Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
A data-driven look at shell and tube heat exchanger two-phase flow patents: filing trends since 2015, the leading assignees among 148 families, IPC composition across F28D, F28F and F25B, and where claim space remains op
Filing growth = 2021 (7 records) → 2024 (5); 2024 is the last year we treat as complete. Top-5 share = the 5 largest assignees ÷ all 148 records in scope (CR5), not the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks 148 published patent families filed between 2015 and the 2026 data cut-off that combine shell-and-tube heat exchanger construction with two-phase flow behaviour — boiling or condensing fluid moving through or around the tube bundle. The scope is drawn from title, abstract and claim text matched against F28D, F28F and F25B, the IPC subclasses covering heat-exchange apparatus, heat-exchanger details, and refrigeration or heat-pump systems respectively.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any trend chart will understate real filing activity; treat 2024 as the last year with a reasonably complete count and read 2025 to 2026 as still filling in.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 148 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
Filing trend: a 2017 peak, then a lower plateau
Filings ran to 34 in 2017, the peak of the tracked window, then settled onto a lower plateau. Comparing 2021 (7 records) with 2024 (5 records) — the last year treatable as complete — gives a 29% decline over that three-year span. That is a real signal about recent claim activity, not a statement that the field is closing: two-phase shell-and-tube work is now a smaller, steadier stream of filings rather than a growing one.
Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in. Growth rates on this page therefore end at 2024; running them to the last bar would understate the field.
IPC composition: concentrated in heat-exchange apparatus and details
F28D (heat-exchange apparatus) covers 63.5% of the 148 records and F28F (heat-exchanger details) covers 45.9%, together showing that most claims describe exchanger structure and construction rather than the refrigeration cycle around it. F25B (refrigeration and heat pumps) still touches 38.5% of records, but application-adjacent classes — F24F air conditioning at 8.8%, C02F water treatment at 5.4%, and the steam-generation classes F22B, F22G and F28B each near 5% — are comparatively thin. Records can carry more than one class, so these shares add to more than 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 148 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger Two-Phase Flow Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about shell and tube heat exchanger two-phase flow patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative and most-cited filings
JP2003106707A — Water cooling condensing unit
Filed by Sanyo Electric in 2003, this record addresses a specific operating problem: keeping temperature control within 0.1 degrees Celsius for semiconductor manufacturing equipment while the shell-and-tube condensing unit must handle a large heat-exchange load when the air-conditioning compressor runs under inverter control at high frequency and full capability. Raising water flow velocity increases exchange capacity but risks erosion holes in the tubes, so the claims work through how to increase heat-exchanger capacity while keeping flow velocity within safe limits.Abstract condensed from the original filing.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CN106969652A | 一种长度变化的可冷凝的环形分隔装置换热器 | 59 |
| 2 | CN201037719Y | 一种梯级提升水温的热水热泵机组 | 42 |
| 3 | US20050109495A1 | Complex flow-path heat exchanger having U-shaped tube and cantilever combined coil | 42 |
| 4 | US4300481A | Shell and tube moisture separator reheater with outlet orificing | 38 |
| 5 | US5419391A | Steam generator with axial flow preheater | 34 |
| 6 | CN107869924A | 一种汽相可冷凝的多管式稳流装置的管壳式换热器 | 24 |
| 7 | WO2022262674A1 | 带全热回收的双冷源空气源热泵机组 | 19 |
| 8 | US20190301808A1 | Sensible and Latent Heat Exchangers with Particular Application to Vapor-Compression Desalination | 18 |
| 9 | CN106679466A | 一种多孔介质两相流管壳式换热器及其稳定装置 | 17 |
| 10 | US11761711B1 | Heat storage and heat release system for molten salt with steam heating | 14 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older filings that have had more years to accumulate citations; read them as a signal of influence on later work, not as a ranking of current commercial relevance.
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. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the concentration and citation data suggest
Three patterns worth acting on before drafting or filing: how fragmented the assignee base is, where citation weight sits, and where geography concentrates activity.
