LPBF In-Situ Sensor Integration Patent Snapshot
The LPBF in-situ sensor integration space is a nascent, highly concentrated field with 7 patent families in scope, led by Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC. Filing activity has plateaued near its 2019 peak, signaling a field at an early maturity stage with substantial open territory in sensing and image-processing branches.
Lawrence Livermore dominates a thin but concentrated field
Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC holds the leading position among all ranked filers, accounting for 3 patent records — the single largest block in a field where the top five filers together represent 40% of the ranked applicants visible in this query’ combined total.
The competitive tier is extremely compressed: the leader’s count is already at the upper boundary of what a field of this size can support, and the distance between the first-ranked applicant and the remaining filers is immediate — most hold only 1 patent record each. Nutech Ventures Ltd, with 2 patent records, is the only other entity with more than a single filing.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC | 3 | |
| 2 | Nutech Ventures Ltd | 2 | |
| 3 | K Tamilselvan | 1 | |
| 4 | K Sivaramakrishnan | 1 | |
| 5 | U Sujan | 1 | |
| 6 | V Skandhakumar | 1 | |
| 7 | S Senthil Kumar | 1 | |
| 8 | K Rajasuresh | 1 | |
| 9 | R Elakkiyadasan | 1 |
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | A Sam Immanuel | 1 | |
| 11 | M Shek Mubarak | 1 | |
| 12 | K Venkatesan | 1 | |
| 13 | Kevin D Cole | 1 | |
| 14 | R Saron | 1 | |
| 15 | P Vijaykannan | 1 | |
| 16 | N Sathishkumar | 1 | |
| 17 | Northwestern University | 1 |
Lawrence Livermore’s position, anchored in additive manufacturing process monitoring and laser-based welding and brazing subclasses, reflects its heritage in high-value defense and energy manufacturing. The breadth of individual inventors in the ranking suggests the field is still attracting exploratory filings from academic and startup ecosystems rather than systematic corporate portfolio-building.
Patent records filed within the most recent 18–24 months are subject to publication lag and are likely under-counted; the current figures should be treated as a floor rather than a ceiling for recent activity. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Filing activity has plateaued; additive manufacturing subclasses dominate the technology mix
The annual filing trend and IPC technology composition together reveal a field that peaked early and has not yet broadened its technical footprint beyond its core additive manufacturing and powder metallurgy classes.
Annual filing trend
Filings first appeared in 2019 with 2 patent records, dipped to 1 in 2020, then went quiet before returning to 2 in 2023 and 1 in 2024. The most recent data points (2024–2025) are subject to publication lag and should be read as provisional minimums. The overall pattern is consistent with a field at early maturity — annual volume has eased from its 2019 peak and recent-window growth is flat.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
B33Y (additive manufacturing / 3D printing) accounts for the largest share of IPC coverage, followed closely by B22F (powder metallurgy), reflecting the core process focus. B23K (welding, soldering and brazing) contributes a smaller secondary cluster. G01J (radiation and light measurement) and G06T (image data processing and generation) each appear only once, marking them as structurally thin branches within this corpus.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
Feedforward control of laser powder bed fusion
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for controlled laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) metal additive manufacturing. One of the methods includes predicting thermal information of a part to be printed; analyzing the thermal information to identify one or more areas of potential heat buildup; and… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Two-color high speed thermal imaging system for la… | 13 |
| 2 | Apparatus and system for monitoring laser power be… | 1 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
Assignee snapshot from the current evidence set
The applicants below are visible in this query result. Because the evidence set is relatively small, read this section as a directional snapshot rather than a full competitive ranking.
Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC
Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC leads with 3 patent records, concentrated in B33Y 50 (additive manufacturing data and controls), B23K 26 (laser-based welding and brazing), and B33Y 10 (additive manufacturing processes). This cross-class footprint reflects a system-level approach to in-situ monitoring — covering both the sensing modality (laser interaction) and the data/control layer. No momentum trend is listed in the recent-entrant data, indicating its position predates the most recent filing window.
patent records: 3Nutech Ventures Ltd
Nutech Ventures Ltd holds 2 patent records and is flagged as a new entrant in the recent filing window, with its filings focused on B22F 10 and B22F 12 (powder metallurgy process and equipment subclasses) alongside B33Y 50. Its co-filing with named inventors Yavari Reza and Riensche Alex suggests a small, specialized team. The powder-metallurgy emphasis is technically complementary to, rather than directly overlapping with, Lawrence Livermore’s laser-process focus.
patent records: 2Frequently asked questions
The corpus covers 7 patent families in scope. This is a very small field by patent-landscape standards, indicating either that the technology is nascent, that much activity remains in academic literature rather than patent filings, or that the specific intersection of LPBF process monitoring and embedded sensor integration is defined narrowly.
Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC leads with 3 patent records, covering additive manufacturing data and control subclasses (B33Y 50, B33Y 10) and laser-based process subclasses (B23K 26). It is the only filer with more than 2 patent records in this corpus.
The evidence places the field at an early maturity stage: annual filings have plateaued near their 2019 peak, and recent-window growth is flat at 0%. This means the initial burst of exploratory filings has stabilized without triggering a broader industrial filing wave.
The United States leads with 4 patent records, followed by WIPO PCT with 2 records, and India with 1 record. European and East Asian patent offices are not represented in this corpus, reflecting the field’s current US-centric profile.
The most-cited patent record in this corpus is titled ‘Two-color high speed thermal imaging system for la…’ with 13 citations. The second most-cited is ‘Apparatus and system for monitoring laser power be…’ with 1 citation. The citation disparity underscores the foundational influence of the thermal imaging approach within this narrow field.
G01J (radiation and light measurement) and G06T (image data processing and generation) each have only 1 patent record in this corpus, making them the thinnest branches relative to their technical importance to LPBF in-situ monitoring. Pyrometric sensing designs and machine-learning-based layer inspection algorithms are plausible entry vectors with limited direct prior art in this specific corpus.
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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.
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