Gear Heat Treatment Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
Gear Materials and Heat Treatment Patents for Reducers
62.5% of all 16 records sit with just five assignees, yet the ranked leader holds only 2 records — concentration without a dominant single filer. Recorded activity starts at 2 filings in 2017 and rises unevenly to a peak of 4 in 2025; 2026 shows 0 so far, which reflects publication lag rather than a stop in filing. With fewer than four complete years once that lag is accounted for, no growth rate can be stated reliably.
- 1哈尔滨意锋稀土材料开发有限公司2
- 2HARBIN INST OF TECH2
- 3ZHENGZHOU HUAWEI GEAR2
- 4哈尔滨汇隆汽车箱桥有限公司2
- 5JIANGYIN YONGXING MACHINERY MFG2
See the full gear materials and heat treatment for reducers analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions about gear heat treatment patents
Who holds the most patents in carburized gear steel and gear heat treatment?
In this 16-record dataset, the leading assignee holds only 2 records, with fifth place also at 2 and tenth place at 1 — so no single company dominates the field. The top five assignees combined account for 62.5% of all 16 records, and the top ten account for the entire dataset. This is a field of specialised filers holding small, roughly equal positions rather than one company controlling the claim space.
What does carburizing depth have to do with residual stress in gear patents?
Carburizing depth and residual stress are treated together in this corpus because the depth of the carbon-enriched case directly shapes the residual compressive stress profile that resists contact fatigue and pitting. Filings in this set frequently pair a heat-treatment step (C21D, in 75.0% of records) with a coating or surface step (C23C, in 50.0% of records), reflecting that depth control and stress control are engineered jointly rather than as separate process stages.
Is shot peening or laser peening more heavily patented for gears?
The representative record in this dataset uses laser shock peening rather than conventional shot peening, combined with carburizing, to raise surface wear resistance and induce a gradient nanostructure. The broader search terms cover both distortion control and shot peening, but the citation table is topped by general heat-treatment process patents rather than peening-specific ones, suggesting peening claims are still a smaller, newer slice of the field.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Gear Materials and Heat Treatment for Reducers covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.