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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/meltblown-die-and-process-engineering-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Meltblown Die & Process EngineeringMeltblown die and process engineering patents: who holds the claim space and where it is still open
- 77.6% concentration. The top five assignees hold 602 of the 776 records in scope — a field where the leader alone accounts for 493 records.
- Filing has cooled from its 2018 peak. Annual filings ran at 17 in 2018 and fell -60% from 2021 (10) to 2024 (4), the last year with a complete count.
- Nonwoven claims dominate, filtration claims trail. D04H nonwoven and felt claims sit in 46.6% of records, while B01D separation/filtration claims appear in only 10.1%.
776
Published Records
78%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-60%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (10 records) with 2024 (4) — 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 776 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What this landscape covers
Meltblown die and process engineering sits at the mechanical core of nonwoven manufacturing: die geometry, air attenuation, collector distance, line speed and the resulting web basis weight all determine fibre diameter and web uniformity. This landscape pulls 776 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine die or spinning-process language with at least one of these process-control variables. The most recent year is always undercounted because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months.
The dataset spans hygiene, filtration and industrial nonwoven applications, with receiving offices led by the United States, the European Patent Office and the WIPO PCT route, followed by Australia, Germany and Mexico — a spread that reflects both consumer hygiene manufacturing hubs and export markets for filtration media.
Filing activity and technology mix, 2015-2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Meltblown Die and Process Engineering covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
The numbers
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 776 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and how those records split across IPC subclasses.
Filing activity, 2017-2026
Filings rose to a peak of 17 in 2018, then eased; the tracked three-year span shows a -60% move from 10 filings in 2021 to 4 in 2024, the last year treated as complete. 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in as publications catch up to filing dates.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
D04H (nonwovens and felts) touches 46.6% of the 776 records and B32B (layered products and laminates) touches 33.2%, showing that most filings claim the finished web or laminate rather than the spinning process alone. A61F (implants and prostheses, largely hygiene-absorbent constructions) reaches 21.9%, while die-adjacent classes such as D01D (man-made filament spinning) and B29C (shaping of plastics) sit lower, at 9.7% and 7.3% respectively — evidence that process-specific claims are comparatively sparse next to end-product claims.
Shares are the percentage of the 776 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Meltblown Die and Process Engineering covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
Go deeper on Meltblown Die and Process Engineering with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about meltblown die and process engineering and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
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Representative filing and most-cited prior art
Representative filing
US20120193282A1 — Sorbent loaded webs for gravity filtration
3M INNOVATIVE PROPERTIES COMPANY
A filter media comprising a carrier and a meltblown web collected on it: hydrophilic polymeric meltblown fibres enmesh a plurality of sorbent particles, with the fibres making up at least 3% of the web basis weight and the sorbent particles up to 97%. The claim ties web basis weight directly to the fibre-to-sorbent ratio rather than to a fixed die or process parameter.Filed by 3M Innovative Properties Company, published 2012-08-02.
Most-cited records in this landscape
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5575874A | Method for making shaped nonwoven fabric | 392 |
| 2 | US5643653A | Shaped nonwoven fabric | 285 |
| 3 | US5492751A | Disposable garment with improved containments means | 208 |
| 4 | US20050054255A1 | Nonwoven fabric liner and diaper including a nonwoven laminate liner | 182 |
| 5 | US20050130536A1 | Disposable scrubbing product | 161 |
| 6 | US20050026527A1 | Nonwoven containing acoustical insulation laminate | 155 |
| 7 | US20040111817A1 | Disposable scrubbing product | 147 |
| 8 | US6946413B2 | Composite material with cloth-like feel | 142 |
| 9 | US20050136772A1 | Composite structures containing tissue webs and other nonwovens | 128 |
| 10 | US20120177888A1 | High cellulose content, laminiferous nonwoven fabric | 127 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had more time to accumulate citations; treat them as a signal of influence within this corpus, not a ranking of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Meltblown Die and Process Engineering covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the data means for filing strategy
Three findings that shape where a new filing can realistically sit in this field.
Concentration
77.6%
of 776 records held by top 5
The field is a leader-and-tail structure, not a level playing field
One assignee holds 493 of the 776 records outright, and the next four combined bring the top five to 602 records — 77.6% of everything in scope. Fifth place holds 12 records and tenth place holds 8, so the drop-off from leader to the rest of the ranked group is steep rather than gradual.
Source: assignee ranking, 776 records
Filing momentum
-60%
2021 to 2024 filings
Activity has pulled back from its 2018 peak
Filings peaked at 17 in 2018 and the tracked window shows a -60% drop from 10 filings in 2021 to 4 in 2024, the last year that can be read as a complete count. That does not mean the underlying process work has stopped — it means the easy claim territory around die and attenuation variables has largely been staked out by the incumbents already ranked at the top.
