Thermal Barrier Coating Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
Thermal barrier coating patents: who holds the bond coat and topcoat claim space
58.6% concentration. The top 5 assignees alone account for 6,127 of 10,450 records in scope, leaving a long tail to compete for the remainder. Annual filings hit 442 in 2017 and have since declined; the 2021-to-2024 span alone shows a drop from 224 to 125 filings, a 44% fall over three years. Because recent years are still being published, this should be read as a real deceleration through 2024, not as evidence that the field is winding down.
- 1GENERAL ELECTRIC CO27.6%
- 2RTX CORP10.8%
- 3UNITED TECH CORP9.9%
- 4SIEMENS ENERGY INC5.4%
- 5SIEMENS AG5.0%
See the full thermal barrier coating systems 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 on thermal barrier coating patents
Who holds the most thermal barrier coating patents?
The ranked leader holds 2,884 of the 10,450 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-ranked assignee at 523. Filing in this space is dominated by turbine OEMs and their engine-manufacturing divisions, several of which appear as separate but related corporate entities in the ranking. Because the leader’s share is so far ahead of the rest of the top five, any competitive or freedom-to-operate analysis should treat that single organisation’s portfolio as the primary reference point rather than averaging across the top group.
Are thermal barrier coating patent filings still growing?
No, not in the most recent complete years. Filings peaked at 442 in 2017 and fell from 224 in 2021 to 125 in 2024, a 44% decline over that three-year window. Publication lag means 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete, so the true trajectory for those years cannot yet be read from this data, but the 2017-to-2024 pattern is a genuine slowdown rather than an artefact of missing recent publications.
What technology areas do these patents cover?
Most records combine a coating-process classification with a turbine-hardware classification: C23C (coating and surface deposition) appears on 54.0% of the 10,450 records and F01D (turbines) on 45.3%. Secondary classes cover ceramics, gas-turbine plants, layered products, alloys, combustion chambers and coating processes more specifically. Since a single record can carry several IPC codes, these percentages overlap rather than sum to 100%, and they reflect where claim density sits rather than where invention is easiest.
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 Thermal Barrier Coating Systems 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.