LPBF Multi-Laser Productivity Patent Landscape 2026
RTX Corp holds the largest position in this 97-family corpus, filing nearly one-fifth of all tracked families, while the top five filers together account for 31% of the hundred largest filers’ combined total. The field is still expanding on a multi-year basis—recent three-year filings sit 272% above the prior three-year window—though annual volume has eased from its 2023 peak and the most recent years remain understated by publication lag.
RTX Corp leads a moderately concentrated, aerospace-heavy field
RTX Corp occupies the top position with 17 patent families, more than three times the count of the next-ranked applicants—Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC and Seurat Technologies Inc, each at 5 patent families—establishing a clear first tier.
The top five filers’ share of the hundred largest filers’ combined total stands at 31%, suggesting moderate concentration: a dominant leader exists, but the remaining field is distributed across a mix of aerospace primes, national laboratories, machine vendors, and universities.
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | RTX Corp | 17 | |
| 2 | Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC | 5 | |
| 3 | Seurat Technologies Inc | 5 | |
| 4 | Nikon SLM Solutions AG | 4 | |
| 5 | Regents of the University of Michigan | 4 | |
| 6 | The Boeing Company | 4 | |
| 7 | Renishaw PLC | 3 | |
| 8 | Divergent Technologies Inc | 3 | |
| 9 | South China University of Technology | 3 | |
| 10 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 3 |
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | The Government of the United States of America | 2 | |
| 12 | Guangdong Hanbang 3D Technology Co Ltd | 2 | |
| 13 | SHENZHEN SUNSHINE LASER & ELECTRONICS TECH CO LTD | 2 | |
| 14 | NUtech Ventures Ltd | 2 | |
| 15 | Suzhou Ampro Ltd | 2 | |
| 16 | Linde AG | 2 | |
| 17 | North University of China | 2 | |
| 18 | KU Leuven | 2 | |
| 19 | Nanjing Chamlion Laser Technology Co Ltd | 2 | |
| 20 | Anhui Hart Three-Dimensional Technology Co Ltd | 1 |
RTX Corp’s lead, combined with Boeing’s presence at 4 patent families, signals that aerospace OEMs view multi-laser LPBF productivity as strategically important for part qualification and throughput, rather than leaving the technology entirely to equipment vendors.
Filing counts for 2024 onward are understated due to the 18–24 month publication lag typical of patent systems; the apparent slowdown from 2023 should not be read as a real contraction in activity. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Rapid multi-year growth anchored in powder-bed and additive manufacturing classes
The annual filing trend and technology composition together show a field that emerged commercially around 2020–2021 and is still expanding, with its intellectual property concentrated overwhelmingly in powder metallurgy and additive manufacturing process classes.
Annual filing trend
Filings were negligible through 2019, then accelerated sharply from 2020 onward, reaching a recorded peak of 29 families in 2023 before easing to 23 in 2024 and 8 in 2025. The 2024–2025 figures are suppressed by publication lag and should not be read as a decline; the three-year recent window is 272% above the prior three-year window.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
B22F (Powder metallurgy) and B33Y (Additive manufacturing) are the dominant IPC classes, reflecting core process and system patents. B23K (Welding, soldering and brazing), C22C (Alloys), and B29C (Shaping of plastics) each appear at materially lower shares, while G06F (Electric digital data processing) indicates an emerging but sparse software and control layer.
↗ 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.
Laser-plume interaction for predictive defect mode…
A process for a laser plume interaction for a predictive defect model for multi-laser additive manufacturing of a part including executing computational fluid dynamics modeling of a gas flow in an additive manufacturing machine manufacturing chamber; approximating a laser plume relative to a melt pool on a powder bed disposed on a build plate within the… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 一种基于原位多激光调控的增减材复合式制造装置及方法 | 20 |
| 2 | 一种SLM3D打印机 | 19 |
| 3 | 一种多激光协同负载激光选区熔化增材制造方法 | 17 |
| 4 | 金属选区激光熔化成形方法及系统 | 14 |
| 5 | 一种多激光拼接扫描路径规划方法及多激光拼接扫描方法 | 9 |
| 6 | Systems and methods | 9 |
| 7 | Device and method for additive manufacturing of co… | 9 |
| 8 | Thermal stress and substrate damage reducing addit… | 8 |
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.
