Metallic Glass Coating Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- Filing activity peaked in 2018 at 31 records and has not returned to that level since — the trend line is flat-to-declining rather than building toward a current wave.
- Powder metallurgy (B22F) and alloys (C22C) dominate the IPC mix at 73 and 56 records respectively, with additive manufacturing (B33Y, 55) close behind — three routes competing for the same claim space.
- The United States receives 86 filings nearly triple the next-largest office (EPO, 25), meaning defensive and freedom-to-operate work should start with the US filing corpus.
What this landscape covers
Metallic glass coating and surface technology sits at the intersection of amorphous alloy metallurgy and applied surface engineering: thermal spray, electroplating and additive manufacturing routes used to lay down amorphous metallic coatings for wear resistance. The dataset behind this page spans 183 patent families published between 2015 and mid-2026, pulled from a search string combining bulk metallic glass and amorphous alloy terminology with coating-specific language.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent filing years in this dataset are understated and should not be read as a sign the field has gone quiet — only that the record is incomplete for those years. The picture that does hold up across the full window is a field with a clear historical peak, a concentrated set of IPC classes, and filing activity heavily weighted toward the United States.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 183-family dataset: filings over time, and where those filings sit across the IPC classification system. Read together they show a field that built quickly, peaked, and has since spread across adjacent classes rather than deepening in any one of them.
A peak year that has not been repeated
Filings rose from 14 in 2017 to a peak of 31 in 2018, then fell back toward zero by the 2022 midpoint. That shape — a sharp rise followed by a sustained pullback rather than a plateau — points to a technology that had a defined burst of claim-staking activity rather than one still accelerating. Treat the final one or two years as undercounted rather than genuinely empty.
Powder metallurgy and alloys anchor the field
B22F (powder metallurgy) leads at 73 records, with C22C (alloys) at 56 and B33Y (additive manufacturing) at 55 close behind. C23C (coating and surface deposition) sits at 53 and B29C (plastics shaping) at 52 — five classes clustered within a narrow band, which suggests the underlying inventions routinely straddle powder processing, alloy composition and deposition method rather than sitting cleanly in one bucket. B32B, C25D and C09D trail well behind, each under 20 records.
Shares are the percentage of the 183 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Metallic Glass Coating and Surface with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about metallic glass coating and surface and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative claim in this space
Systems and methods for implementing bulk metallic glass-based macroscale gears
The patent covers fabricating a bulk metallic glass-based macroscale gear — defined by a thickness above 3 mm or a diameter above 9 mm — by selecting a bulk metallic glass composition based on design parameters, where that composition is characterised by resistance to standard wear modes and resistance to brittle fracture.Filed by California Institute of Technology; granted 2024-03-05.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20180297113A1 | Calibration of 3D printer via computer vision | 89 |
| 2 | US20180162048A1 | Decomposing polymer binders for additive manufacturing feedstock | 75 |
| 3 | US20180297272A1 | High density 3D printing | 73 |
| 4 | US20130167965A1 | Coating compositions, applications thereof, and methods of forming | 73 |
| 5 | US20180297114A1 | Printed object correction via computer vision | 70 |
| 6 | US20070243335A1 | Deposition System, Method And Materials For Composite Coatings | 70 |
| 7 | US20180307209A1 | Adaptive 3D printing | 63 |
| 8 | US20180304540A1 | System And Method For Controlling Three-Dimensional (3D) Printing Using Measured Processing Effects | 57 |
| 9 | US4673468A | Commercial nickel phosphorus electroplating | 56 |
| 10 | US20130171367A1 | Coating compositions, applications thereof, and methods of forming | 48 |
Citation counts favour older records in any searched corpus — treat this table as a signal of historical influence, not of which patents matter most today.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns stand out once filing volume, IPC spread and receiving office data are viewed together.
A single burst, not sustained growth
The climb from 14 filings in 2017 to 31 in 2018 followed by a decline toward zero at the 2022 midpoint indicates a concentrated period of claim-staking rather than an ongoing wave. New entrants filing today face a corpus that was mostly built five to eight years ago.
No single dominant claim route
B22F, C22C, B33Y, C23C and B29C all sit between 52 and 73 records. That spread means powder metallurgy, alloy composition, additive manufacturing and deposition claims overlap heavily — a filer in one class should expect prior art from the adjacent four.
