Pile Driving Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Concentrated at the top. The leading assignee alone accounts for 31 of 175 records, and the top 5 combined hold 52.0% of all 175 records in scope.
- Filing has cooled from its peak. 2017 was the peak year at 13 records, and 2021-to-2024 filings fell 67%, from 12 to 4.
- Monitoring hardware dominates the cited core. The five most-cited records are all pile driving analyzers and monitoring systems, led by a 1997 recording-system patent cited 115 times.
Filing growth compares 2021 (12 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 175 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Pile driving and jacked pile installation patents span the mechanical act of driving or jacking a pile into the ground and the instrumentation used to judge when it has gone far enough. The search set combines core installation concepts — hammer energy, driving refusal, pile set criterion — with the monitoring layer built around them: noise and vibration control, pile integrity testing, and the installation record itself. That pairing matters because most of the activity in this dataset sits on the instrumentation side of the pile, not the hammer.
175 published records fall within scope for 2015 to 2026, with 175 patent families used for the assignee ranking. Foundations and earth-drilling classifications cover the large majority of records, while material-analysis and wind-turbine-related classes mark where pile monitoring crosses into offshore wind and geotechnical testing.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 175 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claims.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings peaked at 13 in 2017 and had fallen to 4 by 2024, a 67% drop across that three-year 2021-2024 span; 2025 and 2026 are still filling in as publication catches up with filing, typically by around 18 months, so the most recent years should not be read as a continued decline yet.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
E02D (foundations and earth drilling) covers 84.6% of the 175 records, confirming this as a foundations-first dataset. G01N (material analysis and testing) and F03D (wind turbines) each cover a meaningful minority, pointing to pile integrity testing and offshore wind foundation work as the two strongest adjacent clusters; because records can carry multiple classes these shares sum to more than 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 175 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Pile Driving and Jacked Pile Installation with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about pile driving and jacked pile installation and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records in this field
US6301551B1 — Remote pile driving analyzer
A pile driving analyzer (PDA) which obtains, processes and stores pile driving data. The PDA is operable as an independent self-contained unit, or may be used in conjunction with a remote computer system. Position data indicative of the position of a pile, and pile data indicative of characteristics of a pile may be automatically input to the PDA. When used in conjunction with the remote computer system, the PDA may be controlled remotely by the remote computer system. Alternatively, the PDA may be controlled locally by an operator, and data acquired by the PDA provided to the remote computer system for monitoring and/or storage.Filed by Pile Dynamics, Inc.; granted 2001-10-09. One of five monitoring-hardware patents that anchor the most-cited set in this dataset.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5978749A | Pile installation recording system | 115 |
| 2 | US6301551B1 | Remote pile driving analyzer | 105 |
| 3 | US6533502B2 | Wireless apparatus and method for analysis of piles | 84 |
| 4 | US20060021447A1 | Monitoring system for concrete pilings and method of installation | 59 |
| 5 | US5581013A | Method and system for obtaining useful foundation information | 56 |
| 6 | US3585803A | Pile splice | 53 |
| 7 | US20140356076A1 | Pile cap connectors | 50 |
| 8 | US7637166B2 | Monitoring system for concrete pilings and method of installation | 44 |
| 9 | US20140352449A1 | High strain dynamic load testing procedure | 36 |
| 10 | US20020148298A1 | Wireless apparatus and method for analysis of driven piles | 33 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus and skew toward older filings; they are not a measure of current commercial importance.
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Browse MCP servers →What the data says about this field
Three findings that shape where to file, where to watch, and where the claim space is still open.
A small group holds most of the claim space
The top 5 assignees combined account for 52.0% of all 175 records, and the top 10 extend that to 68.6%. With a ranked total of 66 companies, that leaves a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants competing for the remaining share.
Activity has cooled from a 2017 peak
Filings peaked at 13 in 2017 and had fallen to 4 by 2024, a 67% decline across that three-year window. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, 2025-2026 figures are still incomplete and should not yet be read as a continuing slide.
Foundations engineering dominates, monitoring trails behind
E02D covers 84.6% of records, while G01N (material analysis and testing) reaches 22.9% and F03D (wind turbines) 11.4%. The monitoring-adjacent classes such as G01L, G01M and G08C each sit near 6.9%, suggesting instrumentation claims remain a minority pursuit relative to core installation method claims.
