FDM Polymer Printing Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- Filing peaked in 2017 at 137 families and has declined every year since, with 2026 tracking at just 4 — a filing curve, not a growth curve.
- B29C and B33Y cover the overwhelming majority of the corpus (861 and 837 of 933 records), while polymer-chemistry classes like C08L and C08K sit far behind, suggesting mechanism claims are more contested than material-composition claims.
- The United States dominates receiving offices with 336 filings versus 193 at the EPO, so a design-around strategy built only on European prior art will miss most of the blocking claims.
Filing growth compares 2021 (108 records) with 2024 (37) — 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 933 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the fused deposition modeling patent corpus actually covers
This landscape draws on 933 patent families published between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine fused deposition modeling and fused filament fabrication terminology with IPC codes for material extrusion and layer-by-layer additive manufacturing. The corpus spans the mechanical apparatus side of FDM — nozzles, print heads, multi-material feed systems — as well as the polymer science side, where compositions and additive packages for filament feedstock are claimed under C08L and C08K.
Filing activity is concentrated early in the window: the peak year, 2017, produced more than thirty times the output of the most recent partial year. Because publication typically lags filing by around eighteen months, the last one to two years in any chart will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be — but even accounting for that lag, the mid-decade decline from the 2017 peak toward the 2022 midpoint of 65 families is a real trend, not an artefact of the cut-off.
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 933-family corpus: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how records distribute across the IPC subclasses that define the technology.
A 2017 peak followed by a sustained decline
Filings ran at 137 in 2017, fell toward a 2022 midpoint of 65, and continue down toward single digits by 2026. Read the tail end cautiously given the roughly eighteen-month publication lag, but the multi-year downward slope predates that lag effect and points to a genuine cooling in new filing activity rather than a data artefact.
Apparatus classes dominate; polymer-chemistry classes trail
B29C (plastics shaping) and B33Y (additive manufacturing) each cover the large majority of records, confirming this corpus is anchored in process and apparatus claims. C08L and C08K, which cover polymer compositions and additive packages, appear in well under a fifth of records — a gap worth checking before assuming feedstock formulation claims are as crowded as the mechanical side.
Shares are the percentage of the 933 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 Polymer Printing with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about fused deposition modeling polymer printing and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative filing
US10611098B2 — Fused filament fabrication using multi-segment filament
A thermoplastic filament adapted for use in a fused filament fabrication (FFF) printer which has a plurality of segments wherein each pair of adjacent segments is compositionally different and is arranged in a specific order. Also, a method for printing a three-dimensional (3D) article by printing such a filament in a fused filament fabrication (FFF) printer, wherein the printer carries out a pattern of printing synchronized with the order of the segments in such a filament. Further, a method and device for fabricating such thermoplastic filaments.Granted to G6 Materials Corp., 2020-04-07 — illustrates how filament-composition claims are structured around segment order rather than a single material formulation.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20170144375A1 | System and method for cutting material in continuous fiber reinforced additive manufacturing | 138 |
| 2 | US20170173692A1 | Metal printer with vibrating ultrasound nozzle | 110 |
| 3 | US20170252851A1 | Additive manufacturing with metallic composites | 92 |
| 4 | WO2017152142A1 | Additive manufacturing with metallic build materials | 90 |
| 5 | US20160333152A1 | Methods of using thermoplastic polyurethanes in fused deposition modeling and systems and articles thereof | 83 |
| 6 | US20190375149A1 | Methods for 3D printing of poly-4-hydroxybutyrate and copolymers | 76 |
| 7 | US20180162048A1 | Decomposing polymer binders for additive manufacturing feedstock | 75 |
| 8 | US20170198104A1 | Compositions for use in fused filament 3D fabrication and method for manufacturing same | 74 |
| 9 | US20190284423A1 | Piezoelectric composite, ink and ink cartridge for 3D printing, bifunctional material comprising the piezoele… | 70 |
| 10 | US20170173879A1 | Fused filament fabrication extrusion nozzle with concentric rings | 70 |
Citation counts reward older filings simply because they have had more time to accumulate references — treat rank here as a measure of influence within this searched corpus, not a signal of present-day importance.
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 or design-around decision
Three read-throughs from the filing trend, IPC composition and receiving-office split that matter more than the raw counts on their own.
The FDM apparatus wave has largely broken
Filing volume fell from a 2017 peak of 137 to a 2022 midpoint of 65 and continues downward. This is consistent with a technology whose core mechanical claim space — extrusion heads, filament feed, layer deposition control — was staked out early and is now mostly occupied rather than still being contested.
Apparatus and process claims crowd out composition claims
B29C and B33Y between them touch nearly the entire corpus, while polymer-composition classes C08L and C08K appear far less often. A team optimizing filament chemistry rather than print-head mechanics is working in comparatively less-claimed territory.
