Silica Aerogel Blanket Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- 47.5% concentration. The five most active filers account for 799 of the 1,682 records in scope — a market where the process know-how sits with a small group.
- Drying and surface chemistry dominate. C01B (non-metallic compounds) and B01J (catalytic/physical processes) cover 36.7% and 28.7% of records respectively, pointing to supercritical drying and hydrophobic modification as the two most contested process steps.
- Filing has cooled from its 2020 peak. Volume ran from 172 records in 2020 to a -33% drop between 2021 (141) and 2024 (94), the last year with mostly complete publication data.
Filing growth compares 2021 (141 records) with 2024 (94) — 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 1,682 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Silica aerogel blanket manufacturing sits at the intersection of sol-gel chemistry, drying process engineering and fibrous composite handling. The corpus behind this page combines records that reference silica aerogel blanket, aerogel insulation or aerogel composite together with a named process step — supercritical drying, ambient pressure drying, hydrophobic modification, dust shedding, compression recovery or solvent recovery — which is what separates blanket-manufacturing filings from generic aerogel material claims.
The 1,682 records in scope run from 2015 through the middle of 2026, with the receiving-office split led by the United States, followed by Europe, China, WIPO/PCT filings, Germany and India — a pattern consistent with a technology still being commercialised across multiple manufacturing hubs rather than settled in one jurisdiction.
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Filing trend and technology mix
Two views of the same 1,682 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how the technology splits across IPC subclasses. Because a single record can carry several classes, the composition shares add up to more than 100%.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Volume rose to a peak of 172 records in 2020, then eased — 2021 to 2024 fell 33%, from 141 to 94 records. 2025 and 2026 figures are still low by comparison, but that reflects the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication rather than a real drop in activity; the last year that can be read as a complete signal is 2024.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
C01B (non-metallic elements and inorganic compounds) leads at 36.7% of the 1,682 records, with B01J (chemical and physical processes) close behind at 28.7% — together these point to gel-forming chemistry and drying/catalytic processing as the densest claim territory. C04B (ceramics and refractories) and C08J (polymer processing) each cover well over an eighth of records, reflecting composite reinforcement and binder work, while F16L (pipe fittings), E04B (building elements) and H01M (batteries) show the downstream application markets pulling blanket-manufacturing claims into their own filings.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,682 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Silica Aerogel Blanket Manufacturing with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about silica aerogel blanket manufacturing and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited prior art
Supercritical drying method for silica wet gel blanket (US20210230006A1)
Provided is a supercritical drying method for a silica wet gel blanket, and a method for producing a silica aerogel blanket including the same, the supercritical drying method being capable of improving drying efficiency. The supercritical drying method improves the efficiency of a supercritical drying step by reducing carbon dioxide usage without additional equipment investment and energy input, thereby drying a silica wet gel blanket in a more economical manner.Filed by LG Chem, published 2021-07-29 — a process-economics claim aimed squarely at the CO2 consumption cost of supercritical drying, the single most capital-intensive step in blanket manufacturing.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US7071287B2 | Aerogel metallic compositions | 1,530 |
| 2 | US20160045841A1 | New and improved system for processing various chemicals and materials | 857 |
| 3 | US6309532B1 | Method and apparatus for capacitive deionization and electrochemical purification and regeneration of electro… | 368 |
| 4 | US20020094426A1 | Aerogel composite with fibrous batting | 343 |
| 5 | US6068882A | Flexible aerogel superinsulation and its manufacture | 309 |
| 6 | US5425858A | Method and apparatus for capacitive deionization, electrochemical purification, and regeneration of electrodes | 301 |
| 7 | US20140287641A1 | Layered aerogel composites, related aerogel materials, and methods of manufacture | 273 |
| 8 | US5789075A | Aerogel composites, process for producing the same and their use | 270 |
| 9 | US5954937A | Method and apparatus for capacitive deionization and electrochemical purification and regeneration of electro… | 268 |
| 10 | US20090029147A1 | Aerogel-foam composites | 228 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had more time to accumulate them — read this table as a map of influential prior art, not of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three findings that change where a freedom-to-operate search or a new filing should start.
Process leadership is narrow
The leader alone holds 325 records, and the top five combined account for 47.5% of all 1,682 records in scope. That is a small group controlling a large share of the documented process know-how in supercritical and ambient-pressure drying, hydrophobic modification and dust control — a new entrant filing in these exact process steps is filing into occupied space.
Volume has eased from its peak, not collapsed
Filing peaked at 172 records in 2020 and had fallen to 94 by 2024, a 33% decline over that three-year span from the 2021 level of 141. Because publication lags filing by around 18 months, 2025-2026 numbers are not yet a reliable read on current activity — treat 2024 as the most recent usable data point.
