Gear Manufacturing (Hobbing/Grinding) Patent Snapshot
The gear manufacturing (hobbing/grinding) patent space is a small, moderately concentrated field led by Sumitomo Heavy Industries, with China accounting for the largest share of filing activity. The field has reached a maturity plateau, with annual volume easing from its 2020 peak while the broader multi-year corpus remains active across both process and transmission-design branches.
Sumitomo Heavy Industries leads a fragmented field with a Chinese filing majority
Sumitomo Heavy Industries holds the top position in this evidence snapshot, followed by Denso Corporation and Wuxi Xinyinye Machinery, each with a distinct technology emphasis. The top five filers account for roughly a quarter of the combined output of the ranked applicants visible in this query, signalling that no single player is visible in outright.
The tier structure is relatively flat: Sumitomo Heavy Industries is the only applicant with six patent records; a cluster of players sits at two to three records each, creating a broad mid-tier with limited separation. This concentration pattern is consistent with a mature, multi-vendor market where incremental differentiation is the norm.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd. | 6 | |
| 2 | Denso Corporation | 3 | |
| 3 | Wuxi Xinyinye Machinery | 3 | |
| 4 | IMS GEAR SE & CO KGAA | 2 | |
| 5 | Shandong Liren Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. | 2 | |
| 6 | Honda Motor Co., Ltd. | 2 | |
| 7 | South China University of Technology | 2 | |
| 8 | Zhuhai Feima Hardware Accessory Parts | 2 | |
| 9 | Jiangsu Yiding Transmission Machinery Co., Ltd. | 2 | |
| 10 | Dongyang Linix Machine Electricity | 2 |
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Chongqing Wangjiang Industrial Co., Ltd. | 2 | |
| 12 | Tianjin Bataike Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd. | 2 | |
| 13 | Taizhou Zhongjie Gear Co., Ltd. | 2 | |
| 14 | DEERE & CO | 2 | |
| 15 | Sichuan University | 2 | |
| 16 | Guangdong Hantai Precision Technology Co., Ltd. | 1 | |
| 17 | Zhejiang Saiya Intelligent Transmission Technology Co., Ltd. | 1 | |
| 18 | Qingan Group Co., Ltd. | 1 | |
| 19 | Jiangsu Xingxing Heavy-Duty Gearbox Co., Ltd. | 1 | |
| 20 | Robert Bosch GmbH | 1 |
The leaders’ positions imply that competitive advantage in this space is built on sustained incremental filing across gear-cutting (B23F) and transmission-design (F16H) branches, rather than breakthrough consolidation. New entrants such as Wuxi Xinyinye Machinery demonstrate that the field remains accessible to focused challengers.
The most recent filing years are subject to publication lag and likely under-represent current activity; apparent dips in 2023–2025 should not be read as real declines. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Filing volume peaked in 2020; technology mix is anchored by gear-cutting and transmission branches
The annual trend chart and the IPC branch composition together reveal a field that is technically well-defined but whose filing momentum has eased since an early-decade surge. Two charts frame this: the year-by-year filing profile and the distribution across technology classes.
Annual filing trend
Activity rose sharply from 2017 to a 2020 peak, then became irregular. Years 2024–2026 are under-counted due to publication lag and should not be interpreted as a sustained downturn. The overall multi-year picture remains positive relative to the pre-2019 baseline.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
B23F (gear and thread cutting) and F16H (gearing and transmissions) together account for the visible share of classified records, confirming that most patents address either the machining process or the resulting gear-drive architecture. Secondary branches — including B23Q (machine-tool fittings), F16D (clutches and brakes), and B24B (grinding and polishing) — each hold small but technically adjacent shares, pointing to areas where the core process intersects with broader drivetrain and tooling concerns.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
High-precision hobbing spindle for a planetary gear
Title: HIGH-PRECISION HOBBING SPINDLE FOR A PLANETARY GEAR Abstract A high-precision hobbing spindle for a planetary gear, comprising a spindle body, characterized in that a machine tool connection section, a workpiece mounting section and a limiting section are successively provided on the spindle body; the diameter of the machine tool connection section… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
Open this patent in Eureka →| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gear mechanism, planetary gear device, rotating be… | 73 |
| 2 | Gear pump, gear and method | 30 |
| 3 | Inscribed planetary gear device | 24 |
| 4 | Gear Mechanism, Planetary Gear Device, Rotating Be… | 22 |
| 5 | Inscribed planetary gear device having powder inje… | 22 |
| 6 | 一种圆弧齿线圆柱齿轮的平动加工装置 | 21 |
| 7 | Method of manufacturing compound helical planet ge… | 17 |
| 8 | Epicyclic gear speed change mechanism | 13 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
Assignee snapshot from the current evidence set
The applicants below are visible in this query result. Because the evidence set is relatively small, read this section as a directional snapshot rather than a full competitive ranking.
Sumitomo Heavy Industries
Sumitomo Heavy Industries holds 6 patent records — the largest count among all ranked applicants — with technology emphasis concentrated in F16H gearing and transmissions and F16D clutches and brakes. This profile reflects a systems-level approach: protecting gear-drive architectures and their integration with downstream drivetrain components rather than the hobbing or grinding process itself. No momentum data is available for Sumitomo in the evidence, suggesting a steady rather than accelerating recent trajectory.
patent records: 6Wuxi Xinyinye Machinery
Wuxi Xinyinye Machinery holds 3 patent records and is flagged as a new entrant in the momentum data, with all filings concentrated in B23F gear and thread cutting — specifically sub-classes B23F 23, B23F 19, and B23F 17. This process-focused, single-branch strategy contrasts with the incumbent’s breadth and positions Wuxi Xinyinye as a specialist challenger in hobbing and cutting-process innovation. A new-entrant designation from a small prior base warrants monitoring rather than alarm.
patent records: 3Frequently asked questions
The landscape covers 33 patent families in scope. Applicant rankings and branch counts are reported at the patent-record level, so individual figures in those tables can exceed the family total because a single family may be filed across multiple offices or classified under multiple IPC codes.
Sumitomo Heavy Industries is the top-ranked applicant with 6 patent records, followed by Denso Corporation and Wuxi Xinyinye Machinery, each with 3 patent records. The ranking reflects the top-100 applicant list; smaller or less active entities are not captured.
The field is classified as Mature, with annual filings having plateaued near the 2020 peak. The most recent years (2024–2026) show low counts, but this is expected given patent publication lag of 18–24 months and should not be interpreted as a real decline. On a multi-year basis, the corpus is larger than the pre-2019 baseline.
China is the lead filing office with the highest patent-record count, followed by the United States, Europe (EPO), and Japan. Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Russia each have limited coverage. These counts are at the patent-record level.
B23F (gear and thread cutting) and F16H (gearing and transmissions) together account for the visible share of classified records. Secondary branches — B23Q (machine-tool fittings), F16D (clutches and brakes), B24B (grinding and polishing), and others — each hold smaller but technically relevant shares.
The evidence identifies one active co-filing relationship: Zhuhai Feima Hardware Accessory Parts and South China University of Technology have jointly filed 2 patent records. This is the only industry–academia collaboration pair in the data; the broader collaboration network in this field is currently thin.
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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.
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