High Entropy Alloy Surface Modification Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
A data-backed view of high entropy alloy surface modification patents: filing trends since 2017, the assignee concentration among 97 records in scope, IPC composition, and the most-cited filings, with guidance on white s
Filing growth = 2021 (11 records) → 2024 (13); 2024 is the last year we treat as complete. Top-5 share = the 5 largest assignees ÷ all 97 records in scope (CR5), not the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
High entropy alloy (HEA) surface modification combines multi-principal-element alloy chemistry with coating, cladding and diffusion techniques to give a conventional substrate a wear-, corrosion- or heat-resistant surface layer. The patent activity tracked here spans 2015 to 2026, drawing on IPC classes covering coating and surface deposition (C23C), alloy composition (C22C), powder metallurgy (B22F) and related metal-treatment classes. Laser cladding of HEA powder onto steel or other substrates is the dominant technical thread running through the most-cited filings, but the class mix shows meaningful activity in powder metallurgy and non-ferrous treatment routes as well.
The dataset in scope holds 97 published records, ranked across 63 distinct assignees. Filing activity is still recent enough that publication lag — typically around 18 months from filing to publication — means the last one to two years understate true filing volume; 2024 is the most recent year that can be read as a complete count.
Filing trend and technology mix
Two views of the same 97 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claims.
A decade of filing, with a 2022 peak
Filings rose from 2 in 2017 to a peak of 16 in 2022, before settling to 13 in 2024 — up 18% from the 11 filed in 2021. Treat 2025 and 2026 figures as provisional; they will fill in as publication catches up with filing.
Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in. Growth rates on this page therefore end at 2024; running them to the last bar would understate the field.
Coating and alloy classes dominate
C23C (coating and surface deposition) appears on 85.6% of the 97 records and C22C (alloys) on 77.3%, confirming that most filings claim both the alloy composition and the deposition process together. B22F (powder metallurgy) reaches 25.8%, while additive manufacturing under B33Y sits at just 4.1% — a narrow slice given how central powder-based processing is to HEA cladding.
Shares are the percentage of the 97 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on High Entropy Alloy Surface Modification Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about high entropy alloy surface modification patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited filings and a recent representative claim
CN119571245A — steel surface treatment using a high-entropy multi-element alloy co-diffusion agent
The filing discloses a co-diffusion agent built from zinc powder, zinc chloride, a zinc-aluminium-magnesium-copper alloy powder and an AlCoCrFeNi2.1 five-element high entropy alloy powder, plus lanthanum nitrate and a catalyst, mixed under vacuum at high temperature. Applied to steel through oil removal, rust removal, mechanical-assisted diffusion and cooling separation, the process reports extending neutral salt-spray corrosion resistance from 400–500 hours to more than 5,000 hours.Filed 2025-03-07 — illustrates how recent filings pair a specific HEA powder formulation with a defined process sequence rather than claiming the alloy chemistry alone.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CN103290404A | 激光熔覆用高熵合金粉末和高熵合金涂层的制备方法 | 134 |
| 2 | CN110202145A | 基于激光增材制造高熵合金金刚石复合材料的制备方法 | 27 |
| 3 | CN105401042A | 高熵合金粉末在激光熔覆中的应用 | 23 |
| 4 | CN111850544A | 一种高熵合金涂层及其制备方法 | 18 |
| 5 | CN111850543A | 一种激光熔覆七元高熵合金涂层及其制备方法 | 17 |
| 6 | CN109972134A | 一种在高锰钢表面制备FeCoNiCrMn高熵合金涂层的方法 | 17 |
| 7 | CN104141127A | 高熵合金粉末及熔覆层制备方法和应用 | 16 |
| 8 | CN114150203A | 一种激光熔覆原位自生高熵合金梯度涂层及其制备方法 | 14 |
| 9 | CN112962095A | 一种钛合金表面制备陶瓷增强激光熔覆难熔高熵合金涂层的方法及应用 | 12 |
| 10 | CN103695838A | 一种高熵增塑非晶合金复合表面的制备方法 | 12 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations inside the searched corpus; read them as a signal of influence on subsequent 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 ranking, the trend and the class mix, framed for a filing or freedom-to-operate decision.
