Post-Tensioning Concrete Patents: Who Leads, Filing Trends 2026
- Filing peaked in 2021 at 30 families and has declined since, with the 2022 midpoint at 14 — this is a maturing claim space, not a growing one.
- China leads filing office volume by a wide margin at 139 records versus 84 from the United States, suggesting where competitive clearance work matters most.
- Anchorage and corrosion-resistant tendon claims anchor the oldest, most-cited prior art including a 115-citation 1988 anchorage patent still shaping freedom-to-operate today.
What this dataset covers
This landscape draws on 400 patent families published between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine post-tensioning, prestressed concrete or prestressing tendon terminology with claims touching anchorage systems, grouting, tendon corrosion, friction loss or span capability. The IPC filter narrows the set to structural building components, scaffolding and formwork, and bridge structures, which keeps the corpus focused on load-bearing and construction-method claims rather than general cement chemistry.
Publication lags filing by roughly eighteen months, so the 2025 and 2026 counts in the trend chart understate actual filing activity for those years. Treat the most recent two data points as a floor, not a ceiling.
Filing trends and technology composition
The trend and IPC breakdown below are drawn directly from the 400-family corpus and rendered without manual adjustment.
A filing curve that has already crested
Annual filings rose from 7 in 2017 to a peak of 30 in 2021, then eased back toward single digits by 2026. A flat-to-declining curve after a clear peak typically means the core mechanical concepts around anchorage and tendon protection are well claimed, and later filers are working narrower variations rather than opening new ground.
Structural components and formwork dominate the classification mix
E04C (structural building components) accounts for 268 of the classified records and E04G (scaffolding and formwork) for 169, together covering most of the corpus. Bridge-specific filings under E01D sit further back at 80, with coatings (C09D) and condensation polymers (C08G) appearing only as smaller adjacent slices — evidence that most inventive activity sits in the structural hardware itself rather than in surface treatments or grout chemistry.
Shares are the percentage of the 400 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Post-Tensioning and Prestressed Concrete with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about post-tensioning and prestressed concrete and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe prior art shaping freedom-to-operate
WO2005066419A1 — Method of applying prestress and connecting means used therein and prestressed concrete beam therefrom
The filing describes a post-tensioning method that applies prestress to a beam or girder by deliberately inducing deflection rather than a pure compressive force, using the eccentric distance between a compression member and a tension member to generate a larger moment from a lower tensile force. The resulting prestressed concrete beam includes a high-strength tension member routed through the tension zone of the structural member.Filed by SAMHYUN P.F CO., LTD., published 2005-07-21.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US4773198A | Post-tensioning anchorages for aggressive environments | 115 |
| 2 | US20130255169A1 | Cementitious foundation cap with post-tensioned helical anchors | 97 |
| 3 | US20150376859A1 | Fatigue Resistant Foundation | 76 |
| 4 | US5079879A | Anti-corrosive post-tensioning anchorage system | 70 |
| 5 | CN101831875A | 预应力混凝土圆柱式空心桥墩预制拼装工艺 | 58 |
| 6 | US3800493A | Dwelling construction system | 52 |
| 7 | US4848052A | Spacer for tension member | 47 |
| 8 | CN106703269A | 一种带钢桁架的预应力混凝土叠合板及制作方法 | 44 |
| 9 | US5613334A | Laminated composite reinforcing bar and method of manufacture | 41 |
| 10 | US3022713A | Prestressed concrete structures | 40 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had longer to accumulate references; read them as markers of foundational influence, not current commercial relevance.
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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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three patterns stand out once the raw counts are read against filing dates and classification codes.
The core has already been claimed
A sharp rise to a 2021 peak followed by a decline through 2026 is the signature of a technology whose foundational mechanical concepts — anchorage geometry, tendon protection, grouting sequence — are largely staked out. New filings now tend to narrow existing claims rather than open fresh territory.
Clearance work is unevenly distributed
China accounts for more than a third of receiving-office volume in this corpus, ahead of the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Australia and the EPO combined behind it. Any freedom-to-operate review that skips Chinese filings is working from an incomplete picture.
Structural hardware, not chemistry, is where claims sit
Structural components and formwork subclasses together dwarf the bridge-specific and coating-related classes. Corrosion protection and grout formulation appear as secondary themes rather than the primary claim focus, which is worth noting for anyone assuming coatings chemistry is heavily claimed here.
