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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/pneumatic-ducting-and-high-temperature-joints-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Auxiliary Power & Bleed AirPneumatic ducting and high-temperature joint patents: mapping the leaders and the open claim space
- Filing peaked in 2018 at 20 records and the tracked growth window (2021 to 2024) shows a full -100% decline, though 2025-2026 figures are still filling in as publication lags filing.
- One assignee holds 41 of the 99 families in a 16-company ranking, with a sharp drop to 7 families at fifth place and just 1 at tenth — a concentrated top with a long single-digit tail.
- F02C gas-turbine claims touch 58.6% of records while F16L pipe-fitting claims sit on 44.4% — the two overlap heavily, meaning most bellows and duct joint claims are drafted inside turbine architecture, not as standalone hardware.
99
Published Records
-100%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
16
Active Filers Ranked
Filing growth compares 2021 (2 records) with 2024 (0) — 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.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What this landscape covers
Pneumatic ducting and high-temperature joint patents cover the hardware that carries hot bleed air and pressurised gas across an airframe or engine casing while tolerating thermal expansion, vibration and pressure transients: bellows expansion joints, clamp couplings, titanium ducting, insulation blankets and the burst-containment and fretting-wear mitigations that keep those joints sealed over a service life. The dataset in scope spans 99 published records filed or published between 2015 and mid-2026, drawn from a search built around duct and joint hardware terms cross-referenced against material and failure-mode terms.
Because the search pairs a hardware term with a failure or material term in every record, the corpus skews toward claims that already name a specific engineering constraint — thermal growth, fretting wear, burst containment — rather than generic ducting. That makes the IPC composition and assignee ranking below a reasonably direct read on where active claim drafting has concentrated, and where it has not.
Filing activity and technology mix, 2015-2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Pneumatic Ducting and High Temperature Joints covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
The data
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 99-record set: activity over time, and where the IPC classifications cluster. A record can sit in several IPC subclasses at once, so the composition shares add up to more than 100%.
Filing rose sharply into 2018, then thinned out
Annual counts climbed from 7 in 2017 to a peak of 20 in 2018. The tracked growth span from 2021 to 2024 shows a -100% change, but 2025 and 2026 are not yet complete windows — publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so recent-year counts will keep rising as more records surface.
Gas-turbine and pipe-fitting classes dominate
F02C (gas-turbine plants) appears on 58.6% of the 99 records and F16L (pipes and pipe fittings) on 44.4%, with F01D (turbines and non-positive engines) on 38.4%. The heavy overlap between these three classes indicates that most bellows and duct-joint claims are being drafted as integrated turbine or engine-casing hardware rather than as generic pipe fittings, while smaller classes such as F16K (valves, 5.1%) and F25B (refrigeration, 9.1%) mark narrower, less-contested niches.
Shares are the percentage of the 99 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Pneumatic Ducting and High Temperature Joints covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
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The most-cited records in this space
Representative filing
Pulse detonation combustor (US20120122039A1, General Electric)
GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY
A pulse detonation combustor including a plurality of nozzles engaged with one another via mating surfaces to support a gas discharge annulus in a circumferential direction. The pulse detonation combustor also including multiple pulse detonation tubes extending for the nozzles and a plurality of thermal expansion control joints coupled to the plurality of pulse detonation tubes. Each of the plurality of thermal expansion control joints is configured to facilitate independent thermal growth of each of the plurality of pulse detonation tubes. The thermal expansion control joints may be configured as a bellows expansion joint or a sliding expansion joint.Filed by General Electric; illustrates how thermal-growth joint hardware gets claimed as a sub-component inside a combustor architecture rather than as a standalone duct fitting.
Highest-citation records in scope
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US4503683A | Compact cooling turbine-heat exchanger assembly | 56 |
| 2 | US4576404A | Bellows expansion joint | 54 |
| 3 | US4507939A | Three wheel center fan cooling turbine apparatus and associated methods | 45 |
| 4 | US20210102492A1 | Heat Exchanger with Active Buffer Layer | 35 |
| 5 | US7493770B2 | Methods and apparatus for regulating airflow supply systems | 31 |
| 6 | US8899010B2 | Pulse detonation combustor | 28 |
| 7 | US4668303A | Method of preventing stress corrosion in a bellows expansion joint | 26 |
| 8 | US20050212283A1 | Low profile tension style flexible joint | 16 |
| 9 | US20140314568A1 | Gas turbine engine tip clearance control | 15 |
| 10 | US8963691B1 | Sensor association system using wireless device information | 15 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had more time to accumulate citations inside a searched corpus — read them as a signal of influence on later filings, not as a ranking of current importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Pneumatic Ducting and High Temperature Joints covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three read-throughs from the trend, the citation table and the IPC composition, aimed at where claim space is occupied and where it is not.
Filing momentum
20 in 2018
peak-year filings
Activity has thinned since the 2018 peak
Annual filings rose from 7 in 2017 to a peak of 20 in 2018, then the tracked 2021-2024 window shows a full -100% decline. That reads as a technology whose core hardware claims were staked out early in the survey window; newer filings likely narrow into specific failure modes rather than base joint geometry.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Citation influence
56 citations
top-cited record
The oldest bellows and cooling-turbine patents still anchor the field
The two most-cited records in scope are a compact cooling-turbine heat-exchanger assembly and a bellows expansion joint patent, both drawing over 50 citations. Their persistence at the top of the citation table signals foundational hardware geometry that later filings build around rather than replace.
