Hard Anodizing Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- Concentrated but not locked up. the ranked leader holds 7 of 109 records and the top 5 combined account for just 26.6% of all records in scope — no single assignee controls the field.
- Filing activity is picking back up. filings rose from 2 in 2021 to 3 in 2024, a 50% increase over that three-year span, after peaking at 7 in 2017.
- Electroplating claims dominate the class map. C25D covers 51.4% of the 109 records, while wear-adjacent classes like F16C, F16K and H05B each sit at just 5.5% — a sign of where claim space is still thin.
Filing growth compares 2021 (2 records) with 2024 (3) — 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 109 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the hard anodizing patent record actually shows
Hard anodizing sits at the intersection of electrochemical coating science and mechanical wear engineering: the same oxide layer that resists abrasion also has to survive dimensional tolerances, thermal cycling and, in many of these filings, contact with cookware, bearings or hydraulic components. The 109 records in scope span 2015 through the 2026 cut-off and cluster heavily around electroplating and electroforming process claims (C25D), with smaller pockets in cookware, bearings, valves and resistive heating hardware. That composition tells its own story: the coating chemistry is well-trodden, but the mechanical wear applications built on top of it are comparatively lightly claimed.
Filing activity peaked in 2017 at 7 records and has been rebuilding since a 2021 low, with the most recent complete year showing renewed growth. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025-2026 figures in the trend chart are still filling in and should not be read as a slowdown.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 109-record dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claims. Because a single record can carry several IPC codes, the composition shares add up to more than 100% of the record total.
Filing trend, 2015-2026
Filings peaked at 7 in 2017, fell through the early 2020s, and rebuilt from 2 records in 2021 to 3 in 2024 — a 50% increase over that span. 2025 and 2026 figures are undercounted due to publication lag and should not be read as a decline.
IPC subclass composition
C25D (electroplating and electroforming) accounts for 51.4% of the 109 records, more than five times the next largest class. Kitchen and cooking utensils (A47J) sits at 9.2%, while bearings (F16C), valves (F16K) and electric heating hardware (H05B) each hold 5.5% — a long tail of narrower mechanical applications built on the same coating base.
Shares are the percentage of the 109 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Hard Anodizing for Wear Applications with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about hard anodizing for wear applications and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records shaping the field
Synthetic Resin Retainer for Large Thrust Ball Bearings with Dry- and Wet-lubricant Management Systems
A thrust ball bearing retainer for large-size bearings with the bearing raceways modified using a surface enhancement process such as hard anodizing coating, aimed at low friction coefficient and reduced initial wear rate. The retainer itself is a molded, self-lubricated synthetic resin reinforced with carbon fiber, molybdenum disulfide and PTFE, designed to eliminate thermally induced bearing torque from lubricant viscosity changes.Filed by ATEC Corporation, published 2017-12-28 as US20170370406A1.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | EP0594374A1 | Cookware and a method of forming same | 44 |
| 2 | CN1687488A | 铝合金材料氟聚合物协合涂层处理工艺 | 29 |
| 3 | US3982864A | Vacuum pump | 28 |
| 4 | US4133725A | Low voltage hard anodizing process | 26 |
| 5 | US4128461A | Aluminum hard anodizing process | 23 |
| 6 | DE10109837A1 | Device for changing the control times of gas exchange valves in an internal combustion engine has a drive uni… | 21 |
| 7 | US4431161A | Rotary valve | 18 |
| 8 | KR1020150092948A | Surface treatment method of aluminum-diecasting material | 13 |
| 9 | JP1983039796A | Hard anodizing method for inside surface of pipe | 13 |
| 10 | CN101314865A | 铝合金硬质润滑膜层的制备方法 | 10 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations inside this corpus — read them as a signal of influence on later filings, not as a measure of current commercial importance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three read-outs from the dataset that matter more than the raw counts: where the claim density actually sits, what the most-cited prior art establishes, and how co-filing patterns hint at the few genuine collaborations in the field.
The coating chemistry is the crowded ground
Over half of all 109 records classify under C25D, electroplating and electroforming. That density means core hard-anodizing process claims — bath composition, current density, layer growth control — sit on well-established prior art. New filings there compete directly with decades of process patents rather than opening fresh space.
Old cookware and pump patents still anchor the field
The most-cited records include a cookware coating patent and a vacuum-pump filing dating back decades, alongside two hard-anodizing process patents from the 1970s. Their citation counts reflect age and corpus reach more than current relevance, but they still define the baseline that later wear-application claims have to differentiate from.
