Low Friction Coating Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
A data-backed view of low friction coating patents: filing trends since 2017, the concentration among 100 ranked assignees, dominant IPC classes, and where claim space is still open.
Filing growth = 2021 (10 records) → 2024 (1); 2024 is the last year we treat as complete. Top-5 share = the 5 largest assignees ÷ all 747 records in scope (CR5), not the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape maps 747 published records filed against low friction coating claims spanning surface deposition, coating processes and lubricant chemistry, drawn from a search combining title/abstract terms with claim-level tribology and lubrication logic under C10M and F16N. Coverage runs from 2015 through the 2026 data cut-off, though publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent filing years are understated by construction, not by a real drop in activity. The dataset spans applications from earth and rock drilling components to medical guidewires and automotive bearings — a signal that “low friction coating” is claimed across markedly different end uses rather than one coherent product category.
The picture that emerges is a field with meaningful early concentration among a handful of filers, but a wide base of single- and few-filing entrants beneath them. Combined with a filing trend that peaked in 2018 and has since fallen sharply, this is a landscape where the earliest, broadest claims may already be staked out in some branches while others remain comparatively unclaimed.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 747 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing trend: a 2018 peak followed by a sharp drop
Filings ran at 18 in 2017 and peaked at 22 in 2018, the high point of the whole window. From 2021 to 2024 — the most recent span that can be read as complete, since publication lag makes 2025 and 2026 provisional — filings fell from 10 to 1, a 90% decline. That is a real contraction in new filing activity, not an artefact of the data cut-off, though it says nothing about whether the underlying technology is still commercially active.
Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in. Growth rates on this page therefore end at 2024; running them to the last bar would understate the field.
Technology composition: deposition process leads, formulation follows
Coating and surface deposition (C23C) appears in 17.8% of the 747 records, the single largest subclass, ahead of coatings/paints/inks (C09D) at 10.2% and core lubricant chemistry (C10M) at 9.1%. Earth and rock drilling (E21B) at 7.5% and medical devices for body fluids (A61M) at 7.0% show the two largest non-obvious application clusters — drill stem assemblies and guidewires — sitting alongside the more expected bearing and shaft claims under F16C (7.0%). Because records can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares sum to more than 100% of the record total; they describe overlap in claim scope, not mutually exclusive buckets.
Shares are the percentage of the 747 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Tribology & Lubrication: Low Friction Coating Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about tribology & lubrication: low friction coating patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited prior art
Low friction coating layer, low friction coating method and low friction coating apparatus
Disclosed herein is a low friction coating layer wherein the uniform concentration of a low friction metal in the coating layer is increased by increasing a turning-on power of a low friction metal source to be higher than a turning-off power thereof, decreasing a turning-on power of a Ti source to be lower than a turning-off power thereof. Alternatively the concentration is increased by increasing a flow rate or temperature of a nitrogen atmosphere gas upon introduction to be higher than upon termination of the introduction thereof.Filed by Hyundai Motor Company, this record ties coating composition to specific power and gas-flow control during deposition rather than to a fixed material stack — a claim style that is harder to design around than a materials-only claim.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5551444A | Flexible guidewire with radiopaque outer coil and non-radiopaque inner coil | 187 |
| 2 | US5885227A | Flexible guidewire with radiopaque plastic tip | 165 |
| 3 | US20110220415A1 | Ultra-low friction coatings for drill stem assemblies | 162 |
| 4 | US20110203791A1 | Coated sleeved oil and gas well production devices | 122 |
| 5 | US20110220348A1 | Coated Oil and Gas Well Production Devices | 112 |
| 6 | US5358094A | Conveyor belt with advertisements | 103 |
| 7 | US5674951A | Abrasion-resistant and low friction coating compositions | 83 |
| 8 | US7651469B2 | Low friction coated marked wire guide for over the wire insertion of a catheter | 82 |
| 9 | US20100044110A1 | Ultra-low friction coatings for drill stem assemblies | 79 |
| 10 | US5115007A | Abrasion resistant polyurethane blend compositions | 78 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations inside this corpus — read them as a signal of influence on later filers, not as a ranking of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the concentration and citation data suggest
Three figures worth pulling out of the ranking, the receiving-office split and the citation table.
