Scroll & Rotary Compressor Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
- Concentrated at the top. The five leading assignees together hold 38.1% of all 17,672 records in scope, and the ranked ten hold 53.6% — a field where a handful of incumbents control the core claim space.
- Filing has cooled from its 2017 peak. Activity peaked at 822 records in 2017 and, on the last complete comparison, fell 45% from 471 in 2021 to 258 in 2024.
- Almost three-quarters of records sit in one IPC subclass. F04C (rotary-piston pumps) covers 72.0% of the 17,672 records, meaning most disputes over novelty will run through the same classification.
Filing growth compares 2021 (471 records) with 2024 (258) — 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 17,672 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset gathers 17,672 published records matching scroll compressor, rotary vane compressor and refrigerant compressor language combined with mechanism-level terms such as orbiting scroll, tip seal, vapor injection, leakage path, sound attenuation and variable displacement. The scope runs from 2015 through the 2026-07-31 cut-off, capturing both the compressor mechanics and the surrounding control and vehicle-integration filings that cite them.
Because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months, the last one or two years in any trend understate real filing activity; the 2024 figures are the most recent that can be read as a complete year.
Let an AI agent run this analysis on your own technology
Pick a task. Every answer cites the patents behind it.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 17,672-record set: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how records distribute across IPC subclasses.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings peaked at 822 records in 2017. On the last complete comparison, volume fell 45% from 471 records in 2021 to 258 in 2024; 2025 and 2026 are still filling in as publications catch up to filing dates.
Where the claims sit
F04C (rotary-piston pumps) accounts for 72.0% of the 17,672 records, with F01C and F04B each near 17%, and F25B refrigeration-system claims at 13.6%. Vehicle A/C (B60H) and electric-motor (H02K) classes sit in the low single digits — smaller but not empty.
Shares are the percentage of the 17,672 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Scroll and Rotary Compressor for Refrigeration with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about scroll and rotary compressor for refrigeration and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe records the field cites most
US9366253B2 — Scroll compressor with a tip-seal projection and groove hole
Tip seals fitted into tip seal grooves on the higher and lower surfaces of the spiral wraps repeat contact and non-contact with the bottom land of the opposing scroll as the orbiting scroll revolves. A projection extending vertically from the back of the tip seal, at the cantilevered end, engages a matching hole in the bottom of the tip seal groove.Filed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Thermal Systems; published 2016-06-14.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US4877382A | Scroll-type machine with axially compliant mounting | 622 |
| 2 | US5102316A | Non-orbiting scroll mounting arrangements for a scroll machine | 406 |
| 3 | US5320506A | Oldham coupling for scroll compressor | 364 |
| 4 | US6213731B1 | Compressor pulse width modulation | 333 |
| 5 | US6047557A | Adaptive control for a refrigeration system using pulse width modulated duty cycle scroll compressor | 309 |
| 6 | US5156539A | Scroll machine with floating seal | 306 |
| 7 | US20050235660A1 | Compressor diagnostic and protection system | 265 |
| 8 | US5593478A | Fluid fractionator | 249 |
| 9 | US6412293B1 | Scroll machine with continuous capacity modulation | 241 |
| 10 | US5741120A | Capacity modulated scroll machine | 230 |
Citation counts inside this corpus favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations; treat them as a signal of influence on later design-arounds, not of current filing activity.
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 data means for a filing decision
Three read-throughs from the concentration, classification and citation figures above.
The core mechanism is claimed by a small group
The five leading assignees hold 38.1% of all records in scope and the ranked ten hold 53.6%. New entrants working on the base scroll or rotary mechanism are filing into space already occupied by a handful of established compressor makers.
Volume has pulled back from its 2017 peak
Filing peaked at 822 records in 2017 and has declined through the last complete comparison year, 2024. That does not mean the mechanism is exhausted — dense filing density signals occupied claim space, not technological maturity.
Most disputes will run through one subclass
F04C covers nearly three-quarters of records, with F01C, F04B and F25B each capturing a meaningful secondary slice. Vehicle-integration (B60H) and motor-control (H02K) classes are present but far smaller, which is where narrower claim scope may still be available.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to scroll and rotary compressor for refrigeration, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the activity has cooled
The ranked leaders are drawn from a 100-company list returned by the data endpoint — not a curated top-50 or top-100, but the full ranking the underlying dataset produces for this search.
