Ultra-Precision Grinding Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
A data-led look at 387 ultra-precision grinding patent records: who is filing, how fast filings are growing, which IPC classes dominate, and where claim space remains open.
Filing growth = 2021 (21 records) → 2024 (35); 2024 is the last year we treat as complete. Top-5 share = the 5 largest assignees ÷ all 387 records in scope (CR5), not the ranked leaders only.
What the ultra-precision grinding patent record shows
Ultra-precision grinding covers machining processes that finish surfaces to nanometric or sub-micron tolerances, spanning optical mirrors, hard-brittle materials and precision bearings. Across the 387 records in scope, filing activity is concentrated in grinding-and-polishing mechanism claims and abrasive-tooling composition, with China acting as the dominant receiving office. The field shows the profile of an established mechanical discipline rather than an emerging one: a small set of repeat filers, a long tail of occasional entrants, and dense prior art in the core mechanism classes.
Growth over the most recent complete filing window is real rather than incidental, and it sits alongside classification data that marks exactly where claim space is thin. Together, the filing trend and the IPC composition point to where new filings face the least crowded prior art.
Let an AI agent run this analysis on your own technology
Pick a task. Every answer cites the patents behind it.
Filing trends and technology composition
The 387 records in scope span 2015 through the 2026 cut-off, concentrated overwhelmingly in grinding-and-polishing machinery and abrasive tooling, with China as the dominant receiving office.
Filing activity climbed through 2023 before the reporting lag sets in
Filings rose from 18 in 2017 to a peak of 37 in 2023, with the 2021-to-2024 span showing a 67% increase (21 to 35 records). 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months, so the apparent tail-off in the most recent two years should not be read as a slowdown.
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.
B24B dominates; adjacent classes are thin
Grinding and polishing (B24B) covers 66.1% of the 387 records, with grinding tools and abrasives (B24D) a distant second at 11.4%. Materials science, ceramics, digital processing, machine-tool fittings and turning/boring classes each sit under 5%, showing claim activity concentrated in mechanism and tooling rather than in control software or materials chemistry.
Shares are the percentage of the 387 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Precision & Ultraprecision Manufacturing: Ultra-Precision Grinding Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about precision & ultraprecision manufacturing: ultra-precision grinding patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative early claim and the most-cited prior art
US4563837A — Ultra-precision grinding machine
Discloses a stacked X-table and Y-table arrangement on a base plate, with a slide table on the Y-table that translates horizontally and revolves to support the workpiece. A machining head above the slide table moves vertically and micro-vibrates the grinding tool horizontally, with the vibration amplitude itself under control, to finish the workpiece to very high accuracy.Filed by Tokiwa Seiki Industrial and dated 1986-01-14, this record illustrates the mechanical architecture that early ultra-precision grinding machine claims were built around.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | JP1996120470A | Ultraprecision grinding by gas cluster ion beam | 92 |
| 2 | CN101870091A | 一种陶瓷结合剂超细金刚石砂轮制备方法 | 42 |
| 3 | CN101096080A | 具有自修正功能的固结磨料研磨抛光垫及制备方法 | 41 |
| 4 | CN101376228A | 一种软脆功能晶体磨削加工方法 | 37 |
| 5 | CN103722467A | 硬脆材料磨削脆-延转化临界切削深度确定方法和装置 | 31 |
| 6 | CN103286682A | 超声波振动辅助研磨/抛光的试件样品夹具 | 31 |
| 7 | US20140008340A1 | Hybrid ultraprecision machining device and hybrid ultraprecision machining method | 28 |
| 8 | CN112592663A | 一种SiC衬底加工用纳米金刚石抛光液及其制备方法 | 20 |
| 9 | WO2016051121A1 | Method for shaping and finishing a workpiece | 20 |
| 10 | US20090194616A1 | Sporoderm-Broken Polypore Production | 20 |
Citation counts favour older records searched more often; treat them as a signal of influence within this dataset, not of 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.
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 numbers actually mean for filing decisions
Four figures from this dataset carry practical weight for anyone deciding where to file next or who to watch.
Filing sits at the top, not evenly spread
The leader alone holds 28 records and the top 5 combined hold 94, or 24.3% of all 387 records in scope. That leaves the bulk of the field to a long tail of occasional filers, which is typical for a mature mechanical discipline rather than an emerging one.
Momentum is real, and understated by recent years
Filings rose from 21 in 2021 to 35 in 2024, a 67% increase over the most recent three-year window that can be treated as complete. Publication lag means 2025 and 2026 figures will revise upward as more records surface.