What the competitive structure means for R&D investment decisions
The field’s growth trajectory, moderate concentration, active cross-sector collaboration, and US-dominant jurisdiction profile each carry distinct implications for where new entrants and incumbents should focus.
Growth stage with easing annual volume from 2023 peak
The lifecycle evidence places LPBF multi-laser productivity firmly in the Growth stage. The three-year recent filing window sits 272% above the prior three-year window, confirming the field is still expanding on a multi-year basis. Annual volume has eased from the 2023 peak of 29 families, but publication lag makes current-year counts artificially low; the underlying trajectory remains expansive.
Lifecycle: GrowthSingle dominant leader, dispersed second tier
RTX Corp’s 17-family position is roughly three times the count of any single challenger, creating a pronounced tier gap at the top. Below that, the field is genuinely competitive: six applicants hold 4–5 families each, and a further ten hold 2–3, spanning aerospace primes, national labs, machine vendors, and universities. New entrants face a high bar in the core process area but encounter a less defended landscape in adjacent branches.
Moderate concentrationSeurat–Lawrence Livermore axis is the most active co-filing pair
The most active co-applicant pair is Seurat Technologies Inc and Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC, sharing 5 co-filed families—the only collaboration pairing in the corpus reaching that threshold. South China University of Technology and Shenzhen Sunshine Laser & Electronics Technology Co Ltd form a second pairing with 2 shared families. Both pairings follow an industry–national-lab or industry–university model, consistent with technology-readiness bridging rather than pure commercial partnering.
Cross-sector co-filingUS leads; China and EPO are active secondary jurisdictions
The United States is the lead filing office with 35 patent records, followed by China with 24 and the EPO with 18. WIPO PCT applications number 14, indicating that leading applicants are pursuing broad international coverage for their core innovations. India and Russia each show 3 records and South Korea 1, suggesting limited but emerging interest beyond the primary three-bloc concentration.
US-led, global coverageGo beyond the landscape: Eureka’s TRIZ Solution agent breaks down an R&D problem and returns patented concept solutions, each with a technical approach and cited patent & literature evidence.
| Applicant | Collaborator | Co-filings |
|---|---|---|
| Seurat Technologies Inc | Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC | 5 |
| South China University of Technology | Shenzhen Sunshine Laser & Electronics Technology Co Ltd | 2 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
RTX Corp leads on volume; Seurat Technologies and Lawrence Livermore anchor the innovation-collaboration axis
The top two tiers reflect different strategic postures: aerospace OEMs building proprietary process IP versus deep-tech startups and national laboratories pursuing fundamental multi-laser architecture patents.
RTX Corp
RTX Corp holds 17 patent families—the largest position in the corpus by a wide margin—focused heavily on B22F powder metallurgy process methods and B33Y additive manufacturing systems and data. Momentum data marks the company as a new entrant in the recent tracking window with 16 recent families, indicating that virtually all of its portfolio was built in the most recent filing period rather than accumulated over multiple prior cycles.
families: 17Seurat Technologies Inc
Seurat Technologies Inc holds 5 patent families, tied with Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC. Its technology emphasis spans B22F powder metallurgy process and apparatus classes alongside B23K laser welding and brazing methods, reflecting its area-printing multi-laser architecture. Seurat’s 5-family co-filing collaboration with Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC gives the pair a combined research footprint that rivals larger single-applicant positions.
families: 5| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| RTX Corp | 16 | ▲ new entrant |
| The Boeing Company | 2 | ▲ new entrant |
| Regents of the University of Michigan | 4 | ▲ new entrant |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 3 | ▲ new entrant |
| Renishaw PLC | 3 | ▲ new entrant |
| Divergent Technologies Inc | 3 | ▲ new entrant |
Under-served adjacent branches worth monitoring
Several IPC classes appear at the margins of the current corpus, indicating areas where multi-laser LPBF technology intersects with broader engineering problems that have attracted limited dedicated filing activity to date.
