FDM Feedstock Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- Filing peaked in 2020 at 71 records and has eased back since, with the most recent year still undercounted due to publication lag.
- Composition and structure claims dominate B29C and B33Y account for 360 and 342 of the 387 tracked families, dwarfing fibre-feature and additive-specific classes.
- No single assignee controls the top-cited art the five most-cited records, each cited up to 25 times, span different filer groups rather than one dominant holder.
Filing growth compares 2021 (53 records) with 2024 (20) — 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 387 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent families around fused deposition modeling (FDM) feedstock — the filament materials, composite formulations, and core-shell or embedded-functional-material architectures fed into fused deposition modeling and fused filament fabrication printers. The scope spans filament material, composite filament, high-performance polymer filament and feedstock formulation claim language, filtered to the additive-manufacturing and plastics-shaping IPC classes where this work is actually classified.
Filing runs from 2015 through the current data cut-off, covering 387 patent families. Composition and structural claims sit heavily inside two IPC subclasses, while several adjacent classes carry far fewer filings — a gap worth checking before assuming a formulation idea is already claimed.
Filing trends and technology composition
The filing curve and the IPC spread together show where feedstock formulation work has concentrated and where it has thinned out.
Filing activity, 2017–2026
Filings rose from 34 in 2017 to a peak of 71 in 2020, then eased to 30 by the 2022 midpoint and continued declining toward the most recent, still-partial year. Publication lag of roughly 18 months means the last one to two years understate actual filing activity.
IPC subclass distribution
B29C (shaping of plastics) and B33Y (additive manufacturing) anchor the corpus at 360 and 342 records respectively. Polymer composition (C08L, 47), moulding-material indices (B29K, 45) and fibre-feature classifications (D01F, 30) trail well behind, marking the thinner, less-claimed branches of the same field.
Shares are the percentage of the 387 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 Feedstock Development with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about fused deposition modeling feedstock development and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative claim to anchor the landscape
Polymer composites for fused filament fabrication and methods of making the same
Disclosed are compositions of a fused filament fabrication (FFF) composite filament having embedded functional materials in a thermoplastic matrix. Methods of making the composite filaments are also disclosed. In one example, a FFF composite filament incorporates a MOF, in an amount greater than 10% by mass, dispersed in a matrix polymer. One example of a method of synthesizing FFF composite filaments involves mixing a suspension that has a MOF with a matrix polymer solution to yield a polymer-MOF mixture. The mixture is cast and dried into a solid composite material, which is formed a FFF composite filament having the MOF in an amount greater than 10% by mass.Granted to Battelle Memorial Institute, 2020-08-18.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20210231301A1 | Heat conducting composite printed by FDM and strategies for effective heat sinking | 25 |
| 2 | WO2017207514A1 | Filaments for fused deposition modeling including an electronic component | 25 |
| 3 | US20170341301A1 | Composite Continuous Filament for Additive Manufacturing | 25 |
| 4 | US20190217517A1 | Polymer composites for fused filament fabrication and methods of making the same | 24 |
| 5 | WO2018162268A1 | Core-shell filament for printing smooth FDM 3D items | 21 |
| 6 | WO2020048889A1 | Printing method for FDM printing smooth surfaces of items | 20 |
| 7 | WO2019025472A1 | A process for producing a three-dimensional green body by a fused filament fabrication (FFF) process | 20 |
| 8 | US20210101330A1 | Method for 3D printing a 3D item | 19 |
| 9 | EP3403806A1 | Hierarchical porous structure | 19 |
| 10 | WO2021104920A1 | FDM printed luminaires with enhanced shiny appearance | 18 |
Ranked by citation count within the searched corpus; older filings are structurally favoured, so treat this as influence rather than a current leaderboard.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Reading filing volume, citation weight and IPC spread together separates staked-out claim territory from areas still open to a first filer.
Growth has flattened, not accelerated
Filings rose from 34 in 2017 to a 2020 peak of 71, then fell back to roughly 30 by 2022 and continued easing. That trajectory says the core composition space filled up early rather than that demand for FDM feedstock innovation dried up.
Two IPC subclasses carry most of the corpus
B29C (shaping of plastics) and B33Y (additive manufacturing) together anchor the vast majority of the 387 families. Anything filed inside those subclasses now competes with a dense, mature prior-art base.
Influence is spread, not cornered
The most-cited records top out at 25 citations apiece and cover distinct approaches — heat-conducting composites, embedded electronics, continuous composite filament. No one family or assignee dominates the influential core.
