SLS Advanced Materials Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- Filing has already cooled. activity peaked at 6 families in 2018 and had fallen to zero by the most recent year, well before the usual publication lag would explain it.
- The claim set is small and shareable. only 18 patent families exist across more than a decade, with the strongest co-filing pair appearing just twice — this is not a field with an entrenched blocking position.
- US filings lead but the split is even. the United States holds 9 of the tracked publications against a combined 8 from China and Europe, so no single office dominates prosecution strategy here.
Filing growth compares 2021 (1 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.
What the SLS advanced materials patent record actually shows
Selective laser sintering advanced materials patents cover a narrow but technically dense slice of additive manufacturing: powders and process hardware engineered so that PEEK, carbon-filled and flame-retardant formulations can be sintered reliably at high temperature. The dataset behind this page pulls 18 patent families published between 2015 and mid-2026, filtered to records that combine SLS process claims (B29C64/153, B33Y70) with polymer composition claims (C08L77 and related subclasses). That intersection is deliberately tight: it excludes general 3D-printing hardware and general polymer chemistry, isolating only the filings where the two disciplines meet in a single claim set.
Publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the most recent year in the trend below reads lower than it will eventually settle once pending applications publish.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 18-family dataset: how filing activity moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
A short, already-past peak
Filings rose from 3 in 2017 to a peak of 6 in 2018, then declined through the decade to 0 in the most recent year. With only 18 families total, small year-to-year swings look larger than they are — but the direction is consistently downward from 2018 on, not flat.
Claims concentrate in shaping and additive process codes
B29C (shaping of plastics) and B33Y (additive manufacturing) dominate, appearing in 16 and 14 of the 18 records respectively — expected, since both are search anchors. The polymer-chemistry side is thinner and more evenly spread: C08G, C08L and B29K each appear in 5 records, C08K in 4, and C08J in just 3, indicating that composition claims are filed almost incidentally to process claims rather than as a standalone chemistry program.
Shares are the percentage of the 18 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Selective Laser Sintering Advanced Materials with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about selective laser sintering advanced materials and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe records other filings build on
Independently temperature-controlled high-temperature selective laser sintering frame structure (US20200114583A1)
Filed by Huazhong University of Science and Technology, this record discloses a frame structure for SLS equipment built around a galvanometric laser scanning system, a powder feeding chamber, a forming chamber and a heat-insulating composite plate, each independently optimised for temperature control. The stated aim is to hold the powder preheating temperature field and the processing temperature field uniform independently of one another, rather than through a single shared control loop.Cited 10 times within this dataset, the second-highest count recorded.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20190177473A1 | Polymer composition for selective sintering | 16 |
| 2 | US20200114583A1 | Independently temperature-controlled high-temperature selective laser sintering frame structure | 10 |
| 3 | CN110330790A | 一种用于激光烧结的聚酰胺阻燃材料制备方法 | 8 |
| 4 | EP3744504A1 | Mask-based partition preheating device and partition preheating method therefor | 3 |
| 5 | CN110272623A | 一种激光烧结用聚酰胺阻燃粉末材料的制备方法 | 2 |
| 6 | US11155676B2 | Polymer composition for selective sintering | 2 |
| 7 | US20230391976A1 | Recycled Polymers for 3D Printing | 1 |
| 8 | CN112961457A | 一种3D打印方法 | 1 |
Citation counts are measured inside this searched corpus only, and they favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations — read them as a signal of influence within this set, not as a ranking of current technical importance.
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. Publication numbers are shown where the record carries one (8 of 8 rows); clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three read-throughs from the trend, geography and citation data that matter more than the raw counts on their own.
The filing wave has already broken
Activity peaked in 2018 and declined every year after, reaching zero in the most recent tracked year. Even allowing for publication lag understating the newest year, the multi-year decline from 2018 through 2022 is too consistent to be a reporting artifact.
A small, contestable claim set
Eighteen patent families spread across more than a decade means individual claims carry outsized weight in any freedom-to-operate review. This is not a space with hundreds of overlapping filings to design around — it is a space where each granted claim matters.
US-led but not US-only prosecution
The United States receives the largest single share of filings, but China and Europe together account for a comparable volume. A strategy built only around US prosecution would miss roughly half of the documented activity.