Most-cited records table
Claim overlap
58.6% F02C
of 99 records
Joint hardware is claimed inside turbine architecture, not standalone
F02C gas-turbine claims cover 58.6% of the 99 records and F16L pipe-fitting claims cover 44.4%, with substantial overlap between the two. Drafting a duct joint as an independent fitting, decoupled from turbine casing geometry, is the less-crowded path based on this split.
IPC composition, F02C vs F16L
Assignee concentration
41 vs 7
leader vs fifth place
One filer dominates a short ranked list
The leading assignee holds 41 of the 99 families in a 16-company ranking, with fifth place at just 7 and tenth at 1. That gap between first and fifth suggests the leader's portfolio sets the boundaries most new entrants have to design around, while the rest of the ranking is a thin, single-digit tail.
Assignee ranking, 16 companies
Eureka AI Agent
Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to pneumatic ducting and high temperature joints, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Pneumatic Ducting and High Temperature Joints covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Players
Who holds the claims
The ranking returned by the dataset covers 16 companies, counted in patent families. It is not a top-50 or top-100 cut — this is the whole list the endpoint returns for this search.
Leader
41 families
of the ranked total
A single leader well ahead of the field
The top-ranked assignee holds 41 families against a fifth-place figure of 7 and a tenth-place figure of 1, the widest gap in the ranking. Its portfolio spans gas-turbine and bleed-air hardware, consistent with the F02C-heavy composition seen across the corpus.
Rank 1 of 16
Mid-tier cluster
7 families
fifth place
A cluster of engine and airframe majors sits mid-table
Several established aerospace and engine manufacturers occupy the middle of the ranking with single-digit family counts. Recent-year momentum for this group shows no filings in the latest tracked year across multiple names, consistent with the broader post-2018 slowdown rather than any one company's retreat.
Mid-ranking assignees
Long tail
1 family
tenth place
A long tail of single- or few-filing entrants
By tenth place in the ranking, family counts drop to 1, and the pattern likely continues through the remaining ranked names. That tail includes specialist materials and components suppliers alongside the airframe and engine primes, suggesting narrow, defensive filings rather than broad portfolio building.
Rank 10 to 16
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Unison Industries LLC | 0 | — |
| General Electric Company | 0 | — |
| Rolls-Royce North American Technologies Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| THE GARRETT CORP | 0 | — |
| The Boeing Company | 0 | — |
| Honeywell International Inc. | 0 | — |
| Senior Operations Inc. | 0 | — |
| Rolls-Royce Corporation | 0 | -100% |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Pneumatic Ducting and High Temperature Joints covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's next
Where to take this
The composition and ranking point to a field with an occupied core and a thin edge. Two practical next steps follow from that.
Check freedom-to-operate against the leader's portfolio
With one assignee holding 41 of 99 families and the most-cited bellows and cooling-turbine patents still active references, any new duct-joint filing should be checked against that portfolio before drafting claims in the F02C/F16L overlap.
Run a freedom-to-operate scan in EurekaDraft into the under-claimed branches
Standalone clamp-coupling geometry, fretting-wear liner materials and burst-containment sleeves show thinner coverage than the turbine-integrated joint claims that dominate the corpus. These are candidate areas for a first-mover claim.
Explore white space with Patsnap EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Pneumatic Ducting and High Temperature Joints covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions on pneumatic ducting and joint patents
In this 99-record dataset, one assignee leads the ranked list of 16 companies with 41 families, well ahead of the fifth-ranked company at 7 and the tenth at 1. That leader's filings cluster heavily in gas-turbine (F02C) and pipe-fitting (F16L) classifications, which together cover the majority of records in scope. The gap between first and fifth place is wide enough that the leader's portfolio effectively sets the boundaries most other filers design around.
Filing activity peaked at 20 records in 2018 after rising from 7 in 2017, and the tracked 2021-to-2024 growth window shows a full -100% change. That looks like a decline, but publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 and 2026 counts are still incomplete and should not be read as confirmation of a continuing drop. The safest read is that the field's core hardware claims were staked out earlier in the window, with recent activity not yet fully visible in published data.
A bellows expansion joint is a flexible section built into pneumatic or bleed-air ducting that absorbs thermal growth, vibration and misalignment between rigid duct sections without leaking under pressure. One of the most-cited records in this dataset, a bellows expansion joint patent, has drawn 54 citations, indicating it is a frequently referenced baseline design. Related hardware in this landscape includes sliding expansion joints and clamp couplings, which serve similar thermal-accommodation functions with different mechanical arrangements.
Based on the IPC composition, the dense overlap sits in gas-turbine-integrated joint hardware (F02C at 58.6% of 99 records) and general pipe fittings (F16L at 44.4%), meaning most active claims tie duct joints to turbine or engine casing architecture. Thinner classes such as valve-integrated joints (F16K at 5.1%) and refrigeration-adjacent hardware (F25B at 9.1%) suggest less-contested ground. Standalone clamp-coupling designs, fretting-wear-resistant liner materials and burst-containment sleeve geometry, decoupled from turbine casing claims, look like the more open branches to file into.
Citation counts in a searched corpus like this one favour older records simply because they have had more years to accumulate citations, not because they are more relevant today. The top-cited records here, including a compact cooling-turbine heat-exchanger assembly at 56 citations and a bellows expansion joint patent at 54, date from the early-to-mid 1980s and function as anchor references that later filings build on. A newer record with fewer citations may still represent the more commercially relevant design; citation rank should be read as a measure of historical influence, not current importance.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Pneumatic Ducting and High Temperature Joints covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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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.