No single owner controls the field
The leading assignee holds 14 records out of 148, and the top 5 combined reach 29.7% of all records in scope; the top 10 reach 41.9%. With 98 companies in the ranked field, most participants hold only one or two families — this is a fragmented landscape, not one dominated by a handful of blocking portfolios.
Influence sits with older structural patents
The most-cited records describe core exchanger geometry — flow-path routing, tube-and-coil arrangement, moisture separation — rather than recent refinements. That is typical of citation data inside a searched corpus: older filings have simply had longer to accumulate citations, so treat this as a map of foundational structure, not of what is newest or commercially hottest.
Filing activity is heavily China-weighted
China accounts for 87 of the tracked applications, well ahead of the United States (15), Japan (10), the EPO (8), WIPO/PCT (7) and India (6). Anyone benchmarking freedom-to-operate in this space should treat the Chinese-language corpus as the primary body of prior art, not a secondary one.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to shell and tube heat exchanger two-phase flow patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
| Assignee | Co-assignee | Shared families |
|---|---|---|
| LG Electronics Inc. | CHO EUN JUN | 3 |
| Hitachi, Ltd. | Hitachi Shimizu Engineering Co., Ltd. | 2 |
| Shandong University | Qingdao University of Science and Technology | 1 |
| E PAK TECH | GUCKIN BRIAN E | 1 |
Only 4 co-assignee pairs appear across the whole dataset, and the strongest of them links only 3 records. Two-phase shell-and-tube work in this set is overwhelmingly filed by single assignees rather than joint ventures or university-industry pairs.
Where to take this landscape
The numbers above answer what has been filed. Turning that into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision means going deeper on specific claims and specific gaps.
Map claim scope against your own design
Run your tube-bundle geometry, flow-path routing or condensing-unit control scheme against the most-cited records and the leading assignees' portfolios to see where your approach sits relative to occupied claim space.
Explore in Eureka →Track the under-claimed branches
F24F, C02F and the steam classes sit well below F28D and F28F in this dataset. If your work touches air conditioning, water treatment or steam generation alongside two-phase shell-and-tube exchange, that overlap is thinner prior art, not thin demand.
Explore in Eureka →Common questions about this landscape
The field is fragmented rather than dominated by one owner. Across 98 ranked assignees, the leader holds 14 records, and the combined top 5 reach 29.7% of all 148 records in scope, with the top 10 reaching 41.9%. That means the majority of families in this dataset belong to assignees holding just one or two filings each, so a competitive-watch list needs to track a long tail, not just a handful of names.
Filing peaked in 2017 at 34 records and has settled onto a lower level since. Comparing 2021 (7 records) to 2024 (5 records), the last year treatable as roughly complete, shows a 29% decline over that three-year span. Because publication lags filing by about 18 months, the 2025-to-2026 figures will rise as more records publish, but the multi-year trend still points to a smaller, steadier stream of filings rather than renewed growth.
Most activity sits in F28D (heat-exchange apparatus, 63.5% of the 148 records) and F28F (heat-exchanger details, 45.9%), meaning the bulk of claims describe exchanger structure and construction. F25B (refrigeration and heat pumps) touches 38.5% of records, reflecting how often these exchangers are claimed inside a refrigeration cycle. Adjacent application classes such as air conditioning (F24F, 8.8%), water treatment (C02F, 5.4%) and steam generation (F22B/F22G, roughly 5% each) are comparatively thin, which is useful if you are scoping where prior art is lighter.
China is by far the largest filing venue in this dataset, with 87 of the 148 tracked records routed through the Chinese receiving office. The United States (15), Japan (10), the EPO (8), WIPO/PCT (7) and India (6) trail well behind. For freedom-to-operate work, this means the Chinese-language literature has to be treated as the primary body of prior art rather than a supplementary check.
Citation counts inside a searched corpus systematically favour older filings, since they have had more years to accumulate citations from later work. The most-cited records in this landscape describe foundational structural elements such as flow-path routing and tube arrangement rather than recent refinements. Use citation rank as a guide to which structural approaches other filers have built on, not as a measure of which patents are commercially most important today.
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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.