Reciprocating Compressor Vibration Damping Patents: Top Filers 2026
- Filing peaked in 2018 at 27 records and has not returned to that level since — 2022 sat at just 10, suggesting the core dampening mechanisms were claimed early and the field has cooled rather than accelerated.
- F04B positive-displacement pump claims dominate with 164 of 347 records, nearly triple the next largest subclass (B01D separation processes at 60), showing filers anchor damping claims to the compressor mechanism itself rather than peripheral hardware.
- The most-cited prior art is a portable gas system, not a damper three of the five highest-cited records are variants of a 'Portable gas fractionalization system' filing, meaning citation weight in this corpus favours adjacent system patents over dedicated pulsation dampeners.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks patent families at the intersection of reciprocating and piston compressors and their vibration control hardware — pulsation dampeners, vibration isolation mounts, and suction accumulators filed or published between 2015 and mid-2026. The search string pairs mechanical terms for the compressor type with damping-specific language, so the 347 records returned are ones where damping is a named element of the claim or title, not an incidental mention.
Coverage spans eight IPC subclasses, from the expected F04B positive-displacement pump class down to A61M body-fluid devices and H02K electric motors — a spread that reflects how compressor damping hardware gets re-used across refrigeration, medical gas handling and rotary equipment. Publication for the most recent year is necessarily incomplete given the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 347 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and how it splits across the IPC subclasses where damping claims actually land.
A peak in 2018, then a decline
Filings rose to 11 in 2017 before peaking at 27 in 2018. By the 2022 midpoint the count had fallen to 10, and the trend line through 2026 (1, partial) shows no rebound — consistent with a field where the foundational dampening architectures were claimed in the late 2010s and subsequent filers have had less open ground to work with.
F04B carries the field
F04B (positive-displacement pumps) accounts for 164 of 347 records, well ahead of B01D separation processes (60) and F25B refrigeration (59). The presence of A61M (45) and H02K (20) signals that damping hardware developed for compressors gets repurposed into medical suction systems and motor-integrated units — worth checking before assuming a filing is compressor-specific.
Shares are the percentage of the 347 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Reciprocating Compressor Vibration Damping with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about reciprocating compressor vibration damping and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative filing
Viscoelastic compressor pulsation dampener
A system, in certain embodiments, includes a pulsation dampener for minimizing the adverse effects of pulsation waves in a process fluid generated by a reciprocating compressor. The pulsation dampener may be installed proximate to the source of the pulsation waves and external to a main flow path of the process fluid being compressed within the reciprocating compressor. In certain embodiments, the pulsation dampener may be a pulsation dampening valve enclosure configured to at least partially encase a valve assembly of the reciprocating compressor, filled with a pulsation dampening material such as a wire mesh or viscoelastic medium.Filed by GE Oil & Gas Compression Systems, LLC, published 2011-05-19 as US20110116940A1.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20050103341A1 | Portable gas fractionalization system | 161 |
| 2 | US7066985B2 | Portable gas fractionalization system | 136 |
| 3 | US20050072426A1 | Portable gas fractionalization system | 135 |
| 4 | US6220050B1 | Suction accumulator | 108 |
| 5 | US20050072423A1 | Portable gas fractionalization system | 86 |
| 6 | US7438745B2 | Portable gas fractionalization system | 84 |
| 7 | US7135059B2 | Portable gas fractionalization system | 84 |
| 8 | US7753996B1 | Portable gas fractionalization system | 78 |
| 9 | US7730887B2 | Portable gas fractionalization system | 77 |
| 10 | US5146124A | Linear drive motor with flexible coupling | 76 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus skew toward older filings; treat the ranking 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.
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 mean for filing strategy
Three patterns stand out once the raw counts are read against filing dates and citation weight.
The field has cooled since 2018
Filing activity nearly tripled from 2017 to a 2018 peak of 27, then roughly halved by the 2022 midpoint of 10. That trajectory is more consistent with early architectural claims being staked out and defended than with a technology still expanding into new claim space.
Damping claims ride on the compressor mechanism
Nearly half of all records sit in F04B, positive-displacement pumps, rather than in F16F (springs and vibration dampers generally), which holds only 41. Filers are claiming damping as integral to the compressor design, not as a bolt-on isolation component.
