Steam Turbines Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Concentrated but not locked up. the ranked leader holds 3,906 records, yet the top 5 combined account for only 19.6% of all 71,858 records in scope, leaving room below the leaders.
- Filing has cooled from its 2018 peak. activity reached 772 records in 2018, and 2021's 580 records fell to 446 by 2024, a -23% move over that three-year span.
- Core steam and thermal power classes still dominate. F01K (steam & thermal power plants) and F02C (gas-turbine plants) together anchor the classification picture, well ahead of adjacent control and separation classes.
Filing growth compares 2021 (580 records) with 2024 (446) — 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 71,858 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the steam turbine patent record shows
Steam turbine patenting spans core rotating-equipment mechanics, thermal cycle design, and the control systems that govern flow rate, pressure ratio and rotor speed. The dataset in scope — 71,858 published records from 2015 through the 2026 cut-off — captures this breadth by combining turbine-generator terminology with the operating parameters (flow rate, pressure ratio, rotor speed, seal clearance, pressure control, combustion chamber) that distinguish a control-oriented filing from a purely mechanical one.
Filing activity peaked in 2018 at 772 records and has since eased; the most recent years in the trend are understated because publication typically lags filing by roughly 18 months. The assignee ranking returned by the data endpoint covers 100 companies, and even at the top the field remains a mix of legacy power-equipment manufacturers and industrial-internet entrants filing around turbine monitoring and analytics.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 71,858-record corpus: the yearly filing curve, and the IPC subclasses that carry the claim density.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings ran at 558 in 2017, rose to a peak of 772 in 2018, and by 2024 — the last year treatable as complete — had fallen to 446, down from 580 in 2021 (-23%). Years after 2024 are still filling in behind the roughly 18-month publication lag and should not be read as a further drop.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
F01K (steam & thermal power plants) leads at 8.4% of the 71,858 records in scope, followed by F02C (gas-turbine plants) at 7.3% and F01D (turbines & non-positive engines) at 4.6%. Boiler-specific F22B sits at 2.3%, while adjacent separation (B01D), inorganic chemistry (C01B), wind motors (F03D) and control systems (G05B) each hold smaller, single-digit shares — since records can carry multiple classes, these figures sum to more than 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 71,858 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Steam Turbines Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about steam turbines patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative filing and the most-cited records
Geothermal power generation (US20130247569A1, Alstom Technology Ltd, filed 2013-09-26)
A valve arrangement for a geothermal steam turbine generator comprises first and second steam control valves for regulating the supply of steam to the turbine generator. The valves are arranged in parallel in a steam supply line, with the first valve sized to a smaller fully-open diameter than the second. The first valve regulates volume flow rate during a speed-control phase until the turbine generator attains a predetermined condition.Abstract text is truncated in the source record; wording above follows the original filing.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20190339688A1 | Methods and systems for data collection, learning, and streaming of machine signals for analytics and mainten… | 974 |
| 2 | US20160045841A1 | New and improved system for processing various chemicals and materials | 860 |
| 3 | US8193129B2 | Refrigerator oil, compressor oil composition, hydraulic fluid composition, metalworking fluid composition, he… | 775 |
| 4 | US20200348662A1 | Platform for facilitating development of intelligence in an industrial internet of things system | 733 |
| 5 | US20210157312A1 | Intelligent vibration digital twin systems and methods for industrial environments | 716 |
| 6 | US4720640A | Fluid powered electrical generator | 653 |
| 7 | US5083039A | Variable speed wind turbine | 604 |
| 8 | US20180284758A1 | Methods and systems for industrial internet of things data collection for equipment analysis in an upstream o… | 600 |
| 9 | US20200225655A1 | Methods, systems, kits and apparatuses for monitoring and managing industrial settings in an industrial inter… | 563 |
| 10 | US4498289A | Carbon dioxide power cycle | 537 |
Citation counts reward older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations within this searched corpus; treat them as a signal of influence, not of current technical relevance.
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 readings of the same corpus, aimed at where a new filing would land rather than at the dataset for its own sake.
The top of the field is thinner than it looks
The leading assignee holds 3,906 records and the top 5 combined reach 19.6% of all 71,858 records in scope — meaningful, but far short of a locked field. Tenth place sits at 859, showing a long tail of active filers below the leaders rather than a two- or three-way contest.