G06F · Digital data processing and process control
With only 7 patent records in the corpus, the software and algorithm layer—covering laser-path planning, inter-beam coordination, and real-time process control for multi-laser LPBF—is sparsely covered relative to the hardware process classes. Multi-laser systems create combinatorially more complex scheduling and synchronization problems than single-laser machines, suggesting genuine technical need. Entry paths include scan-strategy algorithms, closed-loop monitoring software, and digital-twin simulation frameworks, which can be developed independently of proprietary hardware.
Search this in Eureka →C21D / C22C · Alloy design and thermal treatment for multi-laser microstructures
C21D (Heat treatment of metals) and C22C (Alloys) each appear at 3 and 12 patent records respectively, modest relative to the dominant B22F and B33Y classes. Multi-laser LPBF introduces distinct thermal gradient and cooling-rate profiles that affect microstructure and require alloy compositions or post-build heat treatments tailored to those profiles—a problem that is not fully addressed by single-laser alloy patents. Research groups with existing alloy or heat-treatment expertise and access to multi-laser LPBF equipment are the most realistic entrants.
Search this in Eureka →How leading applicants differ by technology route
Route coverage across the main technology branches in the current evidence set.
| Player | B22F 10 · Powder metallurgy | B33Y 10 · Additive manufacturing (3D printing) | B22F 12 · Powder metallurgy | B33Y 30 · Additive manufacturing (3D printing) | B33Y 50 · Additive manufacturing (3D printing) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RTX Corp | Strong · 17 | Strong · 10 | Moderate · 7 | Moderate · 5 | Strong · 14 |
| The Boeing Company | Strong · 4 | Strong · 4 | Strong · 4 | Strong · 4 | Strong · 3 |
| Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC | Strong · 5 | Moderate · 2 | Strong · 5 | Moderate · 2 | Absent |
| Seurat Technologies Inc | Strong · 5 | Absent | Strong · 5 | Moderate · 2 | Absent |
| Regents of the University of Michigan | Strong · 4 | Strong · 4 | Strong · 3 | Absent | Absent |
| Divergent Technologies Inc | Strong · 3 | Absent | Strong · 2 | Absent | Strong · 3 |
| Linde AG | Absent | Strong · 2 | Strong · 2 | Strong · 2 | Strong · 2 |
Frequently asked questions
The corpus contains 97 patent families in scope, covering global filings from 2017 through 2026. Filing counts for 2024 and 2025 are understated due to the standard 18–24 month patent publication lag.
RTX Corp holds the top position with 17 patent families, roughly three times the count of the next-ranked applicants. Momentum data indicates this portfolio was built primarily in the most recent filing window, marking RTX as a new entrant that moved aggressively into the space.
The field is in the Growth lifecycle stage. Recent three-year filings are 272% above the prior three-year window. Annual volume peaked at 29 families in 2023 and has eased since, but the most recent years are further compressed by publication lag, so the underlying expansion is ongoing on a multi-year basis.
The United States leads with 35 patent records, followed by China with 24, the EPO with 18, and WIPO PCT applications at 14. India and Russia each register 3 records, and South Korea shows 1, reflecting that the primary battleground is the US-China-Europe triad.
The most active co-applicant pairing is Seurat Technologies Inc and Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC, sharing 5 co-filed families. South China University of Technology and Shenzhen Sunshine Laser and Electronics Technology Co Ltd form a second pairing with 2 shared families. Both pairings follow an industry–national-lab or industry–university model.
The G06F (electric digital data processing) branch has only 7 patent records, suggesting that software for multi-laser scan-path planning and real-time coordination is sparsely covered. The C21D and C22C branches—covering heat treatment and alloy design tailored to multi-laser thermal profiles—are also lightly filed relative to the dominant process classes, representing areas where materials-focused groups could contribute differentiated IP.
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