Drying chemistry and process engineering are the two hot zones
C01B (inorganic compound chemistry) and B01J (catalytic/physical processing) between them touch a large majority of the corpus, well ahead of composite (C04B, C08J, B32B) and end-use classes (F16L, E04B, H01M). Anyone designing around existing claims should expect the densest prior art at the gel-forming and drying steps, not at the composite lay-up or end-application level.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to silica aerogel blanket manufacturing, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the ground, and where it is still open
The ranked leaders cover 100 companies drawn from the same 1,682-record set. Momentum has slowed even for the largest filers in the most recent year, which is as much a publication-lag artefact as a sign of retreat — but it does mean the current claim map is largely set by filings made several years ago.
The top filer sets the process baseline
With 325 records, the leading assignee's filings anchor much of the supercritical drying and gel-forming claim space that later entrants have had to file around. Momentum data shows this filer's most recent-year volume down sharply year over year, consistent with a publication-lag effect on 2025-2026 counts rather than a pullback.
A steep drop-off past the top five
Tenth place holds 22 records against 37 at fifth and 325 at the top — a fast taper that leaves most of the ranked 100 companies with a handful of filings each. That distribution is typical of a field where a few players built the core process IP and a wide field of specialty-materials firms and universities file narrowly around it.
Three-way filing spread, no single home jurisdiction
The United States leads with 504 records, Europe (EPO) follows at 331 and China at 246, with WIPO/PCT, Germany and India each contributing a further meaningful slice. That spread means a clearance search confined to one office will miss a large share of the relevant art.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| LG Chem, Ltd. | 2 | -67% |
| Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) | 1 | 0% |
| Aspen Aerogels, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Resonac Corporation | 0 | — |
| Zhuo Da New Material Technology Group Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| The Regents of the University of California | 0 | — |
| Cabot Corporation | 0 | — |
| Graphene Composites Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is clearance, licensing or new filing strategy.
Run a freedom-to-operate check on drying chemistry
With C01B and B01J covering well over a third and a quarter of all records respectively, any new supercritical or ambient-pressure drying process should be checked against this claim density before development spend commits to a specific chemistry.
Search this space in EurekaWatch the top five for licensing leverage
Given that five assignees hold 47.5% of the 1,682 records in scope, a licensing-in strategy for core drying or hydrophobic-modification IP is likely to run through a short list of counterparties rather than a broad field.
Map assignee portfolios in EurekaTarget the thinner branches for new filings
Dust-shedding treatments, compression-recovery batting and solvent-recovery loop design show markedly lower filing density than the core chemistry classes, making them a more open route to a defensible new claim.
Explore white space in EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
Filing is concentrated: the single leading assignee holds 325 of the 1,682 records in scope, and the five most active filers together hold 47.5% of the field. Past the top five, the count drops quickly — tenth place holds only 22 records — so the ranked 100 companies include a long tail of firms with narrow, specific filings rather than broad process portfolios. A freedom-to-operate search should prioritise the top handful of assignees first, then check the specific sub-area a new filing targets against the long tail.
Both terms appear as core search criteria in this corpus because they represent the two competing drying routes used to remove solvent from a silica wet gel without collapsing its porous structure. Supercritical drying uses high-pressure CO2 or similar fluids above their critical point and dominates the commercial literature, which is reflected in the size of the C01B and B01J IPC classes in this dataset. Ambient pressure drying avoids the pressure vessel entirely by relying on surface modification chemistry, and shows up as a distinct, comparatively thinner branch of filings worth checking separately for white space.
Filing volume peaked at 172 records in 2020 and eased to 94 by 2024, a 33% decline from the 2021 level of 141. That reads as a real cooling in new filing activity for the period that has fully published, but the 2025 and 2026 figures in any raw chart will look even lower purely because patent publication lags filing by roughly 18 months — those years are still filling in and should not be read as a continuing decline yet.
The two largest IPC subclasses are C01B (non-metallic elements and inorganic compounds), covering 36.7% of the 1,682 records, and B01J (chemical and physical processes, including catalysis), covering 28.7%. C04B (ceramics and refractories) and C08J (polymer processing) each cover well over an eighth of records and relate to composite reinforcement and binder chemistry, while F16L, E04B and H01M capture downstream pipe-insulation, building and battery applications that pull blanket claims into adjacent industries. Because records can carry multiple classes, these shares do not sum to 100%.
US20210230006A1, filed by LG Chem and published 2021-07-29, claims a supercritical drying method for a silica wet gel blanket aimed at reducing carbon dioxide usage during drying without added equipment or energy input. It is a process-economics claim on CO2 consumption during an existing drying step rather than a claim on the drying concept itself, so it narrows — rather than forecloses — the design space for supercritical drying process optimisation. Anyone developing a competing CO2-efficient supercritical drying process should read its specific claim language closely rather than assume the whole drying step is blocked.
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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.