Nickel-Base Superalloys Patents: Who Leads, Trends 2026
- Filing has cooled since its 2017 peak of 16. the midpoint year (2022) sits at just 5, and the most recent year shows zero — a signal of either a mature claim base or a reporting lag, not necessarily declining interest.
- One document dominates the citation graph. WO2000044949A1 carries 978 citations, more than five times the next most-cited record, meaning downstream filers are still designing around a machinability baseline set a generation ago.
- Claims cluster tightly in C22C and C22F. 389 and 162 records respectively, while crystal growth (C30B, 115) and coating (C23C, 41) see far less activity relative to the core alloy composition space.
Filing growth compares 2021 (2 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 426 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks 426 patent families filed against nickel-base superalloy compositions and processing routes, drawn from claims and abstracts referencing creep resistance, single crystal growth, directional solidification, turbine blade applications and oxidation resistance. The search is bounded to alloy composition (C22C19), non-ferrous heat treatment (C22F1) and additive/powder metallurgy (B22F10) classifications, so it captures the metallurgical core of the field rather than the downstream turbine hardware built around it.
Filing activity is concentrated in United States, European and Japanese offices, with Canada, WIPO and the United Kingdom trailing well behind — a pattern consistent with a technology whose commercial buyers are concentrated among a small number of aerospace and power-generation primes. Publication naturally lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the apparent drop-off in the final years understates real filing activity that has not yet published.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 426-family dataset: how filing volume moved year over year, and how those filings split across IPC subclasses.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings peaked at 16 in 2017 and have declined toward a midpoint of 5 in 2022, with the final years showing near-zero counts that likely reflect publication lag rather than a genuine stop in filing.
IPC subclass distribution
C22C (alloys) and C22F (non-ferrous treatment) dominate at 389 and 162 records, while turbine-adjacent classes F01D and F02C, and crystal-growth class C30B, appear at meaningfully lower volumes — the claim density sits in composition and heat treatment, not in downstream part geometry.
Shares are the percentage of the 426 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Nickel-Base Superalloys with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about nickel-base superalloys and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative and most-cited filings
US5069873A — Low carbon directional solidification alloy
A nickel base superalloy for columnar grain, directional solidification which contains Re for strength and creep resistance, and substantially eliminates the use of Zr and minimizes Si to prevent DS grain boundary cracking. The creep- and stress-rupture properties, which approach nickel base superalloy single crystal performance, are achieved without the use of high temperature gamma prime solution treatment.Filed by Cannon-Muskegon Corporation, 1991-12-03 — predates the 2017–2026 filing window tracked in this dataset but remains a foundational reference for directional solidification claims.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO2000044949A1 | Nickel base superalloy with good machinability | 978 |
| 2 | US4116723A | Heat treated superalloy single crystal article and process | 187 |
| 3 | US4209348A | Heat treated superalloy single crystal article and process | 158 |
| 4 | JP1997157779A | Low thermal expansion nickel base superalloy and its production | 140 |
| 5 | US5270123A | Nickel-base superalloy and article with high temperature strength and improved stability | 128 |
| 6 | US5374319A | Welding high-strength nickel base superalloys | 115 |
| 7 | US5106010A | Welding high-strength nickel base superalloys | 103 |
| 8 | US5482789A | Nickel base superalloy and article | 97 |
| 9 | US5455120A | Nickel-base superalloy and article with high temperature strength and improved stability | 85 |
| 10 | US20030041930A1 | Modified advanced high strength single crystal superalloy composition | 82 |
Citation counts reflect influence within this searched corpus and skew toward older filings; they are not a measure of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Reading the citation graph and IPC split together points to where the field's technical bar actually sits, and where it has not moved.
One machinability patent anchors the field
WO2000044949A1 is cited more than five times as often as the next record in this corpus. Filings addressing machinability alongside creep resistance are still measured against this baseline, which means claims that only improve high-temperature strength without addressing processability may face weaker differentiation.
Volume has flattened since the 2017 peak
Annual filings fell from a peak of 16 in 2017 to 5 at the 2022 midpoint, with later years reporting near zero — most likely an artefact of publication lag rather than abandonment of the space, given the field's continued relevance to aerospace turbine programmes.
Composition claims dwarf coating claims
Alloy composition (C22C, 389 records) and heat treatment (C22F, 162) carry the bulk of filing activity, while surface coating and deposition (C23C, 41) is comparatively thin. Oxidation resistance is being pursued largely through bulk alloy chemistry rather than protective coating architecture in this corpus.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to nickel-base superalloys, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| General Electric Company | OHARA KEVIN SWAYNE | 3 |
| General Electric Company | CARROLL LAURA JILL | 3 |
| Alstom Technology Ltd | TONNES CHRISTOPH | 3 |
| Alstom Technology Ltd | SCHNELL ALEXANDER | 3 |
| Alstom Technology Ltd | ROSLER JOACHIM | 3 |
| Alstom Technology Ltd | NAZMY MOHAMED | 3 |
| Siemens Westinghouse Power Corporation | ZAGAR THOMAS WALTER | 3 |
| Siemens Westinghouse Power Corporation | SWARTZBECK GARY W | 3 |
Ten co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, the strongest linking General Electric with named inventors and Alstom Technology with a named inventor at three shared filings each — evidence of stable internal inventor-assignee teams rather than cross-company joint filing.
