Threaded Fastener Design Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
- 17.1% concentration at the top. The five leading assignees combined hold 500 of 2,931 records in scope — a leader well ahead of a long tail of single- and low-filing entrants.
- F16B and B21H dominate the claim space. Fasteners proper (39.7% of records) and metal rolling processes (16.8%) carry the bulk of technical claims, leaving hand tools, pipe fittings and thread cutting comparatively thin.
- Filing activity has cooled off its 2020 peak. From a high of 143 records in 2020, the field moved from 73 records in 2021 to 62 in 2024 — a 15% pull-back over that span, before the most recent, still-incomplete years.
Filing growth compares 2021 (73 records) with 2024 (62) — 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 2,931 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape draws on 2,931 published records filed or published between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine threaded fastener hardware terms — threaded fastener, bolt design, thread profile — with process and performance terms covering preload scatter, friction coefficient, fatigue strength, thread rolling, coating torque and tightening strategy. That combination narrows the corpus to fastener engineering specifically concerned with how a joint behaves in service, not general mechanical hardware.
Records here span fastener geometry, thread-rolling manufacture, coating and lubrication effects on torque-tension relationships, and tightening strategy work aimed at controlling preload scatter. The mix of receiving offices — led by the United States, followed by Europe, WIPO/PCT filings, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom — points to a field with meaningful multi-jurisdiction filing rather than one confined to a single home market.
Let an AI agent run this analysis on your own technology
Pick a task. Every answer cites the patents behind it.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 2,931-record corpus: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density today.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings ran from 132 in 2017 to a peak of 143 in 2020, then eased to 73 in 2021 and 62 in 2024 — a 15% decline over that three-year window. 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the apparent drop-off in the newest years should not be read as the field slowing further.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
F16B (fasteners) and B21H (rolling of metal articles) together account for the largest shares of records, at 39.7% and 16.8% of the 2,931 records respectively. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these percentages sum to more than 100% — the smaller classes such as B23G (thread cutting and tapping, 3.8%) and B21K (forged metal products, 4.4%) mark where claim density thins out.
Shares are the percentage of the 2,931 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Threaded Fastener Design with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about threaded fastener design and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative claim and the most-cited prior art
Threaded fastener with dual reinforcing leads (Illinois Tool Works, 2004)
The patent discloses a thread rolling die and method for producing a threaded fastener that combines a primary thread lead with a pair of secondary, auxiliary thread leads interposed between successive threads of the primary lead. The added leads give the fastener additional axial reinforcement and are described as reducing lateral loading during manufacture, aimed at strengthening the fastener without changing its outer envelope.Filed by Illinois Tool Works Inc., published 2004-06-24.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20080108122A1 | Microchemical nanofactories | 200 |
| 2 | US20140018862A1 | Variable angle bone fixation device | 172 |
| 3 | US4732519A | Fastener assembly with axial play | 168 |
| 4 | US5944465A | Low tolerance threaded fastener | 165 |
| 5 | US5516248A | Low torque wood screw | 160 |
| 6 | US8182194B2 | Refuse vehicle packing system | 152 |
| 7 | US5755542A | Self-drilling/self-tapping fastener | 151 |
| 8 | US20170151704A1 | Systems, devices, and methods for high-throughput three-dimensional printing | 140 |
| 9 | US5544993A | Threaded fastener | 134 |
| 10 | US6059503A | Captivated fastener assembly | 129 |
Citation counts reward older, longer-indexed documents inside this searched corpus — read them as a signal of influence on later filings, not as a ranking of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Eureka on the web
When you want the answer in the next five minutes.
The agent works the prompt against patents and technical literature, citing every source.
Run your analysis now →MCP server & REST API
When it has to run inside your own pipeline.
Patent search, landscape analysis and assignee resolution as MCP tools. Drop them into any agent framework, or call REST directly.
Browse MCP servers →What the data means for a filing decision
Three read-outs from the concentration, technology and geography figures above, translated into what they mean for someone deciding where to file or search next.
A clear leader, then a long tail
The leading assignee holds 187 records against a fifth-place figure of 72 and a tenth-place figure of 41 — concentration drops off quickly after the top few names. The top 10 combined hold 25.3% of all records in scope, meaning three-quarters of filing activity sits outside the ranked leaders, spread across the other 90 ranked companies plus unranked, single- or few-filing entrants.
Claim density sits in fasteners and rolling, not tools
F16B and B21H between them cover the hardware and the manufacturing process most central to this search, at 39.7% and 16.8% of records. Hand tools (B25B, 7.2%) and thread cutting (B23G, 3.8%) carry far less claim density, which is worth checking before assuming a tooling-side idea is crowded.
