Superheated Steam Drying Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
Superheated Steam and Impingement Drying Patents
Concentrated at the top. The five most active filers hold 40 of 97 records in scope (41.2%), and the top 10 combined reach 62.9% — a field with a defined leadership group rather than a fully open race. Filings climbed to 14 records in 2021, the peak year in scope, then fell to 1 by 2024 — a 93% decline over that three-year window. The 2025-2026 figures are not yet comparable because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months; they will fill in as later-filed applications publish.
- 1ENICOR GMBH12
- 2EASTMAN KODAK CO9
- 33M INNOVATIVE PROPERTIES CO7
- 4BELOIT CORP6
- 5PROCTER & GAMBLE CO6
See the full superheated steam and impingement drying analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions about this landscape
Who holds the most patents in superheated steam and impingement drying?
The dataset’s ranking shows one assignee leading with 12 of the 97 records in scope, ahead of a fifth-place holder at 6 and a tenth-place holder at 4. The top 10 combined hold 62.9% of all records, so while there is a defined leadership group, the gap between the leader and the rest of the top tier is not so wide that the position looks locked in. A freedom-to-operate review should look at the leader’s specific claims rather than assume broad blocking coverage from the ranking alone.
Is patent filing in this field growing or shrinking?
Filings rose to a peak of 14 records in 2021, then fell to 1 by 2024 — a 93% drop over that three-year span, which is the clearest complete-year comparison available. Publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in and should not be read as continued decline. The honest read is that activity has pulled back from its 2021 high, with the most recent trend still uncertain.
What’s the difference between superheated steam drying and impingement drying in a patent sense?
In this dataset the two mechanisms are searched together because they frequently appear in the same claim sets: impingement drying describes directing high-velocity air or steam jets (often through nozzle arrays) at a product surface, while superheated steam drying uses steam above its saturation temperature as the drying medium, often tied to inversion-temperature behaviour. Many records combine both, and the IPC composition shows F26B (general drying) as the largest single class at 38.1% of records, with sterilising, paper-making, and food-processing applications layered on top.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Superheated Steam and Impingement Drying covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.