Grinding mechanism claims dominate the classification map
Two-thirds of the 387 records sit in B24B (grinding and polishing), with B24D (grinding tools and abrasives) a distant second at 11.4%. Every other class tracked sits under 5%, showing where claim space is dense and where it is not.
China anchors the filing map by a wide margin
China's 263 filings dwarf the next-largest office, South Korea, at 28. The United States (25), Europe (14), Japan (11) and India (10) trail well behind, so prior-art searches that skip Chinese-language filings will miss most of the field.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to precision & ultraprecision manufacturing: ultra-precision grinding patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| Dalian University of Technology | Guangxi Academy of Sciences | 3 |
| Harbin Institute of Technology | Zhengzhou Research Institute for Abrasives & Grinding Co., Ltd. | 1 |
| Harbin Institute of Technology | Zhongshan Chaojing Technology Co., Ltd. | 1 |
| Harbin Institute of Technology | China State Shipbuilding Corporation 707th Research Institute | 1 |
| Zhengzhou Research Institute for Abrasives & Grinding Co., Ltd. | Zhengzhou University | 1 |
| Zhengzhou Research Institute for Abrasives & Grinding Co., Ltd. | Zhongshan Chaojing Technology Co., Ltd. | 1 |
| 丰田自动车株式会社 | ZHOU LIBO | 1 |
| 丰田自动车株式会社 | NAGAIKE TETABUYA | 1 |
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, the strongest joint filers linked on three shared records — most organisations in this field file alone rather than in partnership.
Where to take this analysis
The figures here mark where claim density is high and where it thins out. The next step is checking a specific filing or design against that map.
Run a freedom-to-operate check
Compare a candidate grinding-machine or abrasive-tooling design against the dense B24B and B24D claim territory before filing, rather than after.
Check freedom-to-operate in EurekaTrack the leading filers
Set up monitoring on the small set of repeat filers that account for the top 5 and top 10 shares identified here, so new filings surface as they publish.
Set up assignee tracking in EurekaExplore the under-claimed classes
Look closer at the digital-processing and machine-tool-fitting classes, where filing density sits well under the B24B core, for open claim space.
Explore white space in EurekaQuestions practitioners ask about this field
The assignee ranking covers 100 companies counted across the 387 records in scope, with filing concentrated at the top: the leader alone holds 28 records, and the top 5 combined account for 94 records, or 24.3% of all records in scope. Chinese universities and research institutes appear repeatedly near the top of this ranking, reflecting both the volume of Chinese filings overall and sustained institutional research programmes in abrasive and grinding-wheel technology. Beyond the top 10 (138 records, 35.7% of the total), the ranking thins into a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants, so most organisations active in this space hold only a handful of records each.
Filings grew from 18 in 2017 to a peak of 37 in 2023, and the 2021-to-2024 window alone shows a 67% increase, from 21 to 35 records. That is a genuine acceleration, not noise, because it is measured over the most recent three-year span that can be treated as complete. The 2025 and 2026 counts look lower, but that reflects the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication rather than a real drop in filing activity, so recent-year figures should be read as still filling in.
Grinding and polishing machinery, classified under B24B, covers 66.1% of the 387 records in scope and is by far the densest claim territory. Grinding tools and abrasives (B24D) follow at 11.4%, with materials for miscellaneous applications, ceramics, digital data processing, machine-tool fittings and turning/boring each covering under 5% of records. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100%, and they signal where claim space is already occupied rather than where the technology itself is most mature.
Yes: China is the dominant receiving office with 263 filings, well ahead of South Korea at 28, the United States at 25, the European Patent Office at 14, Japan at 11 and India at 10. This distribution reflects where abrasive-tooling and grinding-machine manufacturing capacity and research funding are concentrated, and it means freedom-to-operate analysis for this field should weight Chinese prior art heavily regardless of where a filer intends to commercialise.
US4563837A, assigned to Tokiwa Seiki Industrial and dated 1986, describes an ultra-precision grinding machine built around a stacked X-Y table, a revolving slide table, and a vertically moving, horizontally micro-vibrating machining head, and is treated as a representative early mechanical architecture for the field. On citation count, JP1996120470A's gas-cluster-ion-beam grinding method leads with 92 citations, making it the most frequently referenced piece of prior art within this corpus. Both are useful starting points for novelty searches even though their direct blocking effect on new filings has diminished with age.
Research Precision & Ultraprecision Manufacturing: Ultra-Precision Grinding Patent Landscape in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole precision & ultraprecision manufacturing: ultra-precision grinding patent landscape 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.