Tribological Coatings Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- 12.5% concentration at the top. The five leading assignees together hold 386 of 3,089 records in scope — a leader well ahead of the field but no single-company lock.
- Coating deposition dominates the claim map. C23C (coating & surface deposition) appears on 26.3% of all records, more than three times the next largest subclass.
- Filing activity has kept growing, not plateaued. Complete-year filings rose from 73 in 2021 to 82 in 2024, a 12% increase, even after the 2020 peak of 143.
Filing growth compares 2021 (73 records) with 2024 (82) — 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 3,089 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks 3,089 published records matching tribological coatings claim language — wear-resistant and low-friction coatings tied to contact stress, friction coefficient, fatigue cracking, vibration mode, material phase or surface layer terminology — filed between 2015 and the 2026 data cut-off. The scope spans coating chemistries and deposition routes as well as the mechanical contexts they serve, from bearings and drill bits to implants and industrial cutting tools. Patent families, not raw document counts, are used for the assignee ranking, which neutralises continuation filings and multi-jurisdiction duplicates.
Filing activity peaked in 2020 at 143 records and has settled into a lower but still-growing band since; because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one to two years in any chart will look thinner than the true filing rate turns out to be.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 3,089-record set: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings ran from 118 in 2017 to a peak of 143 in 2020, then eased before rebuilding — 2021's 73 grew to 82 by 2024, a complete-year increase of 12%. 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in under normal publication lag and should not be read as a slowdown.
IPC subclass composition
C23C (coating & surface deposition) leads at 26.3% of the 3,089 records, with B32B (layered products, 6.8%) and C22C (alloys, 6.5%) well behind. Because records can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares sum to more than 100% and should be read against the full record total, not against each other as a closed pie.
Shares are the percentage of the 3,089 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Tribological Coatings Patent Landscape with Eureka
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Try EurekaMost-cited records in the corpus
Low friction coating for melt blown die and preparation method for coating
The filing describes a sequential pretreatment, activation, chemical deposition and calcination process that builds an Ni-P-Re coating on a melt blown die surface to reduce its friction coefficient. Composition and ratio of the deposition solution are constrained specifically to improve surface smoothness and hardness together, rather than trading one for the other.Filed by Taizhou University, published 2023-09-21 as US20230295051A1.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20100003904A1 | High speed flat lapping platen, raised islands and abrasive beads | 381 |
| 2 | US4499795A | Method of drill bit manufacture | 343 |
| 3 | US20150099123A1 | Carbon based coatings and methods of producing the same | 339 |
| 4 | US6200685B1 | Titanium molybdenum hafnium alloy | 320 |
| 5 | US5120308A | Catheter with high tactile guide wire | 315 |
| 6 | US5690670A | Stents of enhanced biocompatibility and hemocompatibility | 295 |
| 7 | US6936056B2 | Intravascular system for occluded blood vessels and guidewire for use therein | 275 |
| 8 | US20100036488A1 | Therapeutic device for pain management and vision | 268 |
| 9 | US5451259A | ECR plasma source for remote processing | 266 |
| 10 | US5249554A | Powertrain component with adherent film having a graded composition | 228 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus accumulate over time, so older records are structurally favoured; treat this table as a map of influence, not of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the data means for filing strategy
Three read-outs from the concentration, composition and citation figures above, translated into what they imply for a new filer.
A leader, not a lock
The top-5 combined share of 12.5% (386 of 3,089 records) and top-10 share of 18.3% (564 records) show a leader well clear of the pack — 149 records versus 39 at fifth place — but no single assignee close to controlling the field. The long tail below tenth place (32 records) leaves room to build a distinct position.
Deposition claims are the crowded ground
C23C coating and surface deposition touches over a quarter of all records, meaning core deposition-process claims sit on the densest prior art in this dataset. Adjacent subclasses like F16C (bearings, 4.6%) and A61L (sterilising, 4.4%) carry far less claim density relative to the same 3,089-record base.
