Safety Relief Valve Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- Concentrated at the top. The top 5 assignees account for 51.1% of all 141 records in scope, and the top 10 reach 75.9% — this is a field with a short list of repeat filers and a long tail of single-filing entrants.
- Filing has cooled from its 2018 peak. Volume peaked at 9 records in 2018; from 2021 to 2024, the last fully comparable years, filings moved from 2 to 1, a 50% decline over that span.
- F16K dominates the claim space. 46.8% of the 141 records sit in F16K (valves & taps), with testing and control classes (G01N, G05D, F15B, G01L) each holding a much smaller but still active share.
Filing growth compares 2021 (2 records) with 2024 (1) — 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 141 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the patent record shows
Safety relief valve sizing and testing sits at the intersection of mechanical valve design and instrumentation: set pressure tolerance, blowdown adjustment, chatter avoidance and two-phase relief are the recurring technical anchors in the search scope. The dataset covers 141 published records from 2015 through the 2026 data cut-off, drawn from a search string that pairs relief valve hardware terms with sizing and test-methodology terms. That combination captures both valve mechanism patents and the measurement and control patents built around them.
Filing is concentrated among a small number of established industrial and oilfield equipment names, with a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants behind them. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent one or two years in any trend understate actual filing activity and should be read as provisional.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 141-record dataset: annual filing volume, and the IPC subclasses those records fall into. Because a single record can carry more than one IPC class, the class shares below sum to more than 100% of the record total.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Volume rose from 8 records in 2017 to a peak of 9 in 2018, then eased. Using the last fully comparable years, 2021 (2 records) to 2024 (1 record) marks a 50% decline — a real signal, but not one that should be extended into 2025 or 2026, where publication lag is still filling in the count.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
F16K (valves & taps) anchors the field at 46.8% of the 141 records. Testing and measurement classes — G01N (material analysis & testing), G01L (force & pressure measurement) — and control classes G05D and F15B each cover a meaningful but secondary share, alongside application-specific classes such as E21B (wells) and F24S (solar heat collectors).
Shares are the percentage of the 141 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Safety Relief Valve Sizing and Testing with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about safety relief valve sizing and testing and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited records
US5725015A — Pilot-operated safety relief valve assembly
An assembly and method for controlling the opening of a safety relief valve exposed to a system fluid pressure and containing a control fluid which controls the opening of the safety relief valve. The assembly includes a pilot valve connected to the safety relief valve and adapted to respond to a predetermined pressure of the system fluid for permitting flow of the control fluid. A regulator receives the control fluid and operates to reduce the pressure of the control fluid a predetermined amount. The safety relief valve opens in response to the reduction of the control fluid pressure, and the remaining control fluid pressure modulates the opening of the safety relief valve.Filed by Dresser, Inc.; illustrates the pilot-operated relief architecture that recurs across later filings in this dataset.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20140163664A1 | Integrated system for the ballistic and nonballistic infixion and retrieval of implants with or without drug … | 965 |
| 2 | US20190247050A1 | Integrated system for the infixion and retrieval of implants | 450 |
| 3 | US5473939A | Method and apparatus for pressure, volume, and temperature measurement and characterization of subsurface for… | 219 |
| 4 | US20150234031A1 | Torsion limiter devices, systems and methods and solar trackers incorporating torsion limiters | 83 |
| 5 | US9581678B2 | Torque limiter devices, systems and methods and solar trackers incorporating torque limiters | 72 |
| 6 | US20030047216A1 | Pop-type pressure relief valve | 57 |
| 7 | US20100281954A1 | Test apparatus and method for safety valve | 52 |
| 8 | WO1994000671A1 | Method and apparatus for pressure, volume, and temperature measurement and characterization of subsurface for… | 46 |
| 9 | US10042030B2 | Torque limiter devices, systems and methods and solar trackers incorporating torque limiters | 40 |
| 10 | US5341838A | Direct spring pressure operated valve | 38 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older records; treat them as a signal of influence within this dataset, not as a measure of current technical importance.
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Three patterns stand out once the ranking, the trend and the IPC composition are read together.
A short list of repeat filers controls most of the claim space
The top 5 assignees hold 51.1% of all 141 records, and the top 10 extend that to 75.9%. New entrants are filing into a field where the core pilot-operated and pressure-modulation architectures are already well covered by a handful of established industrial and oilfield names.