Co-filing is rare and mostly single-instance
Only two co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, and the strongest of them recurs just twice. That scarcity suggests most hard-anodizing wear-application work is filed by a single organisation rather than through joint development, which matters for anyone scouting for licensing or JV partners already active in the space.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to hard anodizing for wear applications, with the prior art for and against each one.
A ranked field with no dominant gatekeeper
The assignee ranking covers 72 companies across the 109 records — the full set the data returns, not a curated top list. The leader holds 7 records; by fifth place that has already dropped to 5, and by tenth place to 2, which is the shape of a field with an early mover but no lock-out position.
Leadership is real but thin
The top 5 assignees combined account for 26.6% of all 109 records in scope, and the top 10 combined reach 37.6%. That leaves well over half the dataset spread across a long tail of single- or double-digit filers, including cookware makers, bearing manufacturers and equipment suppliers entering from adjacent industries.
No leader is currently pushing volume
Recent-year momentum data shows the historically active assignees, including the current ranking leader, recording zero filings in the latest tracked year. Combined with the 18-month publication lag, this points to a field where the next wave of filings has not yet surfaced publicly rather than one where interest has genuinely stopped.
Filing activity is split across regional offices
China receives the largest share of filings at 36, ahead of the United States at 17, India at 11, Japan at 10, and the EPO and United Kingdom at 7 each. That spread across six receiving offices signals a genuinely multi-regional field rather than one concentrated in a single jurisdiction's supply chain.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Sanford Process Corp | 0 | — |
| Honeywell International Inc | 0 | — |
| Cedal Equip Srl | 0 | — |
| Meyer Mfg | 0 | — |
| ATEC Corporation | 0 | — |
| Indian Space Research Organisation | 0 | — |
| Changqing Engineering Design Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Jiangsu Newamstar Packaging Machinery Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a field with occupied core chemistry and thinner claims on the mechanical applications built on top of it. The next steps depend on whether you are scouting freedom-to-operate or evaluating a specific claim.
Map the C25D prior art before drafting
With 51.4% of records in electroplating and electroforming, any new hard-anodizing process claim needs a close read of that class before drafting, not after.
Explore the IPC breakdown in EurekaCheck the under-claimed mechanical branches
Bearing, valve and heating-element applications of hard anodizing sit well below the coating-chemistry core in filing density and may offer more room to file.
Run a white-space search in EurekaTrace what US20170370406A1 actually blocks
The bearing-retainer filing combines a specific material system with a hard-anodizing surface treatment; understanding its claim scope matters before filing adjacent bearing work.
Review the claim scope in EurekaCommon questions on hard anodizing patents
Across the 109 records in this dataset, the ranking leader holds 7 records, with the count dropping to 5 by fifth place and to 2 by tenth place. The top 5 assignees combined account for 26.6% of all 109 records, and the top 10 combined reach 37.6%, which means no single company controls the space. The remaining 62 companies in the 72-company ranking each hold small numbers of records, forming a long tail typical of a technology with a low barrier to filing but no dominant platform holder.
Filing peaked at 7 records in 2017 and declined through the early 2020s before rebuilding, rising from 2 records in 2021 to 3 in 2024, a 50% increase over that three-year span. Because patent publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in any trend chart are still incomplete and should not be read as evidence of a slowdown. Based on the 2021-2024 trajectory, the more accurate read is a field recovering from a mid-decade dip rather than one in decline.
The dominant class is C25D, electroplating and electroforming, which covers 51.4% of the 109 records and reflects how much of the field is still about coating process chemistry rather than end applications. Smaller but meaningful clusters sit in A47J (kitchen and cooking utensils, 9.2%), and F16C, F16K and H05B (bearings, valves and electric heating circuits) at 5.5% each. Because records can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares overlap and add up to more than 100% of the record total.
China is the largest receiving office in this dataset with 36 filings, followed by the United States at 17, India at 11, Japan at 10, and the European Patent Office and United Kingdom at 7 each. That six-office spread indicates filers are pursuing protection across multiple regional markets rather than concentrating on a single jurisdiction, which is consistent with hard anodizing being used across cookware, industrial equipment and automotive component supply chains that each have distinct regional manufacturing bases.
US20170370406A1, filed by ATEC Corporation and published 2017-12-28, claims a thrust ball bearing retainer where the bearing raceways are modified using hard anodizing along with a specific self-lubricating resin retainer material reinforced with carbon fiber, molybdenum disulfide and PTFE. Anyone developing anodized bearing raceways with a similar dry- or wet-lubricant retainer system should review this filing closely before drafting overlapping claims. Working around it likely means varying either the retainer material system or the raceway surface treatment combination rather than the hard-anodizing step alone.
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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.