FDM Advanced Materials Patents: Leaders, Trends & Gaps 2026
- Filing already peaked. Activity crested at 6 families in 2021 and has since flattened toward the 2022 midpoint of 5, with no fresh acceleration visible before the 18-month publication lag is accounted for.
- PEKK extrusion dominates citation weight. The two most-cited records in the corpus are both PEKK extrusion filings from the same family lineage, cited 17 and 12 times — a strong signal of where downstream filers are anchoring prior art searches.
- The corpus is small and fragmented. Only 22 families sit across six receiving offices, with the United States and EPO together holding the majority — this is a field still being staked out, not one with an entrenched blocking position.
Filing growth compares 2021 (6 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.
A narrow, still-forming patent set around high-performance FDM materials
Fused deposition modeling advanced materials sits at the intersection of polymer chemistry and extrusion hardware: filament formulations built around PEKK, PEEK and carbon-fiber composites, alongside the extrusion heads and process controls needed to print them without warping or delamination. The dataset behind this page covers 22 patent families published between 2015 and mid-2026, filtered to records that explicitly claim high-performance polymer or functional filament subject matter under the relevant additive-manufacturing and polymer-composition IPC codes.
That is a small corpus for a technology area with this much commercial interest, and the filing trend confirms it: activity rose gradually, peaked in 2021, and has not climbed past that level since. Because publications lag filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent years understate true filing volume, but the shape of the curve — a rise, a peak, then a plateau — is unlikely to be a data artefact on its own.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 22-family corpus: how filing activity has moved year over year, and how those families distribute across the IPC subclasses that define the technology.
Filing trend: a peak in 2021, then a plateau
Filings climbed from zero in 2017 to a peak of 6 families in 2021, held near that level at 5 in 2022, and show no acceleration through the most recent complete years. Treat the final one to two years as undercounted rather than as a genuine drop-off, given typical publication lag.
IPC composition: plastics shaping and 3D printing dominate
B29C (shaping of plastics) and B33Y (additive manufacturing) cover the large majority of records, at 19 and 16 respectively, confirming this is primarily a process and hardware corpus rather than a pure chemistry one. C08G and C08L, the condensation-polymer and polymer-composition classes, appear in under half the families each — the material-formulation side of the field is present but thinner than the process side.
Shares are the percentage of the 22 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Fused Deposition Modeling Advanced Materials with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about fused deposition modeling advanced materials and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe filings shaping this space
Extrusion head for continuous fused filament fabrication (EP3888879A1)
The present invention relates to an extrusion head for continuous fused filament fabrication, comprising a shape-morphing channel with an inlet of rectangular cross-section, an outlet of non-rectangular cross-section, and a plurality of consecutive transition inner cross-sections configured to progressively force a continuous filament or tape to gradually change its cross-section as it passes through.Filed by Universitat de Girona, published 2021-10-06. Cited 5 times within the corpus.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20200276760A1 | PEKK extrusion additive manufacturing processes and products | 17 |
| 2 | US20200031057A1 | Polymer multi-material high-flexibility laser additive manufacturing system and method thereof | 14 |
| 3 | WO2019055737A1 | PEKK extrusion additive manufacturing processes and products | 12 |
| 4 | EP3888879A1 | An extrusion head and a method for continuous fused filament fabrication | 5 |
| 5 | WO2021205159A1 | Filament for additive manufacturing and process for making the same | 3 |
| 6 | US20230150187A1 | Filament for additive manufacturing and process for making the same | 2 |
| 7 | WO2021198100A1 | An extrusion head and a method for continuous fused filament fabrication | 2 |
| 8 | WO2022231421A1 | Filament feeding assembly for fused filament fabrication system | 1 |
| 9 | GB2608794A | Copolymers and related methods, uses and components | 1 |
| 10 | GB2595045A | Filament for additive manufacturing and process for making the same | 1 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus and skew toward older filings; they are not a measure of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns stand out once the filing trend, IPC spread and citation graph are read together.
Growth has already flattened
The filing curve rises from zero in 2017 to a peak of 6 families in 2021, then holds near that level at 5 in 2022 rather than continuing to climb. For a claimed-emerging technology, a plateau this early suggests the core process claims are already staked out and later filers are working the margins.
PEKK extrusion anchors the prior art
The two most-cited filings in the corpus both cover PEKK extrusion additive manufacturing processes and share a lineage. Anything filed on high-temperature thermoplastic extrusion for FDM is likely to be searched against this pair first.
No single office dominates filing strategy
The United States leads with 7 records and Europe follows closely with 6, with a further 4 routed through the PCT system. That spread, rather than concentration in one jurisdiction, points to applicants hedging across markets rather than committing to one home territory.
