PDC Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- 74.8% concentration. The top 5 assignees account for 2,172 of 2,903 records in scope — filing here means filing against entrenched incumbents, not a fragmented field.
- Filings down 59% since the 2021 peak window. From 75 records in 2021 to 31 in 2024, the last year the data treats as complete; earlier years including the 2017 peak of 120 were higher still.
- E21B drilling applications dominate at 65.7%. But grinding tools (B24D, 31.3%) and bearings (F16C, 6.6%) show the compact's claim space extends well past drill bits.
Filing growth compares 2021 (75 records) with 2024 (31) — 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 2,903 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the patent record shows about PDC manufacturing
Polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) manufacturing patents cluster tightly around a small set of process steps: high-pressure high-temperature sintering, cobalt leaching to improve thermal stability, and interface geometry between the diamond table and the tungsten carbide substrate. The dataset in scope covers 2,903 published records filed or published between 2015 and mid-2026, drawn from filings that reference sintering, leaching, thermal stability testing, abrasion resistance testing or drill bit application in the same document.
The field reads as mature and consolidated rather than open. A handful of assignees built dense patent estates around drilling applications years ago, and later filings increasingly branch into adjacent uses — grinding wheels, bearings, prosthetic articulation surfaces — where the core sintering and leaching claims still apply but the freedom to operate looks different.
Let an AI agent run this analysis on your own technology
Pick a task. Every answer cites the patents behind it.
Filing trend and technology composition
Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent one to two years in any trend chart are undercounts, not a real drop-off.
Filings rose to a 2017 peak, then declined through the 2020s
Filings peaked at 120 in 2017. Using the window the dataset flags as reliable, 2021 recorded 75 filings and 2024 recorded 31 — a 59% decline over three years. Treat 2025 and 2026 figures as incomplete rather than as evidence the field has gone quiet.
Drilling applications dominate, but the compact's use is broader
E21B (earth and rock drilling) appears in 65.7% of the 2,903 records in scope, confirming drill bit cutters as the anchor application. B24D grinding tools (31.3%), B22F powder metallurgy (22.8%) and C22C alloys (21.5%) show substantial claim activity outside drilling, while C09K materials (7.4%) and F16C bearings (6.6%) are thinner but present — each record can carry more than one class, so these shares overlap.
Shares are the percentage of the 2,903 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Polycrystalline Diamond Compact Manufacturing with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about polycrystalline diamond compact manufacturing and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative filing
US20160340259A1 — Polycrystalline diamond compact with improved thermal stability
Filed by ILJIN Diamond, this application describes a two-stage sintering process: a primary sinter of diamond particles with metal binder, a leaching step on the upper surface of the primary compact, then a second mix of diamond and binder particles assembled onto that leached surface and sintered again, followed by grinding.The two-pass sinter-leach-sinter sequence is the structural feature to check against when evaluating freedom to operate on layered thermal-stability approaches.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5127923A | Composite abrasive compact having high thermal stability | 707 |
| 2 | US6290726B1 | Prosthetic hip joint having sintered polycrystalline diamond compact articulation surfaces | 371 |
| 3 | US6793681B1 | Prosthetic hip joint having a polycrystalline diamond articulation surface and a plurality of substrate layers | 361 |
| 4 | US5645617A | Composite polycrystalline diamond compact with improved impact and thermal stability | 303 |
| 5 | US6488715B1 | Diamond-surfaced cup for use in a prosthetic joint | 295 |
| 6 | US6063333A | Method and apparatus for fabrication of cobalt alloy composite inserts | 294 |
| 7 | US5607024A | Stability enhanced drill bit and cutting structure having zones of varying wear resistance | 285 |
| 8 | US6517583B1 | Prosthetic hip joint having a polycrystalline diamond compact articulation surface and a counter bearing surf… | 283 |
| 9 | US20070278017A1 | Rolling cutter | 263 |
| 10 | US4766040A | Temperature resistant abrasive polycrystalline diamond bodies | 263 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations inside a searched corpus — read them as a signal of influence on later work, not as a ranking of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Eureka on the web
When you want the answer in the next five minutes.
The agent works the prompt against patents and technical literature, citing every source.
Run your analysis now →MCP server & REST API
When it has to run inside your own pipeline.
Patent search, landscape analysis and assignee resolution as MCP tools. Drop them into any agent framework, or call REST directly.
Browse MCP servers →What the data means for R&D and IP strategy
Three patterns matter more than the raw filing count for anyone deciding where to file or where to license.
The field is a five-player game, not a hundred-player one
The top 5 assignees combined account for 2,172 of the 2,903 records in scope, and the top 10 reach 85.4%. A new entrant is not competing against a long tail of small filers so much as against a handful of estates that have been built up over a decade.