Activity has pulled back from its 2020 peak
Filings peaked at 143 in 2020 and have since eased, with the 2021-to-2024 window down 15%. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the thin 2025 and 2026 counts are an artefact of the data cut-off rather than evidence the field has gone quiet.
US-centred but genuinely multi-jurisdiction
The United States accounts for the largest single share of receiving-office activity, but Europe, WIPO/PCT, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom together represent a substantial secondary footprint, indicating applicants are pursuing protection beyond a single home market.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to threaded fastener design, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the ground, and where momentum has stalled
The ranked field runs 100 companies deep, but recent-year momentum data shows even several of the more established names logging zero filings in the latest year — a sign that scored positions were built earlier in the window, not necessarily held today.
A single company well ahead of the field
The leading assignee's 187 records put it more than double the fifth-place figure of 72, and more than four times the tenth-place figure of 41 — a steep drop-off that marks this as a leader-plus-field structure rather than an evenly spread one.
Co-assignment clusters around a small number of partnerships
Ten co-assignee pairs appear in the data, with the strongest pairing recorded 41 times — evidence of sustained joint filing between specific organisations rather than broad industry-wide collaboration.
Several ranked names have gone quiet recently
Multiple assignees that appear in the ranked leaders show zero filings in the latest year, with year-on-year change recorded at -100% for some — a reminder to check recency alongside cumulative rank before treating a name as an active competitor today.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Illinois Tool Works Inc. | 0 | — |
| Hytorc Div Unex Corp | 0 | -100% |
| Mathread Inc. | 0 | — |
| DEKA Products LP | 0 | -100% |
| Research Engineering & Manufacturing Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Vallourec Oil and Gas France | 0 | — |
| Textron Inc. | 0 | — |
| Rockwell International Corp | 0 | — |
Where to take this
The figures above describe the shape of the field. Turning that into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision means going record by record in the branches that matter to a specific design.
Check freedom-to-operate against the dense branches
F16B and B21H carry the highest claim density in this corpus; a new fastener or rolling-die design should be checked against records in these subclasses first, not last.
Explore F16B and B21H records in EurekaTrack assignees whose activity has actually stopped
Cumulative rank and recent-year filing count diverge for several assignees in this data; confirm current activity before treating a ranked leader as a live competitive threat.
Run a momentum check in EurekaSearch the under-claimed branches before assuming they're crowded
Coating-dependent torque modelling and pipe-fitting preload control show thinner IPC representation than fasteners or rolling — worth a dedicated search before ruling a concept out.
Search white-space branches in EurekaCommon questions about threaded fastener design patents
The ranked leader in this corpus holds 187 records, well ahead of the fifth-place assignee at 72 and the tenth-place assignee at 41. The top five assignees combined account for 17.1% of all 2,931 records in scope, and the top ten account for 25.3%, meaning that even the most active filers together hold roughly a quarter of the field. The remaining three-quarters is spread across the rest of a 100-company ranked list plus a long tail of smaller filers, so no single company controls the space outright.
The largest concentration sits in F16B, the fasteners subclass covering bolts, rivets and related hardware, at 39.7% of the 2,931 records. B21H, covering rolling of metal articles including thread-rolling manufacture, follows at 16.8%. Smaller but present shares cover hand tools and wrenches (B25B), earth and rock drilling connections (E21B), pipe fittings (F16L), general metal working (B23P), forged metal products (B21K) and thread cutting and tapping (B23G). Because records can carry more than one IPC class, these shares add up to more than 100% of the record total.
Filings peaked in 2020 at 143 records and eased afterward, with the 2021-to-2024 window down 15%, from 73 records to 62. That decline should be read carefully: publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the very low counts shown for 2025 and 2026 reflect the data cut-off rather than a genuine collapse in activity. The safest read is that filing volume has come down from its 2020 high through the most recently complete year, 2024, without drawing conclusions from the incomplete years after it.
The United States receives the largest share of records in this corpus, at 1,051, followed by Europe (EPO, 404 records), WIPO/PCT filings (224), Australia (205), Canada (202) and the United Kingdom (158). This spread indicates that applicants pursuing threaded fastener design protection are generally filing across multiple jurisdictions rather than relying on a single home office, which is typical for hardware with both industrial and consumer applications.
The IPC composition points to thinner claim density in branches like thread cutting and tapping (B23G, 3.8% of records) and forged metal products (B21K, 4.4%) compared with the heavily claimed fasteners (F16B) and rolling (B21H) subclasses. Sub-areas such as coating-dependent torque-tension modelling, preload scatter control specific to pipe-fitting threads, and tightening strategy for drilling-connection hardware show room relative to the core fastener geometry claims. A targeted search in these narrower branches is more likely to surface open claim space than a broad search across F16B alone.
Research Threaded Fastener Design in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole threaded fastener design corpus yourself, in your own scope.
Every answer comes back with patent numbers you can open.
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.