Source: filing trend, 2017-2026
Claim skew
46.6% vs 10.1%
D04H vs B01D share of 776 records
End-product claims outnumber process-parameter claims
Nonwoven and laminate classes (D04H, B32B) cover the majority of records, while filtration-specific claims (B01D) and man-made filament spinning claims (D01D) sit well below 15% each. Filers have concentrated on the finished web and its use, leaving die geometry and spinning-process mechanics comparatively thin.
Source: IPC composition, 776 records
Eureka AI Agent
Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to meltblown die and process engineering, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Meltblown Die and Process Engineering covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Players
Who is filing, and where the activity has gone quiet
The assignee ranking returns 100 companies — not a top-50 or top-100 cut, but the full set the data endpoint returns. Recent-year momentum across the leading names has gone flat, which is consistent with the field's broader pullback from its 2018 peak.
Leader
493
records
One assignee holds the largest single share
The leading assignee's 493 records dwarf the rest of the ranked group; no other single company approaches that count, and the leader's recent-year filing count has also dropped to zero in the latest tracked year alongside the rest of the top names.
Source: assignee ranking
Mid-tier
12 / 8
fifth / tenth place records
A sharp drop-off after the top few names
Fifth place holds 12 records and tenth place holds 8 — a fraction of the leader's count. This gap suggests the mid-tier names are defending narrower, more specific claim positions rather than broad process coverage.
Source: assignee ranking
Collaboration
10
co-assignee pairs
Co-filing is limited and concentrated inside single organisations
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the data, and the strongest pairs are inventor-to-inventor or inventor-to-company links inside the same large filer rather than cross-company collaborations, pointing to internal R&D teams rather than joint ventures.
Source: co-assignee pairs
Recent-year filing momentum among leading assignees
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc. | 0 | — |
| 3M Innovative Properties Company | 0 | — |
| The Procter & Gamble Company | 0 | — |
| Kimberly-Clark Corporation | 0 | — |
| E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company | 0 | — |
| ExxonMobil Chemical Patents Inc. | 0 | — |
| CLOSE KENNETH B | 0 | — |
| Avintiv Specialty Materials Inc. | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Meltblown Die and Process Engineering covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's next
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a field where the broad end-product claims are largely staked out and the process-parameter layer is thinner. Two directions follow from that.
Map the die and process-parameter gap directly
Run a focused search on collector distance, melt viscosity and line-speed claims against the leader's granted set to see exactly which parameter combinations remain unclaimed before drafting.
Explore this in Eureka →Track momentum, not just totals
Because 2025-2026 filings are still being published, watch the next 12-18 months of data refresh rather than reading the current dip as a permanent slowdown.
Set up monitoring in Eureka →Source: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Meltblown Die and Process Engineering covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions on this landscape
One assignee holds 493 of the 776 records in scope, far ahead of any other single company in the ranked list. The next four assignees combined bring the top five to 602 records, or 77.6% of all records in scope. Beyond the top five, the ranking drops sharply — fifth place holds 12 records and tenth place holds 8 — so most of the remaining ranked companies hold single-digit or low-double-digit counts.
Filings peaked at 17 in 2018 and the tracked window shows a -60% decline from 10 filings in 2021 to 4 in 2024, the last year that can be read as a complete count. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete because patent publication typically lags filing by about 18 months, so the true recent trend is understated in the raw numbers. Treat the visible pullback as a signal to check current activity directly rather than as proof the technology has stalled.
The patent, filed by 3M Innovative Properties Company, covers a filter media built from a carrier plus a meltblown web where hydrophilic meltblown fibres enmesh sorbent particles, with fibres set at a minimum of 3% and sorbent particles at a maximum of 97% of the web basis weight. This blocks designs that fall inside that specific basis-weight ratio range for hydrophilic-fibre-plus-sorbent-particle constructions on a porous carrier. It does not block filtration media built on different fibre chemistries, different carrier types, or basis-weight ratios outside that claimed range.
Process-parameter classes are comparatively thin next to end-product classes: D01D (man-made filament spinning) appears in 9.7% of the 776 records and B29C (shaping of plastics) in 7.3%, well below D04H's 46.6% and B32B's 33.2%. Within those thinner classes, collector-distance control, melt viscosity modulation for fibre attenuation, and line-speed/web-winding synchronization show up less often than broad nonwoven or laminate composition claims. That gap suggests process-mechanics claims, rather than finished-web claims, are the more open filing territory right now.
The most-cited records in this corpus, including US5575874A and US5643653A, were filed decades before the 2015-2026 window this landscape tracks, so they have simply had more years to accumulate citations. A high citation count signals influence on later filings within the searched corpus, not that the underlying technology is currently the most commercially active. Newer filings in fast-moving sub-areas may be under-cited purely because they have not had time to be cited yet.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Meltblown Die and Process Engineering covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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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.