Hydraulic Actuator Precision Machining Patents: Trends & Leaders 2026
- Filing peaked in 2020 at 12 families and has since flattened rather than continuing to climb, with the 2022 midpoint sitting at 7 — a sign the field is settling rather than accelerating.
- China dominates the receiving-office split with 57 of the tracked filings, well ahead of Japan (11) and the United States (9), pointing to where enforcement and freedom-to-operate risk concentrates first.
- B23Q machine tool fittings anchor the art appearing in 68 of the records, while adjacent grinding/polishing (B24B, 5) and cleaning (B08B, 2) subclasses remain thin by comparison.
Filing growth compares 2021 (4 records) with 2024 (6) — 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 82 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Hydraulic actuator precision machining sits at the intersection of fluid-power hardware and metal-cutting process control: bore honing, surface finishing and tolerance control applied to hydraulic cylinders and servo-hydraulic actuators. The dataset behind this page pulls 82 patent families published between 2015 and the 2026 cut-off, indexed against a search string combining actuator/cylinder terminology with machining-process terms and a targeted IPC set anchored on B24B33, B23Q and F15B15/14.
Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent filing year in any trend chart understates real activity — treat the last one to two years as a floor, not a ceiling.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 82-family dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how the art distributes across IPC subclasses.
Annual filing trend
Filings rose from zero in 2017 to a peak of 12 in 2020, then eased back — the 2022 midpoint of 7 confirms a flat-to-declining trajectory rather than sustained growth. Read the final year or two as partial given publication lag.
IPC subclass distribution
B23Q (machine tool fittings) carries 68 of the 82 records, making it the structural core of the art. B23B turning/boring (16) and F15B fluid-pressure systems (13) form a secondary tier, while B24B grinding/polishing (5), B23D sawing/broaching (3), F16H gearing (3) and B08B cleaning (2) are comparatively under-claimed.
Shares are the percentage of the 82 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Hydraulic Actuator Precision Machining with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about hydraulic actuator precision machining and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records in the corpus
Systems and methods for optimizing thermal efficiency of a compressed air energy storage system
Describes a compressed-air energy storage device built around a first hydraulic cylinder, a second hydraulic cylinder, and a hydraulic actuator, with pistons in each cylinder dividing them into separate hydraulic chambers for reciprocating thermal-exchange operation.Filed by General Compression, Inc.; published 2013-12-26.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US3895424A | Machine tool | 40 |
| 2 | CN102975061A | 一种航空发动机叶片的精密加工工艺装备及加工方法 | 13 |
| 3 | CN201998040U | 一种内孔珩磨机 | 13 |
| 4 | JP1989257548A | Work conveying clamper | 11 |
| 5 | JP1985221240A | Feed device | 9 |
| 6 | JP1986008202A | Machine tool for article having noncircular section | 7 |
| 7 | JP1981107875A | Work surface finishing machine | 7 |
| 8 | CN115625532A | 一种工业机器人铝制配件加工用组合加工设备 | 5 |
| 9 | CN111618631A | 一种精密机械加工定位装置 | 5 |
| 10 | US20150330417A1 | Hydraulic actuator device | 5 |
Citation counts reflect influence within this searched corpus and skew toward older filings; they are not a measure of current commercial relevance.
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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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for filing strategy
Three read-outs from the trend, geography and citation data that matter for anyone deciding where to file or challenge.
Growth has plateaued, not accelerated
The 2020 peak of 12 filings followed by a 2022 midpoint of 7 suggests the core claim space around bore honing and tolerance control filled up early in this window rather than continuing to expand. New entrants are more likely to be working around existing claims than staking out fresh ground in the core subclasses.
China is the primary filing venue
China accounts for the large majority of receiving-office activity, with Japan and the United States as secondary venues and Europe, the UK and South Korea trailing well behind. Enforcement exposure and prior-art density are both highest in the Chinese filing record.
