Planetary Gearbox Gear Materials Patent Snapshot
The planetary gearbox gear materials patent space is tightly concentrated, with REM Technology and OSRO jointly accounting for the majority of recorded activity through a dominant superfinishing route. The field peaked around 2021 and annual volume has since eased, signaling a consolidating rather than expanding frontier.
REM Technology and OSRO dominate a tightly held niche
REM Technology leads the applicant ranking with 38 patent records, followed closely by OSRO with 30. No other filer reaches double figures, making this a two-player field at the top tier with a long tail of single-record entrants.
The top five filers — REM Technology, OSRO, Nissan Motor, Sikorsky Aircraft, and Sumitomo Heavy Industries — together hold 72% of the combined total of the ranked applicants visible in this query, a concentration level that signals limited room for incremental positioning without differentiating on route.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | REM Technology Inc | 38 | |
| 2 | OSRO GmbH | 30 | |
| 3 | Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. | 7 | |
| 4 | Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation | 6 | |
| 5 | Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd. | 5 | |
| 6 | ORSO | 5 | |
| 7 | NSK Ltd. | 4 | |
| 8 | Volvo Truck Corporation | 3 | |
| 9 | Hitachi, Ltd. | 2 | |
| 10 | Wuxi Weifu China-Italy Gear Co., Ltd. | 2 |
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Chongqing Landai Transmission Machinery Co., Ltd. | 1 | |
| 12 | Jiangsu Huayon Composite Material Co., Ltd. | 1 | |
| 13 | Jiangyin Quanhuafeng Finish Forging Co., Ltd. | 1 | |
| 14 | Lubao Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. | 1 | |
| 15 | Zhejiang Aovite Hydraulic Mechanical Co., Ltd. | 1 | |
| 16 | Jiangsu Faluoke Precision Industry Co., Ltd. | 1 | |
| 17 | Kuani Precision Industry (Kunshan) Co., Ltd. | 1 | |
| 18 | Toyota Motor Corporation | 1 | |
| 19 | Qijiang Changfeng Gear Group Co., Ltd. | 1 | |
| 20 | Yinling Bulk Material Equipment Technology (Dalian) Co., Ltd. | 1 |
The dominance of REM Technology and OSRO, both centered on superfinishing and gear transmission optimization, means that any new entrant on those same routes faces established prior art. Routes such as heat treatment and alloy composition, held by smaller players like NSK, represent comparatively open ground.
Filing counts for 2024 and 2025 should be treated as provisional given typical publication lag; the apparent low volume in those years does not necessarily reflect reduced research activity. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Activity peaked in 2021; superfinishing and transmission engineering dominate the technology mix
The filing trend and technology composition charts together reveal a field that expanded rapidly between 2019 and 2021 then contracted, with the bulk of recorded invention concentrated in gear-transmission and surface-finishing branches.
Annual filing trend
Filings were negligible through 2018, then rose to a peak of 4 records in 2021 before easing to 2 in each of 2022 and 2023. The 2024 and 2025 figures are likely understated due to publication lag and should not be read as confirmed decline.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
F16H (Gearing and transmissions) leads the branch mix with 75 patent records, followed by B24B (Grinding and polishing) at 38 and C23C (Coating and surface deposition) at 20. Branches such as C21D (Heat treatment), C22C (Alloys), and B22F (Powder metallurgy) carry far fewer records, indicating they are adjacent and under-served relative to the core finishing and transmission routes.
↗ 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.
Superfinishing large planetary gear systems
Disclosed herein is a new improved large planetary gear system used on the input stage of wind turbine power generators. This improved planetary gear system reduces or eliminates lubricant debris traditionally generated from the gear teeth, thereby eliminating an initiating source for bearing failure. To achieve these results, some and preferably all of the… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gear | 41 |
| 2 | Method of making an isolated ring gear for planeta… | 38 |
| 3 | Isolated ring gear for planetary gear drive systems | 38 |
| 4 | Superfinishing large planetary gear systems | 35 |
| 5 | Superfinishing large planetary gear systems | 32 |
| 6 | Inscribed planetary gear device | 24 |
| 7 | Inscribed planetary gear device having powder inje… | 22 |
| 8 | 矿用车轿轮边减速器行星齿轮及其制造方法 | 21 |
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.
Assignee snapshot from the current evidence set
The applicants below are visible in this query result. Because the evidence set is relatively small, read this section as a directional snapshot rather than a full competitive ranking.
REM Technology Inc
REM Technology holds 38 patent records, the largest share in this corpus. Its technology emphasis is concentrated on B24B 31 (isotropic superfinishing, 33 records), F16H 55 (gear geometry and finishing, 33 records), and F16H 57 (gear housing and lubrication, 28 records). Applicant momentum data is not available in the evidence, but the depth of its B24B and F16H overlap with OSRO through 28 co-filed records indicates a coordinated, layered filing strategy rather than independent competitive positioning.
patent records: 38NSK Ltd
NSK Ltd holds 4 patent records and is the only top-ten applicant whose primary technology focus lies in C21D (Heat treatment of metals, 4 records each for C21D 1 and C21D 9) and C22C 38 (Alloys, 4 records) rather than surface finishing or transmission geometry. This positions NSK on a materially different route — bulk metallurgy and thermal processing — from the visible dyad, giving it a distinct, if smaller, prior-art footprint. Applicant momentum data is not available in the evidence.
patent records: 4Frequently asked questions
The evidence covers 12 patent families in scope. The corpus is intentionally focused on this specific intersection of planetary gearbox design and gear material innovation, so the count reflects a specialized niche rather than the broader gearing or transmission field.
REM Technology Inc leads with 38 patent records, followed by OSRO with 30. Together they account for the majority of recorded activity and share 28 co-filed records, reflecting a closely coordinated IP strategy centered on isotropic superfinishing of planetary gear surfaces.
F16H (Gearing and transmissions) is the most represented branch with 75 patent records, closely paired with B24B (Grinding and polishing) at 38 records. This reflects the field’s focus on surface finishing processes — particularly superfinishing — as the primary route to improving gear material performance rather than bulk alloy or powder-metallurgy approaches.
China leads with 15 patent records, followed by the United States at 14 and EPO at 13. Japan ranks fourth at 10. Secondary coverage includes Australia, Germany, Canada, Israel, and Norway, with PCT filings indicating some applicants are pursuing broad multi-jurisdictional protection.
The lifecycle stage is assessed as Decline, with annual filings easing back from a peak of 4 records in 2021. The recent-window growth figure is -43%, reflecting a contraction from that peak. Counts for 2024 and 2025 are likely incomplete due to publication lag and should not be treated as confirmed data points.
C21D (Heat treatment of metals) at 11 patent records and F16F (Springs and vibration dampers) at 9 records are among the sparser branches in the corpus. B22F (Powder metallurgy) and B23F (Gear and thread cutting) each appear at very low counts. These branches are adjacent to the visible superfinishing and transmission-design core and are observed as under-served, though entry plausibility depends on organizational capability.
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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.
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