decision in these areas still needs a dedicated novelty search.
US20130299394A1, filed by Imperial Innovations Limited and published in 2013, claims a method of controlling froth flotation cell operation by adjusting froth depth to optimise gas recovery. The core technical idea is using the depth of froth between the liquid surface and the overflow point as the control variable for balancing concentrate grade against recovery. Anyone building an automated froth-depth control system for a flotation cell should read its claims in full before assuming a different control variable (such as air rate alone) clears it.
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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.