Powder Feeding & Nozzle Patents: Who Leads DED Filing 2026
- 73.3% concentration. The top five assignees hold 22 of the 30 records in scope, with the leader alone contributing 6 — a field led by a handful of filers rather than a long tail.
- Coating dominates. 60.0% of records sit in C23C (coating and surface deposition), making it the single largest technology cluster by a wide margin over spraying, powder metallurgy or additive manufacturing classes.
- China leads filing by receiving office. 12 of the tracked filings were received in China, more than double the next-largest office, Europe (EPO) at 5.
Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 30 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
A concentrated field built on coating deposition claims
Powder feeding and nozzle design patents for directed energy deposition cluster tightly around coating and surface deposition claims, with clogging suppression and gas-flow stability as the recurring technical problems drawing the most follow-on filing. The 30 records in scope span from 2015 through a partial 2026 year, with filing activity peaking in 2018.
Assignee activity is concentrated rather than fragmented: the top five filers account for 73.3% of all records in scope, and China leads by receiving office with more than double the filings of the next-largest jurisdiction. The technology split shows a dominant coating-deposition cluster alongside thinner coverage in process-integration areas such as thermal power and steelmaking.
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Filing trends and technology composition
The 30 records in scope span 2015 through the 2026 partial year, with technology composition read across eight IPC subclasses. Because a single record can carry several classes, the shares below sum to more than 100% of records.
Filing activity by year
Filings ran from 4 in 2017 to a peak of 9 in 2018; the most recent year shows 0, which reflects publication lag rather than an actual drop in filing activity, since publication typically trails filing by around 18 months.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
Coating and surface deposition (C23C) leads at 60.0% of the 30 records in scope, followed by spraying and atomising (B05B) at 26.7% and powder metallurgy (B22F) at 23.3%. Steam/thermal power plants (F01K) and steelmaking (C21C) each account for a small fraction of records, marking the thinnest-claimed process environments in this dataset.
Shares are the percentage of the 30 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Powder Feeding and Nozzle Design for DED with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about powder feeding and nozzle design for ded and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative and most-cited filings
Cold spray gun with near-melting-point gas temperature control
An object of the present invention is to provide a cold spray gun and a cold spray apparatus equipped with the same, which are capable of effectively suppressing clogging of a raw material powder feeding port and operating the cold spray apparatus equipped with the cold spray gun by maintaining a working gas temperature at a high temperature closer to a melting point or a softening point of the raw material powder. In order to achieve the above described object, there is provided a cold spray gun configured to spray out a raw material powder transported by a carrier gas, together with a working gas heated to a temperature equal to or lower than a melting point or a softening point of the raw…Abstract truncated as provided in the underlying filing record.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CN104226996A | 一种激光3D打印泵用叶轮的装置及方法 | 48 |
| 2 | CN106903312A | 钨铜合金的激光3D打印方法 | 26 |
| 3 | CN108971492A | 一种增材制造激光成型系统集成设备的控制系统及方法 | 19 |
| 4 | WO2018154599A1 | An improved gas dynamic cold spray device and method of coating a substrate | 15 |
| 5 | US20200215559A1 | Cold spray gun and cold spray apparatus equipped with the same | 11 |
| 6 | JP1984157209A | Pretreatment of molten iron | 10 |
| 7 | US20190240777A1 | Laser cladding apparatus | 9 |
| 8 | CN102965611A | 一种等离子喷涂钛酸钡高介电涂层的方法 | 8 |
| 9 | CN107130240A | 激光熔覆喷嘴、激光熔覆装置及激光覆熔方法 | 7 |
| 10 | CN103498148A | 一种用于穿孔顶头表面的激光熔覆方法 | 7 |
Citation counts are drawn from the searched corpus and favour older filings; treat them as a measure of influence, not current 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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Reading the assignee concentration, citation pattern and technology split together points to where claim space is occupied and where it is not.
A small group sets the terms
With the leader holding 6 records and the top five combined at 73.3% of the 30 records in scope, most of the field's claim scope has already been staked out by a handful of filers. New entrants are more likely to compete on incremental improvements than on open ground within the coating-heavy core.
Coating deposition is the centre of gravity
Coating and surface deposition claims outnumber every other IPC subclass tracked here, more than double the next largest class, spraying and atomising. Filers entering nozzle or powder-feed design should expect the densest prior art in coating-related deposition claims specifically.