Volume has cooled from its 2017 peak
Filings fell from 75 in 2021 to 31 in 2024, the last year with reliable counts, continuing a slide from the 2017 peak of 120. That is consistent with a mature process technology where the core sintering and leaching claims are already staked out, pushing new activity toward adjacent applications instead of core method claims.
Drilling anchors the field but does not define it
Two in three records touch earth and rock drilling, yet nearly a third also touch grinding tools and abrasives, and over a fifth touch powder metallurgy or alloy composition. Compact geometry and binder chemistry claims are being reused across applications rather than filed fresh for each one.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to polycrystalline diamond compact manufacturing, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the claim space, and where it thins out
Recent-year filing counts by assignee are near zero across the leaders, which fits the broader 2021-2024 decline rather than signalling any single company's exit.
One assignee holds the largest single share
The top-ranked assignee accounts for 684 of the 2,903 records in scope — well ahead of fifth place at 120 and tenth place at 43 — and its recent-year filing count has dropped to zero, consistent with the field-wide slowdown rather than a retreat from the space.
Co-assignee activity is thin but concentrated
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest pair shares 38 records — most of the pairs involving the same leading assignee working with different specialist partners or named inventors, rather than broad industry-wide collaboration.
Even the most active recent filer is pulling back
US Synthetic shows 1 filing in the latest year, down 91% year-on-year, while the other leading assignees show zero latest-year filings in this dataset. That pattern reads as a corpus still filling in for recent years rather than proof the leaders have stopped filing altogether.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| US Synthetic Corp | 1 | -91% |
| Baker Hughes Co | 0 | — |
| Smith International Inc | 0 | — |
| Diamond Innovations Inc | 0 | — |
| Diamicron Inc | 0 | — |
| Halliburton Energy Services Inc | 0 | — |
| General Electric Co | 0 | — |
| Element Six Production (Holdings) Ltd | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a consolidated core and a thinner periphery. The next steps depend on whether you are trying to file, license or design around.
Map claims against the two-stage sinter-leach approach
US20160340259A1's layered sinter-leach-sinter sequence is a useful anchor for checking whether a proposed thermal-stability process reads onto an existing claim structure or sits outside it.
Explore claim charts in EurekaCheck the under-claimed branches before drafting
Bearing, catalytic-aid and ceramic-hybrid applications carry markedly lower filing density than drilling; verifying that thinness against full claim text before committing R&D spend is worth the extra step.
Run a white space search in EurekaCommon questions about PDC manufacturing patents
The assignee ranking in this dataset is led by a single company with 684 of 2,903 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-ranked holder at 120. The top 5 assignees together account for 74.8% of all records, and the top 10 reach 85.4%. That level of concentration means a new entrant should expect to negotiate around, or design around, a small number of large estates rather than many small ones.
Filings peaked at 120 in 2017 and had fallen to 31 by 2024, a 59% drop from the 2021 level of 75. This pattern is typical of a process technology where the core sintering and cobalt-leaching methods were staked out early, pushing later filing activity toward adjacent applications rather than new core-process claims. Note that 2025 and 2026 counts in any such dataset are understated because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent years should not be read as further decline.
Yes. While E21B earth and rock drilling appears in 65.7% of the 2,903 records in scope, confirming drill bit cutters as the dominant application, B24D grinding tools and abrasives appear in 31.3%, B22F powder metallurgy in 22.8%, and C22C alloys in 21.5%. Bearings (F16C) and specialty materials (C09K) each appear in around 7% of records, indicating smaller but real filing activity outside drilling.
A high citation count inside a searched patent corpus mainly reflects age: older filings have had more years for later applicants to cite them, so US5127923A's 707 citations mark it as historically influential rather than currently dominant. Citation counts should be treated as a signal of how foundational a filing was to later work, not as a measure of present-day commercial relevance or enforceability. Always check current legal status and claim scope separately before relying on an older, highly cited filing for freedom-to-operate purposes.
The thinner IPC branches in this dataset — bearings and couplings at 6.6% of records, specialty materials at 7.4%, and ceramics/refractories at 13.7% — carry markedly less filing density than the dominant drilling and grinding classes. That does not guarantee those areas are unclaimed, but it does mean fewer documents to clear before filing there. A practical next step is running a targeted claim search on those specific IPC subclasses combined with the core sintering and leaching search terms before committing to a filing strategy.
Research Polycrystalline Diamond Compact Manufacturing in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole polycrystalline diamond compact manufacturing corpus yourself, in your own scope.
Every answer comes back with patent numbers you can open.
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.