Large Casting Production Patents: Top Filers & Filing Trends 2026
- Concentrated but not locked up. the top 5 assignees account for 30.2% of all 215 records in scope, and the top 10 for 50.2% — leaving roughly half the field to a long tail of single- and low-count filers.
- Filing is accelerating, not cooling. filings rose from 7 in 2021 to 13 in 2024, an 86% increase over that span, even as the most recent published years understate true filing activity due to publication lag.
- Moulding and casting classes dominate the claim space. B22C (foundry moulding) and B22D (metal casting) cover 63.7% and 53.5% of records respectively, while alloy, furnace and cylinder-liner classes each sit under 10%.
Filing growth compares 2021 (7 records) with 2024 (13) — 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 215 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Large casting production spans the mould, the melt and the finished part: sand mould and core assembly, gating and riser design to manage shrinkage porosity, solidification simulation used to predict defects before metal is poured, and the downstream steps of defect repair welding and dimensional inspection that determine whether a casting ships. The 215 records in this dataset sit at the intersection of these process stages rather than in a single equipment category.
Filing activity traces back to 2017 and continues through the 2026 cut-off, with a peak so far in 2018. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the tail end of the trend is incomplete by construction — the 2021-to-2024 growth figure is the most reliable recent signal the data supports.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 215 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filings climbed through the early 2020s
From a 2021 count of 7 to 13 in 2024 — an 86% rise over three years — filing activity in large casting production has been building rather than tapering off. Treat 2025 and 2026 figures as provisional; they will revise upward as publications catch up.
Foundry moulding and metal casting anchor the field
B22C (foundry moulding) appears in 63.7% of the 215 records and B22D (metal casting) in 53.5% — the two together define the technical core. Alloys (C22C, 9.8%), steelmaking and furnace-related classes (each 3.7%) and plastics shaping and engine-component classes (under 4% each) mark adjacent, thinner-claimed territory.
Shares are the percentage of the 215 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Large Casting Production with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about large casting production and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records in this dataset
Casting process and sand mould with a gating system for thin-walled aluminium casts (ALU-ONTO KFT, 2017)
The filing describes a sand-moulding gravity-casting process for producing aluminium castings with wall thicknesses of 1-3 mm at overall dimensions reported as 100 to 400 times larger than comparable thin-wall processes achieve. Melt is introduced into the mould cavity at multiple points through a gating system of narrowing cross section, and a matching sand mould fitted with that gating system is claimed alongside the process.Abstract trimmed for length; see the full record for complete claim language.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20190366556A1 | Series-parallel movable heavy-load casting robot | 87 |
| 2 | US5477906A | Casting of metal objects | 42 |
| 3 | US5320158A | Method for manufacturing engine block having recessed cylinder bore liners | 33 |
| 4 | US5205340A | Insulated paper sleeve for casting metal articles in sand molds | 30 |
| 5 | LU100822B1 | Turnover multi-finger asynchronous gripper for casting robot | 28 |
| 6 | US20070017604A1 | Al-Zn-Mg-Cu-Sc high strength alloy for aerospace and automotive castings | 28 |
| 7 | US20120279031A1 | Production line for high temperature alloy furnace pipes and piperows used in petrochemical industry | 25 |
| 8 | CN102319891A | 一种有效控制卷气、卷渣的浇注系统及其设计方法 | 24 |
| 9 | US5297611A | Casting of metal objects | 24 |
| 10 | US3532561A | Ferrous metal die casting process and products | 23 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate references — read them as a measure of influence on the field, not as a signal 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 filing pattern signals
Three read-throughs from the concentration, growth and geographic figures above.
Leadership is real but not exclusionary
The leading assignee holds 20 records and the tenth-ranked holds 7 — a steep but not cliff-like drop-off. With half of all records held outside the top 10, freedom-to-operate analysis still needs to check a wide set of smaller filers, not just the largest ones.
Activity is building, not settling
The rise from 7 filings in 2021 to 13 in 2024 suggests renewed R&D investment in casting process claims rather than a mature, saturated field. Given the roughly 18-month publication lag, the true 2024-2025 filing rate is likely higher than currently published.