Old anchorage art still carries weight
The most-cited record in the corpus, an anchorage system for aggressive environments, dates to 1988 and still leads citation counts decades later. New anchorage filings should be checked against this lineage before assuming a design is clear.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to post-tensioning and prestressed concrete, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the pairs form
Co-assignee activity in this corpus is thin — only 10 pairs total — which points to filing that is largely independent rather than joint-venture driven.
One dominant collaboration pair
The strongest co-assignee pair in the corpus, linking a wire-rope manufacturer and a chemicals company, accounts for 9 of the 10 recorded pairs' combined weight. Every other pairing in the dataset is limited to one or two shared filings, suggesting most assignees file solo.
Historical leaders have gone quiet recently
Every assignee with meaningful historical volume in this corpus shows zero filings in the latest tracked year. Given the roughly eighteen-month publication lag, this likely reflects reporting delay rather than a genuine stop in R&D activity — but it means recent competitive moves are not yet visible in the public record.
A genuinely international filing base
Filings are not concentrated in a single jurisdiction's domestic market. With six offices each recording double-digit volumes, assignees are pursuing protection across construction markets in Asia, North America, Europe and Oceania rather than treating this as a regional specialty.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Shinko Wire Industry Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. | 0 | — |
| PHULY AHMED | 0 | — |
| Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Elongation LLC | 0 | — |
| CCL Systems Limited | 0 | — |
| Takenaka Corporation | 0 | — |
| E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (USA) | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a maturing core with specific gaps still open. Two directions make sense depending on what you need next.
Run a freedom-to-operate check on anchorage claims
With citation counts concentrated on decades-old anchorage patents, any new anchorage or tendon-protection design should be checked against this lineage before filing.
Explore anchorage prior art in EurekaMap the grouting and coating white space
Grout formulation and coating chemistry appear only as secondary themes in this corpus, which may mean the claim space is genuinely open or simply under-searched with these keywords.
Search adjacent claim space in EurekaCommon questions about post-tensioning patents
The core classes are E04C (structural building components), E04G (scaffolding and formwork) and E01D (bridges), which together account for most filings in this space. Secondary classes include B28B for shaping cement products, C09D for coatings, and C08G for condensation polymers used in tendon materials. A search limited to E04C alone will miss a meaningful share of formwork-related and bridge-specific claims, so combining several IPC subclasses is standard practice for a thorough freedom-to-operate check.
Filing volume in this dataset rose steadily from 7 in 2017 to a peak of 30 in 2021 before easing off through 2026. A peak-then-decline pattern usually signals that the foundational mechanical concepts — anchorage geometry, tendon protection methods, grouting sequences — have already been claimed by earlier filers, leaving later entrants to file narrower, incremental variations. Publication lag of roughly eighteen months also means the final two years understate true filing activity, so the decline may be less steep than the raw numbers suggest.
China leads with 139 records in this corpus, ahead of the United States at 84 and Japan at 33. The United Kingdom, Australia and the European Patent Office each show double-digit volumes as well, indicating this is an internationally pursued technology rather than one concentrated in a single market. Anyone doing competitive clearance work should treat Chinese-language filings as a primary rather than secondary source.
WO2005066419A1 describes a post-tensioning method that applies prestress to a beam or girder by inducing deflection rather than pure compression, exploiting the eccentric distance between a compression member and a tension member to generate a larger moment from lower tensile force. Whether it blocks a specific new design depends on whether that design uses the same eccentricity-based force path to achieve prestress; designs using conventional straight-line tensioning without this deflection mechanism are less likely to fall within its claims. A claim-by-claim comparison against the granted claim set, not just the abstract, is needed before relying on this conclusion for a real filing decision.
Based on this corpus, grout formulation aimed specifically at reducing friction loss, tendon corrosion sensing and monitoring systems, and coating chemistry for tendon protection all show thinner representation relative to the dominant anchorage and formwork claims. This does not guarantee the space is technically open — it may simply be under-represented in filings using these particular search terms — but it is a reasonable starting point for a novelty search before committing to a specific claim direction. Long-span bridge optimisation is another area with comparatively fewer dedicated filings despite bridges being a named application throughout the corpus.
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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.