The most-cited work is decades-old monitoring hardware
The five most-cited records, led by a 1997 pile installation recording system cited 115 times and a 2001 remote pile driving analyzer cited 105 times, are all instrumentation patents rather than installation-method patents. That skews the cited core toward older monitoring hardware rather than current filing activity.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to pile driving and jacked pile installation, with the prior art for and against each one.
The assignee landscape
66 companies make up the ranked list behind these 175 records, with activity concentrated among a small leading group and a long tail of occasional filers.
One assignee sets the pace
The top-ranked assignee holds 31 of the 175 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 9 and the tenth-place holder at 5. That gap suggests a filer with sustained, multi-year investment in this specific claim space rather than a single burst of activity.
Collaboration is limited but concentrated
Only six co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, and the strongest of them recurs seven times between two related entities. Where co-filing exists, it tends to repeat between the same two organisations rather than spreading across the field.
Recent-year activity has gone quiet among the leaders
Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum, including the field leader, shows zero filings in the latest year, with one showing a -100% year-on-year change. Given the roughly 18-month publication lag, this reads as an incomplete recent picture rather than confirmed inactivity.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Smart Structures Inc. | 0 | — |
| Orsted Wind Power A/S | 0 | -100% |
| General Electric Co. | 0 | — |
| University of Florida | 0 | — |
| Daido Concrete Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| DAIDO CONCRETE CO LTD | 0 | — |
| Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) | 0 | — |
| HALE GLEN G | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to where claim space is dense and where it thins out; the next step is testing a specific concept or filing plan against it.
Map a specific installation method against the crowded core
E02D carries 84.6% of the 175 records in scope, so a new hammer-energy or driving-refusal method needs a clear read on what the leading assignees already hold before drafting claims.
Explore the technology in EurekaCheck white space before drafting monitoring claims
Instrumentation classes like G01L, G01M and G08C sit well below the E02D core, which is where a narrower, well-specified sensor or telemetry claim may still have room.
Run a white space search in EurekaWatch the leading assignee's recent filings closely
With 31 of 175 records, the top assignee's next move matters more than the long tail's; recent-year figures are still incomplete due to publication lag, so this is a watch-and-verify situation, not a closed one.
Track assignee activity in EurekaCommon questions about pile driving patents
One assignee leads clearly with 31 of the 175 records in this dataset, well ahead of the fifth-ranked filer at 9 and the tenth-ranked filer at 5. The top 5 assignees combined hold 52.0% of all 175 records, and the top 10 extend that to 68.6%. Beyond that group, the ranking includes 66 companies in total, with a long tail of firms holding only a handful of records each, so most of the field's claim space sits with a small number of established filers.
Filings peaked in 2017 at 13 records and had fallen to 4 by 2024, a 67% decline across that three-year window. However, publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so 2025 and 2026 figures in any dataset are understated and should not be read as confirming a continued decline. The safest reading is that activity cooled meaningfully after 2017 through the last fully reported year, 2024.
Core installation method claims sit almost entirely in E02D, which covers 84.6% of the 175 records in this dataset. Monitoring and instrumentation-adjacent classes are smaller: G01N (material analysis and testing) reaches 22.9%, F03D (wind turbines) 11.4%, and force, structure and telemetry classes such as G01L, G01M and G08C each sit around 6.9%. Because a single record can carry several classes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should not be summed.
US6301551B1, a remote pile driving analyzer assigned to Pile Dynamics, Inc. and granted in 2001, describes a self-contained unit that captures, processes and stores pile driving data and can operate independently or alongside a remote computer system. It is cited 105 times, the second-highest citation count in this dataset, behind only a related 1997 pile installation recording system cited 115 times. Its prominence signals that remote, computer-linked pile monitoring is a heavily referenced foundation for later instrumentation patents in this field.
The clearest gaps sit in the instrumentation classes rather than the core installation method: G01L, G01M and G08C each cover only around 6.9% of the 175 records, well below the 84.6% carried by E02D. That imbalance suggests real-time sensor calibration, wireless integrity telemetry and automated set-criterion detection are less densely claimed than the underlying driving and jacking methods themselves. Anyone drafting in this space should still check the leading assignees' specific holdings before assuming a gap is truly open.
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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.