Frothers and Froth Stability Patents: Who Leads, Where Gaps Are 2026
- Concentration at the top. the five most active assignees hold 40.7% of all 172 records in scope, and the ranked leaders extend to 62 companies with a long tail beyond them.
- Filing has cooled from its peak. 2021 to 2024 fell 90%, from 10 to 1 filing, after a peak of 18 in 2023 — though 2025-2026 figures are still filling in as publication catches up.
- Flotation dominates the claim map. B03D covers 62.2% of records, while adjacent classes like polymer condensation (C08G, 6.4%) and polymer compositions (C08L, 6.4%) sit far thinner.
Filing growth compares 2021 (10 records) with 2024 (1) — 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 172 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Frothers control bubble size and froth stability in mineral flotation, and the claim space spans reagent chemistry, froth-depth control and water-recovery management. This landscape draws on 172 published records filed or published between 2015 and mid-2026, searched against terms spanning frother chemistry (polyglycol frother, frother blend) and froth-behaviour metrics (critical coalescence concentration, water recovery, entrainment of fines, froth washing).
The dataset mixes chemical-composition claims with process-control claims, which is why flotation apparatus classes and polymer chemistry classes both appear prominently. Filing offices split across the United States, WIPO/PCT, Australia, Canada, Europe and Chile, reflecting the geography of active mining operations rather than a single dominant jurisdiction.
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 172 records: how filing activity moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
A sharp pullback from the 2023 peak
Filings rose to a peak of 18 in 2023 before falling to 1 in 2024, a -90% move from the 10 filings recorded in 2021. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, 2025 and 2026 counts are still incomplete and should not yet be read as a continued decline.
Flotation apparatus claims dominate
B03D (flotation) appears in 62.2% of the 172 records, far ahead of any other class. Grinding and abrasive classes (B24B, B24D) each cover 11.6%, water treatment 9.9%, and polymer-chemistry classes cluster in the 6-16% range — records commonly carry more than one class, so these shares sum to well over 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 172 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Frothers and Froth Stability with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about frothers and froth stability and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative and most-cited filings
Method and apparatus for froth flotation control (US20130299394A1)
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.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6121336A | Surfactants for incorporating silica aerogel in polyurethane foams | 90 |
| 2 | US6903173B2 | Fluorinated polymers | 35 |
| 3 | US20040023016A1 | Fluorinated polymers | 34 |
| 4 | US20030231995A1 | Use of ozone to increase the flotation efficiency of sulfide minerals | 31 |
| 5 | US20090062414A1 | System and method for producing damping polyurethane CMP pads | 30 |
| 6 | US5746910A | Frothless flotation apparatus | 29 |
| 7 | US2261439A | Preparation of cellular compositions of rubber or rubberlike substances | 26 |
| 8 | US20130140218A1 | Froth flotation and apparatus for same | 24 |
| 9 | US4804460A | Column flotation | 24 |
| 10 | US7152741B2 | Use of ozone to increase the flotation efficiency of sulfide minerals | 23 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had more time to be cited; treat them as a signal of influence within this corpus, not as a ranking of current relevance.
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 mean for a filing decision
Three patterns worth acting on before drafting new claims in this space.
The top of the field is genuinely concentrated
Five assignees hold 40.7% of all 172 records, and the top 10 extend that to 61.6%. That leaves a long tail across the remaining ranked leaders, many with only one or two filings — a sign that late entrants are still finding room outside the core claim clusters.
Activity has pulled back sharply from its 2023 peak
Filings peaked at 18 in 2023, then fell to 1 by 2024 — a 90% drop from the 10 filings recorded in 2021. Because publication lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025-2026 numbers are not yet reliable evidence of a continued slide.
Apparatus and process claims outweigh chemistry claims
B03D (flotation) covers 62.2% of the 172 records, while the polymer-chemistry classes that describe frother compounds themselves (C08G, C08L) each sit at 6.4%. That imbalance suggests process-control and froth-behaviour claims are more heavily staked out than novel frother chemistries.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to frothers and froth stability, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranked leaders span chemicals majors, mining-technology specialists and university research groups, but recent-year momentum has gone flat across the names with the largest historical portfolios.