US-first filing with PCT as the fallback
The United States draws more than a third of tracked records, with EPO and PCT/WIPO filings well behind. A freedom-to-operate review limited to one office will miss a meaningful share of relevant claims.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to fused deposition modeling feedstock development, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the field is still open
Filing activity spreads across materials companies, printer makers and research institutes rather than concentrating in one holder, and recent-year momentum has cooled across several previously active filers.
A broad but not deeply concentrated base
With 387 families and no single assignee dominating the most-cited records, the field looks more like a wide field of specialists than a market with one or two gatekeepers.
Several previously active filers have gone quiet
A number of assignees that filed in prior years show zero filings in the most recent tracked year, including declines as steep as -100% YoY for at least one filer. That is consistent with a field where the initial composition-claim land grab has already happened.
US and European filing lead, PCT close behind
The United States and EPO together draw the largest share of filings, with PCT/WIPO applications close behind — a pattern typical of applicants keeping international options open before committing to national phase.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Signify Holding B.V. | 0 | -100% |
| Ultimaker B.V. | 0 | — |
| Xerox Corporation | 0 | — |
| Jabil Inc. | 0 | — |
| BAE Systems plc | 0 | — |
| Essilor International | 0 | — |
| Solvay Specialty Polymers USA, LLC | 0 | — |
| Adeka Corporation | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis next
The filing and citation patterns above point to specific follow-up checks before committing to a filing or freedom-to-operate position.
Check freedom to operate on a specific formulation
Run your matrix polymer, filler class and loading range against the top-cited composite and core-shell families before filing or launching, since these carry the densest claim overlap.
Search this space in Eureka →Track assignee momentum before it shifts again
Several assignees have gone quiet in the latest tracked year; watch for renewed filing activity that could signal a shift back into composition claims.
Set up assignee tracking in Eureka →Explore the under-claimed fibre-feature and additive branches
D01F and C08K filings trail well behind the B29C/B33Y core, leaving room for a first-mover claim on fibre-feature or additive-loading combinations.
Explore white space in Eureka →Frequently asked questions
FDM feedstock is the filament fed into a fused deposition modeling (also called fused filament fabrication) 3D printer, and its formulation determines mechanical strength, thermal behavior, and printability. Patent activity in this space concentrates on filament composition (fillers, matrix polymers), filament architecture (core-shell, continuous composite), and embedded functional materials. It matters because a printer or material company launching a new filament grade can infringe a composition or structural claim even if the printing process itself is unpatented elsewhere.
The dataset shows filing concentrated among a mix of industrial materials companies, research institutes, and 3D-printing equipment makers rather than a single dominant holder. Momentum has slowed across several previously active assignees, with multiple parties showing zero filings in the latest tracked year. That pattern points to a field where early composition claims have already been staked out and new entrants are filing narrower, more specific improvements rather than broad platform claims.
The clearest under-claimed territory sits in fibre-feature engineering (D01F) and polymer-additive combinations (C08K), both well below the core B29C/B33Y filing volume. Lighting and optical component integration (F21V) also shows moderate but not saturated activity, suggesting embedded-component filaments for those applications remain open. A first claim in these areas should combine a specific filament cross-section or fibre feature with a defined filler class and loading range, rather than claiming the polymer matrix broadly.
No. It specifically covers fused filament fabrication composite filaments with a metal-organic framework (MOF) dispersed in a thermoplastic matrix at greater than 10% by mass, made via a suspension-mixing, casting and drying method. Formulations that load MOF below that mass threshold, use a different matrix chemistry entirely, or form the filament through melt compounding rather than the cast-and-dry route are not automatically covered. Anyone working with MOF-filled filaments should read the granted claim language directly rather than relying on the abstract.
Filings peaked at 71 in 2020 and eased toward the middle of the decade, with the most recent year necessarily undercounted because publication typically lags filing by about 18 months. A decline in raw filing counts does not mean the technology has stalled; it more often means the broad composition and architecture claims were filed early, and remaining activity has moved into narrower, harder-to-spot improvements. Anyone assessing freedom to operate should treat the most recent one to two years as provisional rather than complete.
The United States leads with 137 records, followed by the European Patent Office at 84 and the PCT/WIPO route at 54, with India, Germany and China trailing behind. That spread indicates most applicants are pursuing US protection first and using PCT filings to keep international options open, rather than filing directly and separately in each major market. It also means a freedom-to-operate search focused only on one jurisdiction will miss a meaningful share of the relevant claims.
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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.