Influence sits with the oldest composition claim
The most-cited record in the set is a polymer composition claim, not a hardware claim, and it draws more than 50% more citations than the next entry. That skew is typical of an older filing having had more time in the corpus, not necessarily of broader present-day relevance.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to selective laser sintering advanced materials, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the claims, and how contested they are
Assignee activity here is thin and dispersed rather than concentrated in one dominant filer, and momentum has stalled across the board.
No assignee is actively filing right now
Every tracked assignee, including Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Impossible Objects, and Saudi Basic Global Technologies, shows zero filings in the latest year. This is a field where the historical record matters more than current momentum, since no one appears to be actively building on it.
Collaboration is minimal and localized
The only notable co-assignee relationship in the dataset — between two Shenzhen-based additive manufacturing entities — accounts for just 2 shared filings. There is no broader pattern of joint development across the tracked assignees.
Research institutions hold hardware claims
Huazhong University of Science and Technology appears among the assignees behind the highest-cited hardware record, alongside corporate filers such as Impossible Objects and regional materials firms. That mix suggests early hardware innovation came at least partly from academic labs rather than purely corporate R&D.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Xi'an Kangtuo Medical Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Saudi Basic Global Technologies Co. | 0 | — |
| IMPOSSIBLE OBJECTS INC | 0 | — |
| Hunan Farsoon High-Tech Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Shenzhen Guangyunda Additive Manufacturing Research Institute | 0 | — |
| Shenzhen Collaborative Innovation High-Tech Development Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Guangdong Silver Age Sci-Tech Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Huazhong University of Science and Technology | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The filing count here is small enough that a manual review is feasible, but the technical breadth across hardware and composition claims means a single search string will miss branches.
Map the composition-claim subset separately
Because process and composition claims are filed together in most of these 18 records, a search focused only on C08L/C08K/C08G subclasses would surface the chemistry side more precisely — useful before drafting a new composition claim.
Explore in Patsnap EurekaTrack whether filing has genuinely stopped or shifted office
Zero filings in the latest year could mean the technology area has matured past patenting, or that activity has moved to an office not captured in this receiving-office breakdown. Confirming which is true changes whether this is white space or a dead branch.
Explore in Patsnap EurekaCommon questions about SLS advanced materials patents
This dataset tracks 18 patent families published between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine SLS process claims (IPC B29C64/153, B33Y70) with polymer composition claims (C08L77 and related subclasses). That is a small, tightly filtered set rather than the full universe of SLS patents generally, since it deliberately excludes general 3D-printing hardware filings and general polymer chemistry that do not overlap with sintering claims. Anyone doing freedom-to-operate work should treat this as a starting scope, not a complete count of all adjacent IP.
No — filing peaked at 6 families in 2018 and declined through the following years, reaching zero in the most recent tracked year. Even accounting for the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication that understates the newest year in any dataset, the multi-year decline from 2018 through the 2022 midpoint (just 2 filings) is too consistent to be explained by reporting delay alone. The pattern reads as a filing wave that has already crested rather than an emerging technology still building momentum.
The assignee base is thin and dispersed: Huazhong University of Science and Technology holds the highest-cited hardware record, and named assignees also include Impossible Objects, Saudi Basic Global Technologies, and several China-based additive manufacturing firms. No single assignee dominates the 18-family set, and every tracked assignee shows zero filings in the latest year, meaning historical position matters more here than current filing momentum. The one notable co-filing relationship, between two Shenzhen entities, covers only 2 shared records.
US20200114583A1, filed by Huazhong University of Science and Technology, discloses an independently temperature-controlled frame structure for high-temperature SLS equipment, combining a galvanometric laser scanning system, a powder feeding chamber, a forming chamber, and a heat-insulating composite plate. Its distinguishing feature is decoupling the powder preheating temperature field from the processing temperature field, so each can be controlled independently rather than through one shared loop. It is the second most-cited record in this dataset, with 10 citations, indicating meaningful influence on later hardware filings in this space.
The IPC composition data shows process subclasses (B29C, B33Y) far more densely claimed than composition subclasses like C08J, which appears in only 3 of the 18 records. That imbalance points to under-claimed territory in polymer composition optimisation, flame-retardant PEEK blends, and multi-zone preheating hardware — areas that show up thinly or not at all relative to the process-claim volume. Given the field's overall low filing count and stalled recent momentum, a well-drafted composition claim in these branches would face relatively little prior art to navigate around.
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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.