China leads receiving-office volume
China accounts for the largest share of receiving-office filings in this dataset, ahead of the United States, EPO, Japan, Australia and the United Kingdom. That skew is worth checking against where a given assignee actually wants enforceable rights before assuming filing volume equals market priority.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to large casting production, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranked leaders in this dataset cover 100 companies; the field is topped by a assignee with 20 records but does not consolidate sharply beneath that.
A single leader, then a graded drop
The top assignee's 20 records outpace the fifth-place holder's 11 and the tenth-place holder's 7, showing a graded rather than cliff-edge concentration. That shape favours challengers who can find a specific, well-claimed niche rather than compete head-on across the whole gating-and-moulding space.
Collaboration is limited and concentrated
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, with the strongest pairing appearing 9 times. Most filers in this field patent independently rather than through joint ventures, which matters when scoping potential licensing or cross-filing partners.
Recent-year activity has gone quiet among top filers
Several of the historically active assignees show no filings in the latest tracked year. Given the publication lag, this is as likely to reflect pending applications not yet published as a genuine pullback, so it should not be read as those companies exiting the space.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Foseco International Limited | 0 | — |
| Anhui University of Science and Technology | 0 | — |
| Comalco Aluminium Limited | 0 | — |
| ALU ONTO KFT | 0 | — |
| WANG YUXIN | 0 | — |
| LIU JUREN | 0 | — |
| King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology | 0 | — |
| Cambridge Enterprise Limited | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, licensing, or R&D scoping.
Check freedom-to-operate against the long tail
Half of all 215 records sit outside the top 10 assignees, so a clearance search limited to the largest filers will miss real prior art. Run a claim-level check across the full ranked set before committing to a gating or riser design.
Explore assignee coverage in Eureka →Map the under-claimed branches to internal roadmaps
Furnace-accessory integration, cylinder-liner geometry and plastics-assisted core assembly all sit under 10% of records, well behind the B22C and B22D core. Compare that against where your own R&D roadmap is heading.
Run a white-space search in Eureka →Common questions on large casting production patents
The dataset's assignee ranking covers 100 companies, with a single leader holding 20 records ahead of a fifth-place holder at 11 and a tenth-place holder at 7. The top 5 assignees together account for 30.2% of all 215 records in scope, and the top 10 account for 50.2% — a graded concentration rather than a single dominant player. That leaves roughly half the field spread across a long tail of smaller filers, so competitive monitoring needs to extend beyond the largest names.
Filings rose from 7 in 2021 to 13 in 2024, an 86% increase over that three-year span, indicating growing rather than shrinking activity. The years after 2024 appear lower in the published data, but that reflects the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication rather than an actual slowdown. 2024 should be treated as the most recent year with a reasonably complete count.
Foundry moulding (IPC class B22C) appears in 63.7% of the 215 records and metal casting (B22D) in 53.5%, making these two classes the technical core of the field. Alloys (C22C) cover 9.8% of records, while steelmaking, furnace details, plastics shaping and engine-cylinder classes each sit at under 4%. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should not be read as mutually exclusive segments.
China leads with 74 filings by receiving office, followed by the United States at 39, the European Patent Office at 20, Japan at 12, and Australia and the United Kingdom at 10 each. This distribution reflects where applicants have chosen to seek protection, which is not always the same as where the underlying R&D or manufacturing takes place. Anyone assessing enforceability in a specific market should check filings in that jurisdiction directly rather than inferring from aggregate volume.
US20170333981A1, assigned to ALU-ONTO KFT and filed in 2017, describes a sand-moulding gravity-casting process for thin-walled aluminium castings, claiming wall thicknesses of 1-3 mm at overall dimensions reported as 100 to 400 times larger than comparable processes, achieved through a multi-point gating system of narrowing cross section. It matters because it bundles both a process claim and an apparatus claim covering the matching sand mould and gating system, which raises the bar for anyone designing a similar multi-point gating approach for large thin-wall parts. Designing around it generally means using a different gate geometry or a different melt-introduction strategy rather than a narrowing multi-point gate.
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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.