One assignee holds a clear lead
The top-ranked assignee holds 24 records, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 9 and the tenth-place holder at 6. That gap between first and fifth is the steepest part of the curve.
Recent-year filing has gone quiet at the top
Several of the most active historical filers, including large chemicals and mining-technology names, show zero filings in the latest year, with one recording a -100% year-on-year change. This is consistent with the broader 2021-2024 pullback rather than a company-specific retreat.
Co-filing is limited and mostly inventor-linked
Only 10 co-assignee pairings appear across the 172 records, and the strongest repeat pairs link a single corporate assignee to individual named inventors rather than to other companies. Cross-company joint filing is not a notable feature of this landscape.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Huntsman Australia | 0 | — |
| Praxair Technology, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Solvay SA | 0 | — |
| BASF SE | 0 | -100% |
| 3M Innovative Properties Co. | 0 | — |
| IP2IPO Innovations Ltd. | 0 | — |
| A N T TRUST | 0 | -100% |
| Aalto University Foundation | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The landscape points to a field with a settled apparatus-claim core and thinner coverage in chemistry and monitoring. Two directions follow from that.
Check the white-space chips against your own formulation
The under-claimed branches above are candidates for freedom-to-operate checks, not confirmed gaps — run a targeted search against your specific frother chemistry or froth-control method before committing claim language.
Explore with Patsnap EurekaWatch for the 2025-2026 filings still arriving
Because publication lags filing by about 18 months, the apparent 2024 drop-off is not the final word. Re-run this landscape in a future cycle before treating current filing levels as settled.
Set up monitoring in Patsnap EurekaCommon questions about frother and froth stability patents
Across the 172 records in this landscape, one assignee leads with 24 records, ahead of a field where the fifth-ranked company holds 9 and the tenth-ranked holds 6. The top five assignees combined account for 40.7% of all records, and the top ten reach 61.6%, so the field is concentrated at the top but still has 62 ranked companies contributing filings. Checking the current holder's most recent filings, not just their historical total, matters given that several top filers show zero activity in the latest year.
No, filings peaked at 18 in 2023 and fell sharply to 1 by 2024, a 90% drop from the 10 filings seen in 2021. That said, patent publication typically lags the actual filing date by about 18 months, so the apparent drop in 2025 and 2026 numbers partly reflects records that have not yet published rather than a confirmed slowdown. Anyone using this trend to justify new R&D investment should treat 2024 as the most recent reliable data point.
The dominant classification is B03D, covering flotation apparatus and process, which appears in 62.2% of the 172 records. Chemistry-specific classes such as C07C (16.3%), C08G and C08L (6.4% each) describe the frother compounds and polymer chemistries themselves and are comparatively thinner. Grinding and abrasive classes (B24B, B24D) also appear at 11.6% each, reflecting overlap with mineral processing equipment claims — a single record often carries several of these classes at once.
This filing from Imperial Innovations describes controlling froth depth in a flotation cell to optimise gas recovery relative to that depth, aiming for both high-grade and high-recovery concentrate. It is a process-control claim tied specifically to froth-depth measurement and gas-recovery optimisation, not a claim over frother chemistry or froth stability broadly. Anyone designing a froth-control system should review its specific claim language on depth measurement and control loop structure, since a differently structured control variable or measurement approach may sit outside its scope.
The IPC composition suggests thinner coverage in polymer-chemistry classes relative to the apparatus-heavy B03D cluster, pointing to frother blend formulation, froth-washing water-recovery control, and entrainment-of-fines suppression as areas with comparatively less claim density. These are candidates for further investigation rather than confirmed gaps, since IPC-level thinness does not guarantee an absence of blocking prior art at the claim level. A targeted freedom-to-operate search against the specific chemistry or control method is the necessary next step before relying on any of these as open space.
Research Frothers and Froth Stability in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole frothers and froth stability 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.