Plate Heat Exchanger Two-Phase Flow Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
A data-backed view of plate heat exchanger two-phase flow patents: filing trends, IPC composition, receiving-office spread, top-cited prior art and where the assignee field concentrates versus opens up.
Filing growth = 2021 (42 records) → 2024 (37); 2024 is the last year we treat as complete. Top-5 share = the 5 largest assignees ÷ all 733 records in scope (CR5), not the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks 733 patent records published between 2015 and 2026 that combine plate heat exchanger construction with two-phase flow behaviour — boiling or condensing flow inside plate-type exchangers — filtered to the core heat-exchange and refrigeration IPC subclasses (F28D, F28F, F25B). The scope favours hardware claims over pure thermodynamic method claims, and captures both vapor-compression refrigeration applications and vehicle, water-treatment and separation contexts where the same plate geometry appears.
Filing filed under this scope rose through the late 2010s, peaked in 2023, and — because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months — the 2025 and 2026 counts in the trend chart are still filling in rather than showing a genuine drop-off.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 733-record set: annual filing activity, and how records distribute across IPC subclasses (a record can carry more than one class, so shares sum above 100%).
Filing trend, 2015-2026
Volume rose from 36 records in 2017 to a peak of 51 in 2023. Across the last fully-published span, 2021 (42) to 2024 (37), filings moved -12% — a mild pullback, not a collapse, and the two most recent years are structurally undercounted by the publication lag.
Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in. Growth rates on this page therefore end at 2024; running them to the last bar would understate the field.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
F28D (heat-exchange apparatus, 62.6% of records) and F28F (heat-exchanger details, 57.6%) dominate, confirming this is primarily a hardware-construction field. F25B (refrigeration and heat pumps, 40.8%) is the largest application overlay, with vehicle A/C (B60H, 5.2%) and water treatment (C02F, 4.9%) as smaller adjacent pockets.
Shares are the percentage of the 733 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Plate Heat Exchanger Two-Phase Flow Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about plate heat exchanger two-phase flow patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited prior art and a representative recent filing
EP4332490A3 — Compact heat exchanger unit for an electric-vehicle climate module
The present disclosure relates to a compact heat exchanger unit within an air conditioning apparatus for a vehicle for the condensation of refrigerant cooled with liquid, wherein a condenser region, a separate sub-cooling region and an internal heat exchanger region are combined as plate packets in a plate heat exchanger, with a high-pressure refrigerant collector placed downstream of the condenser region and integrated into the air conditioning module.Filed by Hanon Systems, published 2025-01-29 — illustrates how vehicle electrification is pushing plate heat exchanger claims toward multi-region, multi-function integration rather than standalone exchanger geometry.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6688137B1 | Plate heat exchanger with a two-phase flow distributor | 125 |
| 2 | US3992168A | Heat exchanger with rectification effect | 101 |
| 3 | WO2006104443A1 | A plate heat exchanger | 91 |
| 4 | US5111876A | Heat exchanger plate fin | 74 |
| 5 | US5597453A | Apparatus and method for vapor compression distillation device | 69 |
| 6 | US3631923A | Plate-type condenser having condensed-liquid-collecting means | 65 |
| 7 | US5644931A | Gas liquefying method and heat exchanger used in gas liquefying method | 64 |
| 8 | CN106969652A | 一种长度变化的可冷凝的环形分隔装置换热器 | 59 |
| 9 | US6238524B1 | Rotating plate heat exchanger | 58 |
| 10 | US6158238A | Arrangement for transferring heating and cooling power | 56 |
Citation counts accumulate over time, so older records such as US6688137B1 and US3992168A lead the table by virtue of age as much as continuing relevance — treat this as a map of foundational art, not of what matters most today.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three read-throughs of the assignee, geography and citation data that matter more for strategy than the raw counts alone.
A sharp top, then a long tail
The leader alone holds 24 records and the fifth-ranked assignee holds 16, yet the top 5 combined still account for only 13.1% of the 733 records in scope. That gap between a visible leader and a thin combined share signals a field where no single portfolio blocks the space — freedom to operate depends on the specific claim, not on avoiding one dominant holder.
Examination pressure is regional
China's 288 filings dwarf the next four offices (EPO 82, US 70, Japan 67, South Korea 66) combined do not quite match it. A search or freedom-to-operate check that only clears US and EPO art is checking a minority of the global filing activity in this space.
Hardware claims dominate, refrigeration is the main overlay
F28D and F28F, the two heat-exchange-apparatus classes, cover the large majority of records, and F25B refrigeration and heat pump applications sit on top of 40.8% of them. Smaller overlays — vehicle A/C at 5.2%, water treatment at 4.9% — show where the core plate-exchanger art is being adapted rather than reinvented.
Joint filing is rare and clustered
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, and the strongest pair — a corporate parent and its HVAC subsidiary — files together 10 times. Co-filing outside a single corporate group is uncommon here, suggesting most portfolios are built in-house rather than through joint development agreements.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to plate heat exchanger two-phase flow patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next questions rather than a single answer — each one benefits from deeper claim-level work.
Map the white space in vehicle-integrated exchangers
B60H overlays sit at only 5.2% of records while F25B refrigeration overlays sit at 40.8%, suggesting vehicle-specific multi-region plate designs like EP4332490A3 are still a comparatively open branch worth first-claim exploration.
Explore white space in EurekaWatch the mid-tier assignees, not just the leader
With the top 5 holding only 13.1% of records combined, freedom-to-operate work should track the full ranked field rather than assuming clearance against one dominant holder covers the risk.
Run an assignee deep-dive in EurekaRe-check citation leaders for current relevance
The most-cited records skew toward older filings; a claim-chart exercise against the most recent 2022-2024 cohort will surface which citations still matter for active prosecution.
Build a citation map in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
This landscape tracks 733 patent records published between 2015 and 2026 that combine plate heat exchanger construction with boiling or condensing (two-phase) flow, filtered to the core F28D, F28F and F25B classification codes. Filing activity peaked at 51 records in 2023. The 2025 and 2026 figures are understated because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so recent filings are still working through the pipeline.
The ranked field covers 100 companies, with the leader holding 24 records and the tenth-ranked assignee holding 11. Even so, the top 5 combined account for only 13.1% of all 733 records in scope, and the top 10 combined for 21.4% — a visible leader, but no single portfolio dominates the field. Automotive HVAC suppliers, refrigeration OEMs and heat-exchanger specialists all appear among the ranked leaders.
Filing activity rose through the late 2010s and peaked at 51 records in 2023. Across the most recent span that can be treated as fully published, 2021 (42 records) to 2024 (37 records), volume moved -12%, a modest pullback rather than a decline. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the apparent drop in 2025-2026 in raw counts should not be read as slowing innovation — those years are still filling in.
China's receiving office leads with 288 filings, well ahead of the EPO (82), the United States (70), Japan (67) and South Korea (66); the WIPO PCT route accounts for 41 filings. This distribution means clearance searches or competitive monitoring limited to US and European offices will miss the majority of global filing activity in this specific technology area. Regional prosecution strategy should weight China accordingly.
EP4332490A3, filed by Hanon Systems and published in early 2025, combines a condenser region, a sub-cooling region and an internal heat exchanger region as integrated plate packets within a single vehicle air-conditioning module, with a high-pressure refrigerant collector placed downstream of the condenser. It is representative of a broader shift toward multi-function, multi-region plate exchanger assemblies for electric vehicles rather than standalone exchanger geometry claims. That direction lines up with the dataset's smaller but present B60H (vehicle A/C) overlay across the wider record set.
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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.