One filer sits well ahead of the field
The leading assignee holds 2,749 records, well above the fifth-place figure of 747 and tenth-place figure of 448 — a steep drop-off rather than a gradual one.
The gap narrows quickly after the leader
Fifth place holds 747 records and tenth place 448, meaning the middle of the ranked field is far more evenly matched than the gap between first and fifth suggests.
Several established filers show no latest-year output
Multiple assignees among the ranked leaders show zero records in the latest year, with some recording a -100% year-over-year change. Given the 18-month publication lag, this reads as a data-visibility gap for the newest filings rather than firms exiting the space.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| LG Electronics Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Emerson Climate Technologies, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Sanden Corp. | 0 | -100% |
| Carrier Corp. | 0 | -100% |
| Copeland LP | 0 | — |
| Hitachi, Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Mitsubishi Electric Corp. | 0 | -100% |
| Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The figures above describe the field as it stands at the 2026-07-31 cut-off. Turning them into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision means going deeper on specific claims and specific assignees.
Check freedom-to-operate against the most-cited records
The most-cited patents in this set, including US4877382A and US5320506A, sit behind much of the later scroll-mounting and Oldham-coupling art. Any new mechanical filing in this space should be checked against their claim scope directly.
Explore the citation networkTrack the leading assignees' recent filings
Several ranked leaders show no visible latest-year output, which is more likely a publication-lag artefact than a real slowdown. Re-checking their pipelines in six to twelve months will sharpen the current-activity picture.
Monitor assignee activityScope claims around the under-claimed branches
Vapor-injection geometry, variable-displacement control logic and vehicle A/C integration carry far fewer records than the core F04C mechanism. These are the more realistic places to seek clean claim scope.
Draft around the white spaceCommon questions on this landscape
The assignee ranking behind this landscape lists 100 companies, with the leader holding 2,749 of the 17,672 records in scope. The top five combined hold 38.1% of all records, and the top ten hold 53.6%, so the field is concentrated at the top but still has a long tail of smaller filers below the ranked leaders. Anyone assessing freedom to operate should start with the leading handful before assuming the rest of the field is open.
Filing peaked at 822 records in 2017 and has declined since; comparing the last complete years, 2021 to 2024, volume fell 45%, from 471 to 258 records. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, 2025 and 2026 figures in any such dataset will always look artificially low and should not be read as a continuation of the decline. The honest read is that the field has cooled from its 2017 peak, not that it is disappearing.
In this dataset, F04C (rotary-piston pumps) is the dominant classification, covering 72.0% of the 17,672 records, while F01C (rotary-piston machines) and F04B (positive-displacement pumps) each cover around 17%. Scroll-specific mechanical features such as tip seals, Oldham couplings and orbiting-scroll mounting tend to sit within these same broad classes rather than a separate one. F25B, the refrigeration-and-heat-pump class, appears in 13.6% of records and marks where compressor claims connect to system-level refrigeration cycle claims.
US9366253B2, assigned to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Thermal Systems and published in 2016, claims a scroll compressor design where a projection on the back of a tip seal engages a matching hole in the bottom of its tip seal groove. This is a retention mechanism for the tip seal as it repeatedly contacts and separates from the opposing scroll's bottom land during orbiting motion. It is a narrow mechanical feature rather than a broad compressor claim, so it constrains tip-seal groove and projection designs specifically rather than scroll compressors generally.
The smaller IPC subclasses in this dataset point to it: H02K (electric motors, 2.9% of records), F03C (positive-displacement hydraulic engines, 2.6%), B60H (vehicle heating and A/C, 2.5%) and F04D (non-positive-displacement pumps, 1.4%) all carry far fewer filings than the dominant F04C core. Vapor-injection port geometry, variable-displacement control logic and vehicle-integration claims sit in this thinner territory. These branches are worth checking closely before assuming the whole compressor field is fully claimed.
Research Scroll and Rotary Compressor for Refrigeration in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole scroll and rotary compressor for refrigeration 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.