Reduced Activation Steel Patents: Leaders, Trends & Gaps 2026
Filing growth compares 2021 (70 records) with 2024 (48) — 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 1,580 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the reduced activation steel patent record shows
Reduced activation steel is a structural material candidate for fusion reactor first-wall and blanket components, engineered to minimise long-lived radioactive isotopes under neutron irradiation. The 1,580 records in scope span 2015 through the middle of 2026, covering welding consumables, alloy compositions, surface treatments and downstream applications that reuse the same base chemistry outside the reactor context. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent one or two years in any trend chart will always understate real filing activity.
The assignee ranking returned by the dataset covers 100 companies, with a clear leader and a long tail of entities filing only a handful of records each. Technology composition data show filings spreading across coating, drilling, medical and water-treatment IPC subclasses in addition to the core steel chemistry — a sign that the base alloy work overlaps with adjacent industrial uses more than it clusters into one dominant sub-field.
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Filing trend, technology mix and jurisdiction spread
Three views of the same 1,580 records: when filings happened, what technology classes they touch, and where applicants sought protection.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings rose to a peak of 84 in 2020, then declined: the 2021 figure of 70 fell to 48 by 2024, a 31% drop over that three-year span. Treat 2025 and 2026 figures as still filling in rather than evidence of a further slowdown, since publication lag understates the most recent years by construction.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
C23C (coating and surface deposition) leads at 8.0% of the 1,580 records in scope, with A61K and E21B tied at 5.8% each. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these shares add up to well over 100% and should be read as overlap, not as a partition of the field.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,580 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Fusion Materials & Components: Reduced Activation Steel Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about fusion materials & components: reduced activation steel patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative filing and the most-cited records
Welding Wire for Gas Protective Welding of Reduced Activation Martensitic/Ferritic Steel
Welding wire for gas protective welding of reduced activation ferritic/martensitic steel, specified by weight-percentage chemistry (C, Cr, W, V, Ta, Mn and trace elements with defined ceilings) and a manufacturing route of multi-pass wire-rod drawing with annealing and interpass tempering. The claim ties composition ranges to a specific Cr-equivalent and Ni-equivalent window and to a defined annealing temperature band.Filed 2017-01-12 by Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20040254566A1 | Apparatus for the maneuvering of flexible catheters in the human cardiovascular system | 1,785 |
| 2 | US7699856B2 | Method, apparatus, and kit for thermal suture cutting | 1,438 |
| 3 | US20160045841A1 | New and improved system for processing various chemicals and materials | 861 |
| 4 | EP1721576A1 | Apparatus and kit for thermal suture cutting | 767 |
| 5 | US6932584B2 | Infusion device and driving mechanism and process for same with actuator for multiple infusion uses | 755 |
| 6 | US20030088305A1 | Prostheses for curved lumens | 420 |
| 7 | EP1721576B1 | Apparatus and kit for thermal suture cutting | 406 |
| 8 | US20090152391A1 | Multibody aircrane | 399 |
| 9 | US20030201098A1 | In situ recovery from a hydrocarbon containing formation using one or more simulations | 310 |
| 10 | US20040020642A1 | In situ recovery from a hydrocarbon containing formation using conductor-in-conduit heat sources with an elec… | 305 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had more time to accumulate citations inside the searched corpus; read them as a signal of influence on later filings, not as a ranking of current technical importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Four read-outs from the dataset that matter more than the raw record count.
No single company owns this field
The leading assignee holds 55 records, well ahead of fifth place at 17, but the top 5 combined still account for only 8.7% of all 1,580 records in scope. That leaves most of the corpus in the hands of applicants filing just a handful of records each — a fragmented ownership picture rather than a blocking patent thicket.
Activity has cooled from its 2020 peak
Filings peaked at 84 in 2020, then fell from 70 in 2021 to 48 in 2024 — a decline the dataset can state with confidence because 2024 is the last year publication lag has largely caught up with. Years after 2024 will keep rising in the record as more filings publish, so they should not be read as a continuation of the decline.
Coating and surface work leads, but by a thin margin
C23C coating and surface deposition is the single largest IPC subclass at 8.0% of records, with A61K and E21B each at 5.8%. No subclass dominates the field outright, and the presence of medical, drilling and water-treatment classes alongside the core alloy chemistry shows how far reduced activation steel components spill into adjacent industrial applications.
Filing strategy still centres on the US and China
The United States receives the most filings at 302, followed by China at 262, with WIPO PCT, EPO, Australia and India each drawing over 100 filings. That spread suggests applicants in this space are pursuing broad multi-jurisdiction protection rather than concentrating on a single home market.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to fusion materials & components: reduced activation steel patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a fragmented ownership structure and a technology mix that spreads beyond the core alloy claim. Two directions follow naturally from that.
Map the white space in adjacent IPC classes
Coating, drilling and water-treatment classes each touch the corpus without dominating it, suggesting under-claimed combinations with the core steel chemistry that a freedom-to-operate review should test directly against live claims.
Explore white space in EurekaTrack the long tail of single-filing entrants
With most of the 1,580 records held outside the top 5 assignees, monitoring new entrants as they file is more informative than watching the established leader alone.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaCommon questions about reduced activation steel patents
The dataset's assignee ranking, covering 100 companies across 1,580 records, shows one clear leader with 55 records, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 17. Despite that gap, the top 5 assignees combined account for only 8.7% of all records in scope, so no single company controls the field. Most of the corpus sits with applicants who have filed only a small number of records each, which points to a fragmented rather than consolidated ownership structure.
Filings peaked at 84 in 2020 and then declined, falling from 70 in 2021 to 48 in 2024 — a drop of 31% over that three-year span, which is the last period the data can treat as reasonably complete. Filing counts for 2025 and 2026 will continue to rise as more records publish, since publication typically lags filing by around 18 months. Read the recent years as still filling in rather than as continued decline.
Coating and surface deposition (IPC class C23C) is the largest single technology class, touching 8.0% of the 1,580 records in scope. Earth and rock drilling (E21B) and medicinal preparations (A61K) each touch 5.8% of records, alongside other classes covering water treatment, sterilising and electroplating. Because a record can carry more than one IPC class, these figures overlap rather than add to 100%, showing that reduced activation steel filings frequently sit alongside claims in adjacent industrial or even medical applications.
The United States is the leading receiving office with 302 filings, followed by China at 262. WIPO's PCT route, the European Patent Office, Australia and India each receive well over 100 filings, indicating that applicants in this field commonly pursue protection across several major jurisdictions rather than filing in a single home market alone.
Not necessarily. A high filing density in a class such as C23C coating and surface deposition means that particular claim space is occupied and worth checking carefully before filing there, but it says nothing about whether the underlying technology is proven at commercial scale. The fragmented assignee base and the spread of filings across many thin technology classes suggest a field still being explored from multiple angles rather than one that has settled around a dominant approach.
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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.