US filing volume nearly doubles Europe's
With 336 US filings against 193 at the EPO and 113 via PCT, freedom-to-operate work anchored solely in European patent offices will materially understate the blocking risk for any US commercialization plan.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to fused deposition modeling polymer printing, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Rolls-Royce plc | Rolls-Royce North American Technologies, Inc. | 21 |
The strongest co-assignee pairing in the dataset links two related Rolls-Royce entities at 21 shared filings, indicating that cross-entity collaboration in this corpus is largely intra-group rather than between unrelated companies.
Assignee activity and where new entrants can still stake claims
Recent-year momentum data shows several previously active assignees recording zero filings in the latest year, consistent with the broader post-2017 decline rather than any single company exiting the field.
Several established filers show zero recent activity
Assignees including Signify Holding, MakerBot Industries, BASF SE, Desktop Metal, Inc., Jabil Inc. and Xerox Corporation all recorded zero filings in the latest year tracked. This mirrors the corpus-wide decline rather than signalling company-specific withdrawal.
Cross-filing is concentrated within related entities
The top co-assignee pairing links two Rolls-Royce group entities, Rolls-Royce plc and Rolls-Royce North American Technologies, Inc., at 21 shared filings — the clearest collaboration signal in the dataset, and an intra-group one rather than a cross-company alliance.
A broad base with no single dominant filer implied by volume alone
The ranking spans 933 families across a wide assignee base; combined with the sharp post-2017 decline, this points to a technology where the initial land grab is largely complete and remaining activity is dispersed rather than consolidating.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Signify Holding | 0 | -100% |
| MakerBot Industries | 0 | — |
| BASF SE | 0 | — |
| Desktop Metal, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Jabil Inc. | 0 | — |
| Xerox Corporation | 0 | — |
| Rolls-Royce plc | 0 | — |
| Rolls-Royce North American Technologies, Inc. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The filing trend and IPC split point to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, white-space filing, or monitoring active competitors.
Run a claims-level design-around check
Citation ranking and IPC clustering identify where claim density sits, but only a claims-level read of the highest-cited records will show exactly what language blocks a specific process or composition.
Open in Patsnap EurekaTrack the C08L/C08K composition gap
The composition classes trail the apparatus classes by a wide margin. Before filing, check whether that gap reflects genuine white space or simply different indexing practice among filament-chemistry filers.
Explore filament chemistry filingsWatch jurisdiction-specific filing shifts
With US filings nearly double the EPO total, monitor whether that gap widens or narrows as overall volume continues its post-2017 decline.
Compare receiving officesCommon questions about FDM polymer printing patents
The 2017 peak of 137 families in this dataset lines up with the broad commercial expansion of desktop and industrial FDM printers, when apparatus and process claims covering extrusion heads, filament feed mechanisms and layer control were still open. As that core mechanical claim space filled in, fewer genuinely novel apparatus filings remained, and volume fell toward 65 by the 2022 midpoint and lower still afterward. Some of the most recent decline is also an artefact of publication lag, since filings from the last 18 months are not yet fully visible in the data, but the multi-year downward slope predates that effect and reflects a real cooling in new filing activity.
Apparatus and process claims, tagged largely under B29C and B33Y, cover the mechanics of deposition: nozzles, print heads, multi-material feed and motion control, and they account for the overwhelming majority of the 933 families in this corpus. Material and composition claims, tagged under C08L and C08K, cover the polymer chemistry of the filament itself — base resins, additive packages and reinforcement — and appear far less frequently. A team developing new filament formulations is generally working against a thinner prior-art base than a team designing new print-head hardware.
This dataset's recent-year momentum tracking shows several previously active assignees, including entities associated with Signify, MakerBot, BASF, Desktop Metal, Jabil and Xerox, recording zero filings in the latest tracked year. That pattern is consistent with the corpus-wide decline in filing volume rather than a company-specific exit, so it should be read alongside the overall trend rather than in isolation. Anyone tracking a specific competitor should check that company's broader patent portfolio outside this search string, since a single technology corpus will not capture all of its FDM-adjacent activity.
The United States leads with 336 filings in this corpus, compared with 193 at the European Patent Office, 113 filed via the WIPO PCT route, and smaller totals in India, China and Israel. This means a freedom-to-operate review limited to European patent offices will materially understate the blocking risk for anyone planning to commercialize in the US market. Because PCT filings often later enter national phase in multiple jurisdictions, the WIPO figure also represents filings whose eventual geographic footprint is still being determined.
US10611098B2, assigned to G6 Materials Corp., covers a thermoplastic filament built from multiple compositionally distinct segments arranged in a specific order, along with a printing method that synchronizes the print pattern to that segment order. It does not claim a single fixed filament composition, so filament designs using a uniform material throughout, or using segment variation without pattern-synchronized printing, sit outside its narrowest claim scope. Anyone designing multi-material or gradient filament should still map its claims carefully, since the segment-order and synchronization language is broad enough to reach several practical implementation approaches.
Research Fused Deposition Modeling Polymer Printing in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole fused deposition modeling polymer printing 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.