Filing is US-centred
The United States receives more than three times the filings of the next office (EPO, 25), with WIPO PCT filings (24) close behind. Japan, China and the UK each sit in single digits to low teens, meaning the deepest prior-art search obligation sits with the US corpus.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to metallic glass coating and surface, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Dumet Industries Co., Ltd. | Tohoku University (Japan) | 8 |
| Dumet Industries Co., Ltd. | INOUE | 5 |
| Tohoku University (Japan) | INOUE | 5 |
| MASUMOTO TSUYOSHI | Yoshida Kogyo Co., Ltd. | 5 |
| MASUMOTO TSUYOSHI | Honda Motor Co., Ltd. | 4 |
| MASUMOTO TSUYOSHI | TPR Co., Ltd. | 4 |
| INOUE | MASUMOTO TSUYOSHI | 3 |
| University of Virginia Patent Foundation | SHIFLET GARY J | 2 |
Ten co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, with the strongest links running through joint filings between Dumet Industries, Tohoku University (Japan) and Inoue — a recurring research-industry pairing rather than a broad collaboration network.
Assignee landscape
Filing activity in this dataset is spread across a small set of named organisations plus a long tail, with no assignee showing filings in the latest tracked year — consistent with the overall decline from the 2018 peak.
No active filer in the most recent window
Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum — including Dumet Industries, Detrex Industrial, the University of Virginia Patent Foundation, and Tohoku University (Japan) — shows zero filings in the latest year. Combined with the broader decline after 2018, this points to a corpus that is largely settled rather than one with an active current filer to watch.
Research-industry pairing anchors the network
The strongest co-assignee link in the dataset runs between Dumet Industries and Tohoku University (Japan), with Inoue appearing as a secondary partner to both. This is a research-into-industry transfer pattern rather than a broad multi-party consortium.
Academic assignees hold structurally distinct claims
California Institute of Technology's granted patent on bulk metallic glass macroscale gears illustrates a claim style distinct from the coating-process filings that dominate the rest of the corpus — it protects a specific mechanical application rather than a deposition or alloy-composition method.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Detrex Industrial | 0 | — |
| Detrex Industrial Corporation | 0 | — |
| University of Virginia Patent Foundation | 0 | — |
| Dumet Industries Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Tohoku University (Japan) | 0 | — |
| INOUE | 0 | — |
| MASUMOTO TSUYOSHI | 0 | — |
| VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd | 0 | — |
Where to take this
This landscape identifies the shape of the field; deciding where to file, challenge or license requires drilling into the specific claims behind these numbers.
Run a freedom-to-operate check
With 86 of 183 families sitting in the US and IPC classes clustered tightly across powder metallurgy, alloys and additive manufacturing, a targeted FTO search should cover all five overlapping classes rather than just the primary one for your process.
Explore Patsnap EurekaMap the white space branches
Thin coverage in electroplated amorphous coatings and paint/ink-format formulations suggests underclaimed claim territory worth a closer prior-art pull before drafting.
Explore Patsnap EurekaCommon questions
Metallic glass (amorphous alloy) coatings are applied to surfaces to provide wear resistance, corrosion resistance and hardness beyond what crystalline alloy coatings typically achieve. They are deposited using routes including thermal spray, electroplating and additive manufacturing, which is why this patent dataset spans classes from powder metallurgy through to electroplating. Typical target applications include gears, tooling surfaces and components exposed to abrasive wear, as reflected in representative filings like the bulk metallic glass macroscale gear patent from California Institute of Technology.
The dataset of 183 patent families shows filing activity distributed across a set of named organisations including Dumet Industries, Tohoku University (Japan), Detrex Industrial and the University of Virginia Patent Foundation, alongside academic assignees such as California Institute of Technology holding individually notable grants. No single assignee shows a dominant share of recent filings, and every tracked assignee shows zero filings in the latest year, so this is better described as a field with several historically active filers than one with a current clear leader.
Filings rose from 14 in 2017 to a peak of 31 in 2018, then declined toward the 2022 midpoint of zero recorded filings. This pattern is consistent with a concentrated burst of claim-staking activity around the 2017-2018 period rather than sustained growth. It's worth noting that publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent one to two years in any such dataset will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be — but the decline predates that window and reflects a real pullback.
The core IPC classes in this dataset are B22F (powder metallurgy, 73 records), C22C (alloys, 56), B33Y (additive manufacturing, 55), C23C (coating and surface deposition, 53) and B29C (shaping of plastics, 52), with B32B (laminates), C25D (electroplating) and C09D (paints and coatings) trailing further behind. The tight clustering of the top five classes means a single invention in this space often touches multiple classifications, so a search or FTO review limited to one class will likely miss relevant prior art in the adjacent four.
US11920668B2, assigned to California Institute of Technology and granted in March 2024, covers methods for fabricating bulk metallic glass-based macroscale gears above defined thickness or diameter thresholds, where the alloy is selected for resistance to wear and brittle fracture. It is a process-and-selection claim tied to macroscale gear geometry rather than a claim over all bulk metallic glass gear applications. Designers working on smaller-scale components, different geometries, or coatings rather than solid gears are likely to fall outside its specific scope, though a formal claim chart review is the only reliable way to confirm freedom to operate.
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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.