Growth is real, recent years are undercounted
Complete-year filings grew from 73 in 2021 to 82 in 2024. Several previously active assignees show a drop or a flat zero in the latest partial year, which is consistent with publication lag rather than an actual pullback — the underlying three-year trend is upward.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to tribological coatings patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and who has gone quiet
The ranked leaders span industrial coatings, oilfield tooling, medical devices and bearings suppliers — a sign that tribological coating claims cut across sectors rather than sitting inside one industry.
A clear top filer
The leading assignee's 149 records put it well ahead of fifth place at 39, but its share of the full 3,089-record set is still a minority position — enough to set the pace on claim language without closing off the field.
Cooling filings among established names
Several previously active assignees, including General Electric and Sandvik Intellectual Property, show zero or sharply reduced filings in the latest year. Given the roughly 18-month publication lag, this looks more like reporting lag than a genuine exit from the space.
Co-filing is limited but concentrated
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest pairing runs 11 joint records — evidence that most filers here work independently rather than through joint development programmes, with a small number of exceptions clustered around oilfield tooling.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Corning Inc | 5 | -55% |
| Jemella Ltd | 4 | -67% |
| Sandvik Intellectual Property AB | 0 | — |
| ExxonMobil Technology & Engineering Co | 0 | — |
| General Electric Co | 0 | -100% |
| Koninklijke Philips NV | 0 | — |
| The Timken Co | 0 | — |
| Sandvik Coromant | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this from here
The landscape numbers point to where claim space is open and where it is not; the next step is testing a specific claim draft against the prior art directly.
Check a draft claim against the dense C23C art
Before drafting deposition-process claims, run them against the 26.3% of records already sitting in that subclass to see how narrow a novel position needs to be.
Explore Patsnap Eureka →Track momentum shifts among named assignees
Latest-year drops at several established filers are likely publication lag rather than exits — worth re-checking as 2025-2026 data fills in.
Explore Patsnap Eureka →Scope the under-claimed branches
Bearing, implant and vibration-damping sub-areas sit below the core coating-deposition density and warrant a closer freedom-to-operate look.
Explore Patsnap Eureka →Common questions on tribological coatings patents
The leading assignee in this 3,089-record dataset holds 149 records, well ahead of the fifth-ranked filer at 39. That leader sits inside a field where the top 5 assignees combined account for only 12.5% of all records and the top 10 for 18.3%, so leadership here means setting the pace rather than controlling the space. The ranking includes 100 assignees counted by patent family, with a long tail of firms holding far fewer filings each.
The dominant IPC subclass is C23C, coating and surface deposition, which appears on 26.3% of all 3,089 records. Layered products (B32B, 6.8%), alloys (C22C, 6.5%) and coating processes (B05D, 5.1%) follow well behind, alongside application-specific classes like drilling (E21B, 5.5%) and implants (A61F, 5.4%). Because a single record can carry several IPC codes, these percentages are each measured against the full record count and are not meant to sum to 100%.
Filings peaked in 2020 at 143 records, dipped, and then grew again from 73 in 2021 to 82 in 2024 — a 12% increase over that complete-year span. Figures for 2025 and 2026 look lower only because publication typically lags filing by about 18 months, so those years are still filling in. Read the 2021-2024 trend, not the most recent one or two years, as the reliable signal of direction.
The clearest gaps sit outside the dense C23C coating-deposition core, in application-specific branches such as bearing-surface fatigue resistance, implant-grade low-friction layers, vibration-damping coating-substrate interfaces and sterilisable medical coatings. These subclasses carry noticeably lower record shares than C23C's 26.3%, which suggests claim space there is less occupied. A first claim in these areas would likely need to tie a specific coating chemistry to one of these mechanical or biological contexts rather than claiming the deposition process generically.
It is moderately concentrated at the top but not locked down: the top 5 assignees hold 12.5% of all 3,089 records and the top 10 hold 18.3%, while the ranking runs 100 assignees deep with a long tail below tenth place at 32 records. Co-filing is limited, with only 10 co-assignee pairs recorded and the strongest joint relationship covering just 11 shared records. That combination — a modest leader, a broad ranked field, and little collaboration — points to a landscape still open to new independent filers.
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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.