A single decades-old machine-tool patent still anchors the field
The highest-cited document in this corpus is a general machine tool patent, not a hydraulic-specific one — a reminder that foundational machining prior art still frames how narrow later hydraulic-actuator claims need to be drafted.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to hydraulic actuator precision machining, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is active, and where they are not
The assignee set is broad rather than deeply concentrated: no tracked assignee shows filings in the latest year, consistent with the flattening trend and publication lag.
No visible leader in current-year filings
None of the assignees with the strongest historical presence — spanning Chinese, Japanese and academic filers — show activity in the most recent tracked year. That is partly a publication-lag artefact, but it also means no single player is visibly pulling ahead right now.
Joint filing is rare and specific
Only two co-assignee pairings appear across 82 families, each tied to a named pair of partners rather than a broad ecosystem — collaboration here is the exception, not the norm.
A research institution sits alongside industrial filers
Tsinghua University appears among the tracked leading assignees alongside industrial players from China and Japan, suggesting some of the underlying process work originates in academic or applied-research settings rather than purely in-house R&D.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| JATCO Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Mazda Motor Corporation | 0 | — |
| Suzhou Chuangweisheng Automation Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Meihao Industrial Company | 0 | — |
| Via Mechanical Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Tsinghua University | 0 | — |
| Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Japan Science and Technology Agency (New Technology Development Organization) | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points toward specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, licensing or new filing strategy.
Check freedom-to-operate against the China-heavy filing base
With 57 of 82 records filed through the Chinese receiving office, any commercialisation plan touching bore honing or tolerance-control machinery should clear that filing base first, not the US or Japanese record.
Explore FTO workflows in EurekaProbe the under-claimed branches before assuming they're open
Thin subclasses like B24B grinding/polishing and B08B cleaning integration look under-claimed at the IPC level, but that can reflect narrow search terms as much as genuine white space — worth a targeted second pass.
Run a deeper claim search in EurekaWatch for the lag-adjusted current picture
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the flat 2020-2022 trend may already be reversing in filings not yet published — revisit this trend line in another year.
Track filing trends in EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
The core classification is B23Q (machine tool fittings), which accounts for the large majority of records in this landscape, followed by B23B (turning and boring) and F15B (fluid-pressure actuators and systems). Secondary classes include B23P (general metal working), B24B (grinding and polishing), B23D (planing, broaching and sawing) and F16H (gearing). A search limited to F15B alone would miss most of the relevant machining-process art, since the process claims are typically classified under the machine-tool codes rather than the actuator codes.
Filing activity peaked in 2020 at 12 tracked families and has since flattened, with the 2022 midpoint sitting at 7 — a pattern consistent with a maturing rather than an accelerating field. Bear in mind that the most recent one to two years in any such trend are understated because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months. Even accounting for that lag, the shape of the curve does not resemble a field still in a growth phase.
China is by far the largest receiving office in this dataset, with 57 of 82 tracked records, compared to 11 in Japan and 9 in the United States. Europe, the United Kingdom and South Korea each show only one or two filings. Anyone assessing enforcement risk or freedom-to-operate in this space should prioritise clearing the Chinese filing record before other jurisdictions.
Yes — subclasses like B24B (grinding and polishing), B23D (broaching and sawing), F16H (gearing) and B08B (cleaning) show far fewer records than the dominant B23Q machine-tool-fittings class. That thinner density suggests specific process combinations, such as honing-stone wear compensation or gear-train coupled tolerance control, may still be open. Any such assumption should be verified with a targeted claim-level search rather than relied on from IPC counts alone, since low volume can also reflect narrow search terms.
No single assignee shows a commanding or currently accelerating position in this dataset; the leading assignees tracked for recent-year momentum all show zero filings in the latest year, and only two co-assignee pairs appear across the full set of 82 families. The picture is closer to a long tail of moderately active filers — spanning Chinese and Japanese industrial firms plus at least one academic institution — than a market led by one clear leader. That said, the zero-momentum reading in the latest year is partly a publication-lag effect and should be revisited as more recent filings publish.
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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.