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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/press-hardened-steel-grades-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Automotive Forming ProcessesPress hardened steel grade patents: who holds the claim space and where it is still open
- 45.5% concentration. The top five assignees combined account for 1,615 of the 3,546 records in scope, with a leader holding 918 — a steep drop to fifth place at 90.
- Filing has cooled from a 2017 peak. Annual filings ran from 280 in 2017 to 171 in 2021 and 134 in 2024, a -22% move over that three-year span; 2025-2026 figures are still filling in as publication lags filing.
- Heat treatment dominates the claim map. C21D (heat treatment of metals) touches 47.0% of all records and C22C (alloys) 38.8%, while B60R (vehicle parts and accessories) sits at just 4.0% — a sign of where composition and process claims are dense and where application-side claims are thin.
3,546
Published Records
46%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-22%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (171 records) with 2024 (134) — 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 3,546 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What the patent record shows about press hardened steel grades
Press hardened steel — sometimes filed under boron steel or ultra high strength steel — sits at the intersection of metallurgy and forming process. The dataset in scope covers 3,546 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026, spanning composition claims, hot-stamping process claims, coating chemistry and joint/weld integrity. Heat treatment and alloy composition classes carry the bulk of the filing activity, which tracks with how the underlying metallurgy is typically protected: control the microstructure and the chemistry, and the resulting part strength follows.
Filing activity peaked in 2017 and has eased since, though the most recent years remain understated because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months. The assignee ranking is dominated by a small group of steelmakers and automotive suppliers, with a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants below the ranked leaders.
Filing trend and technology composition, 2015-2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Press Hardened Steel Grades 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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The Data
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 3,546 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing trend: a 2017 peak, then a cooling
Annual filings ran at 280 in 2017, the peak so far in this dataset, easing to 171 by 2021 and 134 by 2024 — a -22% move over that span. 2025 and 2026 counts are still filling in as publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so they should not be read as a continued decline.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
C21D (heat treatment of metals) appears in 47.0% of the 3,546 records in scope and C22C (alloys) in 38.8%, the two largest classes by a wide margin. B21D (sheet-metal working) and C23C (coating and surface deposition) sit in the mid-teens, while B60R (vehicles, parts and accessories) trails at 4.0% — since a record can carry several classes, these shares add to more than 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 3,546 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 Press Hardened Steel Grades covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
Go deeper on Press Hardened Steel Grades with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about press hardened steel grades and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaKey Patents
Representative filing and most-cited prior art
Representative Filing
US20240002993A1 — Coated steel sheet and high strength press hardened steel part and method of manufacturing the same
ARCELORMITTAL
A coated steel sheet and press hardened steel part defined by a tight compositional window (C 0.15-0.25%, Mn 0.5-1.8%, Si 0.1-1.25%, Al 0.01-0.1%, Cr 0.1-1.0%, Ti 0.01-0.1%, B 0.001-0.004%, with capped P, S and N), a bulk microstructure of more than 95% martensite and less than 5% bainite, a coating layer, and a ferritic interdiffusion layer with a specified grain-width ratio relative to the bulk.Filed by ArcelorMittal, published 2024-01-04 — filed close to the most recent complete filing year in this dataset.
Most-cited records in this dataset
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20070207186A1 | Tear and abrasion resistant expanded material and reinforcement | 1,492 |
| 2 | GB1490535A | Manufacturing a hardened steel article | 562 |
| 3 | US8585753B2 | Fibrillated biodegradable prosthesis | 222 |
| 4 | WO2008053273A1 | Coated steel strips, methods of making the same, methods of using the same, stamping blanks prepared from the… | 182 |
| 5 | JP1989259120A | Manufacture of ultrahigh strength steel stock having superior ductility | 176 |
| 6 | US5545269A | Method for producing ultra high strength, secondary hardening steels with superior toughness and weldability | 146 |
| 7 | EP2737971A1 | Tailor welded blank, manufacturing method thereof, and hot stamped component using tailor welded blank | 138 |
| 8 | WO2012120020A1 | Process for producing high strength formable steel and high strength formable steel produced therewith | 116 |
| 9 | US4597456A | Conical cutters for drill bits, and processes to produce same | 115 |
| 10 | EP0828007A1 | Process for producing high-strength seamless steel pipe having excellent sulfide stress cracking resistance | 113 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply by virtue of time in the corpus; treat them as a signal of influence on the field, not of current commercial relevance.
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 Press Hardened Steel Grades 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 readings of the same dataset, aimed at where to file, where not to, and who is still active.
Concentration
45.5% of 3,546 records
top 5 combined
The field is led, not fragmented
The top five assignees combined hold 1,615 of the 3,546 records in scope, with the leader alone at 918 and a sharp drop to 90 at fifth place. New entrants are filing into a claim space that a small group has already mapped densely, particularly around composition and heat-treatment routes.
Source: assignee ranking, 100 companies
Momentum
-22% (2021→2024)
filing growth, complete years only
Volume has eased from its 2017 peak
Filings fell from 171 in 2021 to 134 in 2024, a -22% move over the three-year span that can be read as complete. Years after 2024 are still filling in given the typical 18-month publication lag, so this should be read as a cooling trend rather than a stalled one.