Citation weight sits outside dedicated dampeners
Three of the five most-cited records in this corpus are variants of a portable gas fractionalization system, not a dedicated pulsation dampener. A high citation count here signals broad system-level influence, not necessarily relevance to a damping-specific claim search.
Filing is concentrated in the US
The United States receives more than double the filings of the next office (Japan, 54), with Europe, WIPO, Canada and India trailing further behind. Freedom-to-operate work should weight US prior art most heavily, but Japanese filings are large enough to require separate review.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to reciprocating compressor vibration damping, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where momentum has stalled
Assignee activity in this dataset is notably quiet in the most recent year — every tracked assignee shows zero filings in the latest year, reinforcing the declining trend seen since 2018.
No assignee is actively filing right now
Assignees with historical filings in this space, including entities tracked for co-assignment activity, show zero filings in the most recent year. Given the 18-month publication lag, some of this is an artefact of timing, but the pattern extends back to the 2022 midpoint slowdown.
Collaboration is limited and concentrated
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, with the strongest pairings each appearing on 2-3 shared records. This is a field where individual entities largely file alone rather than through joint development arrangements.
Established players anchor the prior art
The representative record in this dataset comes from an established oil and gas compression equipment maker, filed over a decade before the corpus's 2018 filing peak — a reminder that some of the governing prior art predates the recent filing wave entirely.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Enerflex Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Helix Technologies Inc. | 0 | — |
| LG Electronics Inc. | 0 | — |
| H2Gen Innovations, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Lummus Technology Inc. | 0 | — |
| Ingersoll Rand Inc. | 0 | — |
| Mitsubishi Electric Corporation | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The counts and rankings here are a starting point for freedom-to-operate and whitespace work, not a substitute for it.
Run a claims-level FTO check
Subclass and citation counts flag where density is high, but only a claims-level read of the F04B and F16F records will confirm whether a specific dampening mechanism is actually blocked.
Explore in EurekaTrack the quiet assignees
Zero recent-year filings across tracked assignees could mean consolidation, abandonment, or simply publication lag. Monitoring filings as they publish will clarify which it is.
Set up monitoring in EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
The dominant class is F04B, positive-displacement pumps, which holds 164 of the 347 records in this dataset. Secondary classes include B01D (separation processes, 60 records) and F25B (refrigeration and heat pumps, 59 records), reflecting how damping hardware is claimed alongside the systems the compressor serves rather than as a standalone mechanical component. F16F, the class specifically for springs and vibration dampers, holds only 41 records, which tells you most filers integrate damping into the compressor claim rather than filing it as a generic isolation device.
Filing activity rose from 11 in 2017 to a peak of 27 in 2018, then declined toward 10 by the 2022 midpoint. This pattern is typical of a field where a wave of foundational architectures gets claimed in a short window, after which later filers face denser prior art and narrower room to differentiate. It does not necessarily mean the underlying technology stopped improving, but it does mean the core dampening mechanisms were largely staked out by the late 2010s.
The representative filing in this space, US20110116940A1, covering a viscoelastic compressor pulsation dampener, was assigned to GE Oil & Gas Compression Systems, LLC and published in 2011. Separately, the most-cited records in the broader corpus relate to a portable gas fractionalization system, appearing three times among the top five cited documents, which shows citation influence in this search is not concentrated solely on dedicated dampening patents. Reviewing the full assignee ranking rather than citation counts alone gives a more accurate picture of who actually controls damping-specific claims.
Cross-application branches show comparatively low filing density: motor-integrated isolation (overlapping H02K, 20 records), pipe-fitting-level pulsation attenuation (F16L, 22 records), and rotary-piston cross-application (F04C, 42 records) all sit well below the F04B core. A first claim in these areas would likely combine a known damping mechanism with a specific integration point, such as mounting geometry within a motor housing or a pipe-fitting-embedded pulsation element, rather than attempting a new dampening principle outright.
Not very, on its own. Patent publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the single record shown for 2026 substantially understates actual filing activity for that year; a more complete picture will only emerge as pending applications publish through 2027 and 2028. The 2022 midpoint figure of 10 is a more reliable indicator of the recent trend, and it already shows a clear decline from the 2018 peak of 27.
Research Reciprocating Compressor Vibration Damping in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole reciprocating compressor vibration damping 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.