Clogging and flow control draw the most follow-on filing
The most-cited records in this dataset centre on laser 3D-printing systems and cold spray guns addressing clogging and flow stability, indicating these are the problems other filers have built directly on top of. Older records naturally accumulate more citations, so treat this as a signal of influence rather than of what matters most today.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to powder feeding and nozzle design for ded, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gate sits
Thirteen companies make up the full ranked assignee list for this dataset, with filing concentrated among a small group at the top and momentum data showing little recent activity from most named filers.
A single filer sets the pace
The leading assignee holds 6 of the 30 records in scope, the largest single share in the ranking. That is a meaningful lead but not an overwhelming one, given the top five together account for 73.3% of records.
A steep drop after the leader
Both the fifth-place and tenth-place assignees hold just 1 record each, showing how quickly filing volume tapers off outside the leading few organisations. This is a field where a handful of filers carry the bulk of activity.
Momentum data reflects publication lag
Several named assignees show 0 filings in the latest year, which is expected given publication lags filing by roughly 18 months rather than indicating an actual pullback from the field.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Plasma Giken Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Jiangsu Yiyu Energy Sci & Tech Development Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Nakamura-Tome Precision Industry Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy & New Materials (ARCI) | 0 | — |
| Wenzhou University | 0 | — |
| Zhejiang University Institute of High-End Equipment | 0 | — |
| Jiangsu University | 0 | — |
| Nippon Kokan K.K. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis next
The filing and technology patterns above point to specific next checks for teams working in this space.
Run a freedom-to-operate check on the coating cluster
With 60.0% of records sitting in C23C, any new coaxial nozzle or coating deposition design should be checked against this cluster first, and against the leading assignee's 6 records specifically.
Search the C23C cluster in EurekaMap the under-claimed process-integration branches
Steam/thermal power plant and steelmaking classes show the thinnest coverage in this dataset, making them worth a focused search before assuming they are occupied.
Explore white space in EurekaTrack filings from the leading assignees going forward
Given the leader holds 6 of 30 records and the top five hold 73.3%, ongoing monitoring of these filers' new publications will surface competitive moves earliest.
Set up assignee tracking in EurekaCommon questions on powder feeding and nozzle design patents
Among the 13 companies in the ranked assignee list, the leader holds 6 of the 30 records in scope. The top five assignees combined account for 73.3% of all records, and the top ten account for 90.0%, so filing is concentrated among a small group of organisations rather than spread evenly. That said, the ranking is the full list the dataset returns, not a top-50 or top-100 cut, so there is no long unseen tail beyond what is shown.
EP3650581A1, filed by Plasma Giken and dated 2020-05-13, addresses clogging at the raw material powder feeding port in a cold spray gun. Its specific mechanism is holding the working gas at a temperature close to, but not exceeding, the melting or softening point of the powder, which keeps the gas hot enough to aid deposition without causing the powder to fuse and block the feed port. This is a narrower claim than gas shielding in general, so it does not cover every clogging-mitigation approach in cold spray systems.
Coating and surface deposition (C23C) is the dominant class, appearing in 60.0% of the 30 records in scope, well ahead of spraying and atomising (B05B) at 26.7% and powder metallurgy (B22F) at 23.3%. Additive manufacturing (B33Y) and alloys (C22C) each sit at 20.0%, with welding, soldering and brazing (B23K) at 16.7%. The smallest classes, steam/thermal power plants and steelmaking, together suggest process-integration applications remain comparatively under-claimed.
The thinnest IPC coverage sits in process-integration areas such as steam/thermal power plant systems (6.7% of records) and steelmaking (3.3% of records), both far below the coating-heavy core of the field. Multi-material feeding, though named explicitly in the search scope, does not form its own dense IPC cluster, which suggests claims combining a defined standoff distance with a mid-build material switch could sit in genuinely open space. Any freedom-to-operate work should still start from the dense C23C cluster before assuming these adjacent areas are clear.
By receiving office, China leads with 12 filings, followed by Europe (EPO) with 5, and India and the United States each with 3. Austria and Japan follow with 2 each. This distribution means a freedom-to-operate review focused only on US or European filings would miss most of the activity captured in this dataset, since China accounts for the largest single share of receiving-office filings.
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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.