Volume has eased from its 2018 peak
Filings peaked at 772 records in 2018 and by 2024 had fallen to 446 from 580 in 2021, a -23% move. Recent-year filer-level momentum shows several established names filing zero or one record in the latest year, though this reflects the same publication lag rather than a full stop.
Core steam-cycle and gas-turbine classes still carry the weight
F01K (steam & thermal power plants) and F02C (gas-turbine plants) lead the IPC breakdown at 8.4% and 7.3% respectively, well ahead of boiler-specific F22B at 2.3%. Control-systems class G05B sits at just 1.4%, a smaller share than the mechanical classes despite control terms being part of the search itself.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to steam turbines patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the field is still open
The ranked leaders mix established power-equipment manufacturers with newer industrial-internet entrants; below them sits a long tail of single- and few-filing entities.
One filer well ahead, then a steep drop
The leading assignee's 3,906 records dwarf the field, but the gap to fifth place (1,878) and tenth place (859) opens quickly, indicating a competitive layer of mid-size filers rather than a duopoly.
Corporate restructuring shows up as co-assignee pairs
The ten identified co-assignee pairs mostly link a parent and its successor or engineering subsidiary — patterns consistent with internal group filings rather than external collaboration.
Latest-year counts are thin across the board
Several of the largest historical filers show zero or single-digit counts in the latest year with steep year-on-year declines; given the roughly 18-month publication lag, this reads as pipeline still filling in rather than an actual stop in filing.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| General Electric Co | 1 | -92% |
| Strong Force IoT Portfolio 2016, LLC | 1 | -67% |
| Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Siemens AG | 0 | — |
| Toshiba Corporation | 0 | -100% |
| Alstom Technology Ltd | 0 | — |
| Hitachi, Ltd. | 0 | — |
| ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The figures above describe the field as filed; the next step is testing a specific claim or design against it.
Check a draft claim against the crowded classes
F01K and F02C carry the densest claim space in this corpus, so a new filing that reads on steam-cycle or gas-turbine control mechanics should be checked against that density before drafting.
Run a claim check in Patsnap EurekaTrack the leading assignees' recent activity
Latest-year counts are thin across the largest historical filers; monitoring their filings as the publication lag closes will show whether that is a genuine pullback or a reporting gap.
Set up assignee tracking in Patsnap EurekaCommon questions on steam turbine patents
The assignee ranking behind this dataset covers 100 companies, and the leading assignee holds 3,906 records against a total of 71,858 records in scope. The top 5 combined reach 19.6% of all records, and the top 10 combined reach 27.7%, so while there is a clear leader, the field is not dominated by a single company. Fifth place holds 1,878 records and tenth place 859, showing a fairly steep but continuous drop-off rather than a sharp cliff after the leader.
Filings peaked in 2018 at 772 records and eased afterward; using the last three-year span that can be treated as complete, 2021's 580 records fell to 446 by 2024, a -23% change. Years from 2025 onward will look artificially low because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so those figures are still filling in rather than confirming a further decline. Anyone using this trend to size a market should anchor conclusions to 2024 or earlier.
By IPC subclass, F01K (steam & thermal power plants) leads at 8.4% of the 71,858 records in scope, followed by F02C (gas-turbine plants) at 7.3% and F01D (turbines & non-positive engines) at 4.6%. Boiler-specific F22B and control-systems class G05B trail at 2.3% and 1.4% respectively. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these percentages add up to more than 100% and should not be read as a single pie chart.
Classes adjacent to the core mechanical filings — separation processes (B01D), inorganic chemistry (C01B) and control & regulating systems (G05B) — each hold only single-digit shares of the 71,858 records despite the search explicitly covering control-parameter terms like flow rate, pressure ratio and seal clearance. That gap suggests control-loop integration claims tied to specific mechanical configurations, rather than generic control-systems language, are less crowded than the core turbine mechanics classes. A freedom-to-operate search on a specific control mechanism is still the reliable way to confirm this before filing.
US20130247569A1, assigned to Alstom Technology Ltd and filed in 2013, claims a valve arrangement for a geothermal steam turbine generator using two parallel steam control valves of different fully-open diameters, where the smaller valve governs volume flow rate during a speed-control phase. This is a narrow mechanical and control claim tied specifically to geothermal steam turbine start-up behaviour, not a general steam-flow-control patent. It illustrates how granular many turbine control claims are, which is why full-text claim comparison matters more than IPC class matching alone.
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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.