Process and hardware claims outnumber pure formulation claims
B29C (shaping of plastics) and B33Y (3D printing) together dominate the IPC spread, while C08L (polymer compositions) and C08K (polymer additives) appear far less often. Formulation-specific claim space looks comparatively open relative to process and extrusion-hardware claims.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to fused deposition modeling advanced materials, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the field is still open
The assignee set is small and none of the tracked organisations show filing activity in the most recent tracked year, consistent with the corpus-wide plateau and expected publication lag.
No assignee shows recent-year filing growth
Every tracked assignee in the recent-momentum view — spanning corporate, university and materials-supplier entities — shows zero filings in the latest tracked year. That is consistent with the corpus-wide plateau after 2021 rather than a signal specific to any one filer, and it should ease once lagged publications land.
Co-assignment is rare in this corpus
Only one co-assignee pairing appears with repeat strength, linking a university and a regional electronics-technology firm. Cross-institution filing is otherwise absent, suggesting most work here is being prosecuted by single entities rather than joint ventures.
One filing lineage carries most of the citation weight
The PEKK extrusion additive manufacturing filings, published under both a US application and a corresponding PCT application, together account for the two highest citation counts in the corpus. Later filers in high-temperature filament chemistry are likely to encounter this lineage during prosecution.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Arkema | 0 | — |
| Ultimaker | 0 | — |
| Victrex Manufacturing Limited | 0 | — |
| Universitat de Girona | 0 | — |
| Huazhong University of Science and Technology | 0 | — |
| Northwestern Polytechnical University | 0 | — |
| Shandong Yuhui Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| RENDON MANUEL R | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The filing plateau and thin formulation-side coverage both raise questions that a static landscape view cannot answer on its own.
Model the design-around space for PEKK extrusion claims
With two heavily-cited filings anchoring the high-temperature extrusion process, map their independent claims against alternative feed mechanisms and temperature-control approaches before committing to a filing strategy.
Explore in EurekaTrack whether the 2021 peak was a real ceiling
Publication lag means 2024-2026 filings are still arriving. Re-run the trend once a full 18-month window has cleared to see whether the plateau holds or the corpus resumes growth.
Explore in EurekaAssess formulation white space directly
C08L and C08K coverage is thin relative to the process-heavy core. A targeted search on additive packages and polymer-composition claims could surface filing opportunities the current corpus does not capture.
Explore in EurekaCommon questions on FDM advanced materials patents
The tracked corpus contains 22 patent families published between 2015 and mid-2026, filtered to filings that explicitly address high-performance polymer or functional filament subject matter under additive-manufacturing and polymer-composition IPC codes. That is a small dataset relative to additive manufacturing broadly, reflecting how narrowly this material-and-process niche is defined. Because publication lags filing by around 18 months, the true count for the most recent one to two years will be somewhat higher once those applications publish.
The assignee base includes a mix of materials suppliers, additive-manufacturing equipment makers and universities, none of which show filing activity in the most recent tracked year. The most heavily cited filings in the corpus belong to a PEKK extrusion additive manufacturing lineage, filed as both a US application and a corresponding PCT application. Beyond that lineage, the field does not show one dominant assignee controlling the bulk of filings — it reads as fragmented rather than consolidated.
In patent search practice, FDM and FFF are typically treated as synonymous process terms, with FFF being the name used once the original FDM trademark restricted commercial use of that acronym. Search strings covering this space, including the one behind this landscape, deliberately include both terms plus 'fused deposition modeling' in full to avoid missing filings that use one label over the other. Claim scope rarely turns on which term is used; examiners and drafters focus instead on the extrusion mechanism, filament feed and deposition-control claims themselves.
The IPC composition shows process and hardware classes, B29C and B33Y, covering far more of the corpus than polymer-formulation classes like C08L and C08K. That imbalance suggests functional filament additive packages, carbon-fiber composite formulations, and in-line filament property monitoring are comparatively under-claimed relative to the extrusion-hardware core. A team filing new formulation-specific claims in this space faces a thinner prior art background than one filing on extrusion mechanisms.
EP3888879A1, filed by Universitat de Girona and published in 2021, claims an extrusion head with a shape-morphing internal channel that progressively transitions a filament's cross-section from rectangular to non-rectangular as it passes through. That claim scope is specific to the geometry of the transition channel rather than to fused filament fabrication generally, so it constrains designs using a similar progressive cross-section change but does not block fixed-geometry or constant-cross-section extrusion heads. Anyone designing a variable-cross-section extrusion head should review its independent claims closely, since it is one of the more cited recent filings in this corpus.
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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.