Who is filing, and where activity has stalled
Recent-year momentum across the leading assignees is flat: every major filer tracked shows zero filings in the latest year, consistent with the broader publication-lag pattern rather than a genuine exit from the field.
Momentum has paused across the board
United Technologies, General Electric, Rolls-Royce and Alstom Technology all show zero recorded filings in the most recent year of this dataset. Given the roughly 18-month publication lag, this likely reflects filings still working through the pipeline rather than withdrawal from active R&D.
A dense but static leaderboard
CRS Holdings, Howmet Research and Cannon-Muskegon sit among the named assignees with historical depth in directional solidification and single-crystal alloy chemistry, but none show fresh filing activity in the latest tracked year.
US, EPO and Japan carry the bulk of filings
United States (102), the EPO (92) and Japan (73) account for the large majority of receiving-office activity, with Canada, WIPO and the UK trailing well behind — filing strategy in this field still follows where turbine OEMs and their supply chains are headquartered.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| United Technologies Corporation | 0 | — |
| General Electric Company | 0 | — |
| CRS Holdings, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Howmet Research Corporation | 0 | — |
| Alstom Technology Ltd | 0 | — |
| Rolls-Royce plc | 0 | — |
| Chromalloy Gas Turbine Corporation | 0 | — |
| Cannon-Muskegon Corporation | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The trend and classification data point to specific next questions for an R&D or IP team working in this space.
Model the machinability-plus-creep intersection
With WO2000044949A1 anchoring so much downstream citation, a freedom-to-operate review focused on where machinability claims overlap with creep-resistance claims will surface the tightest prior art.
Explore in Patsnap EurekaTrack pipeline filings through the publication-lag window
Because the final tracked years understate true filing activity, re-running this search in twelve months will reveal whether the 2022 slowdown was real or an artefact of lag.
Explore in Patsnap EurekaProbe the coating-versus-composition gap
C23C coating claims are thin relative to C22C composition claims; a targeted search on hybrid coating-alloy approaches to oxidation resistance may reveal open claim space.
Explore in Patsnap EurekaCommon questions on nickel-base superalloy patents
The dataset's assignee ranking is led by a small group of aerospace and specialty-metals firms, including United Technologies, General Electric, Rolls-Royce, Alstom Technology, CRS Holdings and Howmet Research. Their recent-year filing counts have all fallen to zero in this corpus, which given the roughly 18-month publication lag is more likely a pipeline gap than a real exit from the field. Anyone evaluating competitive position should treat these zeros as provisional and re-check after the lag window closes.
WO2000044949A1, covering a nickel base superalloy with good machinability, carries 978 citations in this corpus — more than five times the next most-cited record. High citation counts inside a searched corpus tend to favour older filings simply because they have had more time to accumulate references, so this signals long-standing influence rather than current commercial dominance. Newer entrants in the space are still frequently measured against its machinability baseline.
Filing peaked at 16 records in 2017 and declined to a midpoint of 5 by 2022, with the most recent years showing close to zero. Because patent publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months, the sharp recent drop-off overstates any real decline — true 2024-2026 filing volume will only become visible in later data pulls. The safer reading is a flattened but not necessarily shrinking field.
Relative to the dense composition (C22C, 389 records) and heat-treatment (C22F, 162) claim space, coating and surface deposition (C23C, 41 records) is comparatively under-claimed, as is crystal growth process technology (C30B, 115) relative to bulk alloy chemistry. Sub-areas such as gamma-prime coating hybrids, additive-manufactured single-crystal repair and low-cost rhenium-free creep alloys show thinner filing density and are worth a targeted freedom-to-operate check before committing R&D spend.
US5069873A, assigned to Cannon-Muskegon Corporation and filed in 1991, describes a low-carbon directional solidification alloy using rhenium for strength and creep resistance while minimizing zirconium and silicon to prevent grain-boundary cracking. Its claims are specific to that particular compositional approach for achieving near-single-crystal creep performance without high-temperature gamma-prime solution treatment, so it constrains filings that follow the same Re-based, Zr-eliminated route rather than the whole directional solidification field. A design-around would typically look at alternative grain-boundary strengthening chemistries or different heat-treatment sequences outside that specific claim scope.
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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.