Volume has cooled from its 2018 peak
Filing peaked at 9 records in 2018. Comparing the last two fully comparable years, 2021 (2 records) to 2024 (1 record), volume fell 50% — a genuine cooling, though 2025-2026 figures are still incomplete due to publication lag and should not be read as confirming a continued decline.
Valve hardware still dominates over testing methodology
F16K (valves & taps) covers 46.8% of the 141 records, well ahead of any single testing or control class. G01N, G05D, F15B and G01L each sit in the 12-14% range, suggesting sizing and test-methodology claims are filed alongside hardware claims rather than as a separate dominant category.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to safety relief valve sizing and testing, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the field is open
The ranked leaders reflect decades of industrial valve and oilfield equipment filing activity; the gaps sit in the testing and adjacent-application classes that ride alongside the core valve claims.
The top filer holds a clear lead
The leading assignee's 22 records sit well ahead of fifth place at 11 and tenth place at 5, a steep drop-off typical of a field anchored by long-standing industrial valve suppliers rather than recent entrants.
Most filers appear once or twice
Beyond the top 10, which together account for 75.9% of the 141 records, the remaining companies in the 43-name ranking file in small numbers — a pattern consistent with adjacent industries (oilfield services, nuclear power, solar tracking) filing occasional relief-valve-adjacent patents rather than building a sustained portfolio.
Momentum has gone quiet among established names
Several of the historically most active assignees show zero filings in the latest year of the dataset. Combined with the broader 2021-2024 decline, this points to a maturing claim space rather than an active filing race, though 2025-2026 data is still incomplete.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Keystone International Holdings Corp | 0 | — |
| Array Technologies, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Saudi Arabian Oil Co (Saudi Aramco) | 0 | — |
| Western Atlas International, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Dresser Industries, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Baker Hughes Oilfield Operations LLC | 0 | — |
| QinetiQ Ltd | 0 | — |
| CORIO RONALD P | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a field with settled hardware claims and thinner coverage on the testing and control side. Two directions follow from that.
Check freedom-to-operate against the top 10
With 75.9% of records held by ten assignees, a freedom-to-operate review should start with those portfolios before assessing the long tail, particularly around pilot-operated and pressure-modulation mechanisms.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaScope claims into the under-claimed testing branches
In situ testing, chatter avoidance control logic and two-phase relief sizing show thinner coverage than core valve hardware — a first claim there is less likely to collide with the top filers' existing portfolios.
Run a white space search in EurekaCommon questions about this patent landscape
The dataset ranks 43 companies by filing count within this search scope, and the leader holds 22 of the 141 total records. The top 5 assignees together account for 51.1% of all records, and the top 10 reach 75.9%, so the field is concentrated among a small number of established industrial and oilfield equipment suppliers. Beyond that group, most of the remaining ranked companies file only a handful of records each, which is typical of a mature mechanical valve niche rather than an actively expanding one.
Filing peaked at 9 records in 2018 and has generally trended lower since. Comparing 2021 (2 records) to 2024 (1 record), the last two years that can be treated as complete, filing volume fell 50%. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so those years should not yet be read as confirming further decline.
F16K, the valves and taps classification, covers 46.8% of the 141 records in this dataset and is the clear anchor category. Testing and measurement classes such as G01N and G01L, and control classes such as G05D and F15B, each cover roughly 12-14% of records, indicating that sizing and test-methodology claims are typically filed alongside valve hardware claims rather than as a standalone dominant category. Application-specific classes like E21B (wells) and F24S (solar heat collectors) show that relief valve technology also gets claimed within specific end-use equipment patents.
US5725015A, assigned to Dresser, Inc., claims a pilot-operated safety relief valve assembly in which a pilot valve responds to system pressure and a regulator reduces control fluid pressure to modulate valve opening. It is a representative example of the pilot-operated architecture that recurs across many later filings in this space. Anyone designing a new pilot-operated relief mechanism should review its claim scope directly, since the specific control-fluid pressure-reduction mechanism it describes is a common design point in this field rather than an unusual one.
Relative to the 46.8% share held by core F16K valve hardware claims, branches like two-phase relief sizing, chatter avoidance control logic, in situ field testing methods and back pressure compensation for pilot valves show thinner, more fragmented coverage in this dataset. These are testing- and control-adjacent areas that ride alongside the dominant hardware claims rather than areas with a single entrenched leader. A first claim scoped tightly to one of these methods is less likely to run into the dense prior art that covers basic pilot-operated valve mechanisms.
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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.