Source: filing trend, 2015-2026
Composition skew
47.0% vs 4.0%
C21D share vs B60R share
Metallurgy is crowded, application claims are thin
Heat treatment (C21D) and alloy composition (C22C) classes carry the largest shares of records at 47.0% and 38.8% respectively, while vehicle parts and accessories (B60R) trails at just 4.0%. That gap points to where downstream application claims — how the finished part is integrated into a vehicle structure — remain comparatively open.
Source: IPC subclass composition
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 press hardened steel grades, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Press Hardened Steel Grades 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 is filing, and where activity has slowed
The ranked leaders account for over half of all filings between them, but recent-year momentum shows most of that group pulling back sharply rather than holding pace.
Leader
918 records
share of ranking
One assignee sets the pace by a wide margin
The top-ranked assignee holds 918 of the 3,546 records in scope, well ahead of the field; even so, its most recent-year filings dropped 84% year over year, consistent with the broader cooling seen across the dataset.
Source: assignee ranking
Second tier
90 at fifth place
steep drop from the leader
A sharp fall-off after the leader
Fifth place sits at 90 records and tenth place at 53 — a steep drop from the leader's 918 that marks where the field moves from a small dominant group into a longer tail of moderate filers.
Source: assignee ranking
Collaboration
10 co-assignee pairs
strongest pair: 44 shared records
Joint filing is limited but concentrated
Only ten co-assignee pairs appear in this dataset. The strongest pair shares 44 records, well ahead of the next strongest pairs at 15 and 9, suggesting most collaboration in this space is bilateral and occasional rather than a broad network.
Source: co-assignee pairs
Recent-year momentum among ranked assignees
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| ArcelorMittal | 9 | -84% |
| Autotech Engineering S.L. | 8 | -78% |
| Nippon Steel Corporation | 3 | — |
| POSCO (Pohang Iron & Steel Co., Ltd.) | 0 | -100% |
| Autotech Engineering S.L. | 0 | — |
| Magna International Inc. | 0 | — |
| Shape Corp | 0 | — |
| Tata Steel IJmuiden B.V. | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Press Hardened Steel Grades 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 from here
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, competitive tracking, or identifying open claim space.
Map the leader's full claim set
With 918 records, the top assignee's portfolio is large enough that a single overview understates its scope; a claim-by-claim breakdown by composition window and microstructure target narrows down where a new filing would actually collide.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaTrack momentum, not just totals
Several ranked assignees show sharp year-over-year drops in the most recent year; distinguishing a genuine pullback from a publication-lag artefact requires watching the next one to two filing years as they fill in.
Set up filing alerts in EurekaTest the white space chips against your own composition
The under-claimed branches identified here — interdiffusion layer control, vehicle-structure integration, post-weld embrittlement mitigation — are starting points, not conclusions; a targeted prior-art search against a specific alloy window will confirm whether the gap holds.
Run a white space search in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Press Hardened Steel Grades 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 about press hardened steel grade patents
The assignee ranking in this dataset is led by a single company holding 918 of the 3,546 records in scope, well ahead of the rest of the field. The top five assignees combined account for 45.5% of all records, and the gap from the leader to fifth place (90 records) is steep. Below the ranked leaders sits a long tail of companies with only a handful of filings each, so the field is concentrated but not a monopoly.
Filing volume peaked in 2017 at 280 records and eased to 134 by 2024, a -22% move over the 2021-2024 span that can be treated as complete. Figures for 2025 and 2026 look lower still, but that is expected: publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the most recent years always understate true activity. The honest read is a cooling from a 2017 peak, not a collapse.
Heat treatment of metals (IPC class C21D) appears in 47.0% of the 3,546 records in scope, and alloy composition (C22C) in 38.8%, making these the two most heavily claimed areas. Sheet-metal working, coating and surface deposition, and welding/soldering/brazing each sit in the mid-teens by share. Vehicle-specific application classes such as vehicle parts and accessories (B60R) trail well behind at 4.0%, suggesting the metallurgy itself is more densely claimed than its downstream vehicle integration.
Given how concentrated the core composition and heat-treatment classes are, comparatively open areas sit closer to the application and integration side: how a hot-stamped part is joined and mounted into a vehicle structure, how coating chemistry trades off against bendability, and how post-weld hydrogen embrittlement is managed in service. These are read from the gap between dense classes like C21D and C22C and thinner ones like B60R, rather than from an exhaustive absence-of-claims search, so they are a starting point for a targeted freedom-to-operate check rather than a guarantee.
US20240002993A1, filed by ArcelorMittal and published 2024-01-04, claims a coated press hardened steel part defined by a specific compositional window (including tightly bounded carbon, manganese, silicon, boron and other elements), a bulk microstructure of more than 95% martensite and less than 5% bainite, and a ferritic interdiffusion layer between the coating and the bulk with a defined grain-width relationship. Anyone working with a similar composition and coating architecture should check this filing specifically, since its claims are narrow but precisely bounded rather than broad.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Press Hardened Steel Grades 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
Research Press Hardened Steel Grades in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole press hardened steel grades corpus yourself, in your own scope.
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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.