The top of the field is concentrated, not dominant
Five assignees account for 35.1% of all 97 records in scope, and the top 10 combined reach 46.4%. That leaves more than half the field spread across a long tail of 63 ranked assignees, many with only one or two filings — a sign that the core chemistry is still being explored by many independent groups rather than locked up by a handful of players.
Growth is real but the last two years are undercounted
Filings climbed from 11 in 2021 to 13 in 2024, an 18% rise over that span, after peaking at 16 in 2022. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, 2025 and 2026 figures will keep rising as more filings publish — they should not be read as a slowdown.
Coating and alloy claims are filed together
C23C (coating and surface deposition) covers 85.6% of the 97 records and C22C (alloy composition) covers 77.3%; the overlap between the two classes indicates most applicants claim the deposition process and the specific alloy chemistry in the same filing, which raises the bar for anyone trying to claim a new process against an established HEA composition.
Prior art risk sits almost entirely in one office
China's receiving office accounts for 93 of the tracked filings, against 3 from the Netherlands and 1 from the United States. Anyone assessing freedom to operate in this space needs to search Chinese-language prior art directly rather than relying on English-language abstracts or family members alone.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to high entropy alloy surface modification patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Harbin Institute of Technology | Chongqing Research Institute of Harbin Institute of Technology | 3 |
| Zhejiang University of Technology | Hangzhou Dongtong Laser Technology Co., Ltd. | 2 |
Only two co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, the strongest linking a university and its regional research institute on three shared records — most filings here are single-assignee work, not joint ventures.
Turn this landscape into a filing decision
The numbers above show where the field is crowded and where it is not. The next step is testing a specific claim or process against the prior art directly.
Check a claim against the cited prior art
Run a candidate composition or process claim against the most-cited filings in this dataset before drafting, especially the laser-cladding lineage that anchors the field's highest citation counts.
Explore in Patsnap Eureka →Track the under-claimed branches
Additive manufacturing (B33Y) and electrolytic treatment (C25F) sit under 5% of records each — worth monitoring as filing volume there grows from a small base.
Explore in Patsnap Eureka →Watch the long tail for new entrants
With 63 ranked assignees and most holding only one or two records, new filers are entering steadily; set an alert on new Chinese-office filings in the relevant IPC classes.
Explore in Patsnap Eureka →Common questions on this landscape
This landscape tracks 97 published records filed between 2015 and 2026, ranked across 63 distinct assignees. The count reflects a specific search built around IPC classes for coating, alloys, powder metallurgy and related metal-treatment codes, so a broader or narrower query would return a different number. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the true count for 2025 and 2026 will keep rising as more applications publish.
The field is moderately concentrated: the top five assignees together hold 35.1% of the 97 records in scope, and the top ten hold 46.4%. The single leader holds 13 records, but filing drops off quickly after that, with fifth place at 4 records and tenth place at just 2. The remainder of the 63 ranked assignees form a long tail of one- or two-filing entrants, which suggests the underlying chemistry is still open to new participants rather than locked up by an incumbent.
Coating and surface deposition (IPC class C23C) appears on 85.6% of the 97 records, and alloy composition (C22C) on 77.3%, with most filings combining both. Powder metallurgy (B22F) reaches 25.8% of records, reflecting how much HEA surface work relies on powder-based cladding and spraying processes. Additive manufacturing (B33Y) and electrolytic treatment (C25F) are comparatively small at 4.1% each, marking them as less-claimed adjacent branches.
Filings grew 18% from 11 in 2021 to 13 in 2024, with a peak of 16 records in 2022 — the field's highest single year so far. It would be wrong to read the lower figures for 2025 and 2026 as a decline: publication lags filing by around 18 months, so those years are still filling in and will likely revise upward. The 2021–2024 window is the most reliable basis for judging real momentum.
The class data points to additive manufacturing (B33Y, 4.1% of 97 records) and electrolytic removal and cleaning (C25F, also 4.1%) as under-claimed relative to the dominant coating and alloy classes. Both sit adjacent to the well-covered laser-cladding lineage that anchors the highest-cited filings, so a claim combining an HEA composition with one of these less-crowded processes has more room than a straightforward coating-and-alloy claim. Any filing decision should still be checked against the specific cited prior art rather than relying on class-level shares 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.