A leader, not a duopoly
The leading assignee holds 30 records and fifth place holds 20, but the top 5 combined still account for only 15.8% of the 747 records in scope, and the top 10 for 25.7%. Beneath the ranked leaders sits a long tail of far smaller filers — this is a field where no single player has locked up the claim space.
A real pullback after the 2018 peak
Filings peaked at 22 in 2018 and fell from 10 in 2021 to 1 in 2024, a decline the dataset states directly. Because publication lag means 2025 and 2026 are still filling in, this should be read as a completed multi-year contraction through 2024, not as an ongoing slide.
Medical-device coating claims sit on old, heavily cited art
The most-cited records in this landscape are flexible guidewire coatings and drill stem assembly coatings, several with citation counts well above 100. That density signals foundational prior art that later filers had to design around, concentrated in medical and drilling applications rather than in bearing or automotive claims.
US and EPO dominate, but filing is genuinely multi-jurisdictional
The United States leads with 169 filings, ahead of the EPO at 80, WIPO/PCT at 64, the UK at 56, Japan at 48 and Germany at 41. That spread across six receiving offices indicates filers are pursuing protection in multiple markets rather than concentrating on a single jurisdiction.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to tribology & lubrication: low friction coating patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next questions for R&D and IP teams rather than a single conclusion.
Map claim scope against the deposition-process cluster
With C23C carrying the largest single share of records, teams evaluating new coating chemistry should check how much of that space is claimed at the process-control level, as in the representative Hyundai record, rather than at the materials level.
Explore the IPC breakdownWatch the long tail, not just the leader
Because the top 5 assignees hold only 15.8% of records, competitive monitoring built around a single leading filer will miss most of the field. A broader watch list drawn from the full ranked set is more likely to catch the next filer to consolidate.
Review the assignee rankingReassess after 2025-26 filings publish
The 2021-2024 decline is real, but 2025 and 2026 filings are still working through the roughly 18-month publication lag. Re-running this landscape in a year will show whether the contraction continued or reversed.
Track filing trends in EurekaCommon questions about low friction coating patents
The dataset ranks 100 assignees by record count, with the leading company holding 30 records and fifth place holding 20. Even so, the top 5 assignees combined account for only 15.8% of the 747 records in scope, and the top 10 for 25.7% — so leadership here is real but far from exclusive. A freedom-to-operate review should look past the top few names to the wider ranked list, since a large share of filings sit with smaller, single- or few-filing entrants.
Filings peaked at 22 in 2018 and then fell steadily, with the 2021-to-2024 span showing a 90% decline from 10 filings to 1. That is a documented contraction through 2024, the most recent year the dataset treats as complete. Filings from 2025 onward are still understated because publication typically lags the original filing by around 18 months, so it is too early to read the very latest years as a continuation of the decline.
Coating and surface deposition (C23C) is the largest single IPC subclass, appearing in 17.8% of the 747 records, followed by coatings/paints/inks (C09D) at 10.2% and core lubricant chemistry (C10M) at 9.1%. Notably, earth and rock drilling (E21B, 7.5%) and medical devices for body fluids (A61M, 7.0%) each carry a meaningful share, showing that drill stem assemblies and guidewires are two of the largest specific applications for these coatings outside of bearings and automotive parts.
That Hyundai Motor Company record claims a low friction coating layer defined by specific power and gas-flow control sequencing during deposition — for example, running the low friction metal source's turn-on power higher than its turn-off power while doing the reverse for the titanium source. This is a process-control claim rather than a pure materials claim, so it is likely to constrain deposition equipment and process parameters more than it constrains alternative coating chemistries. Anyone designing a similar plasma or sputtering process should check the specific power and gas-timing relationships against this claim's language.
The technology composition data shows dense claim activity in coating deposition (C23C) and drilling applications (E21B), alongside a long tail of assignees each holding few records — a combination suggesting adjacent branches with lighter claim density remain comparatively open. Bearing and shaft applications (F16C) sit at a smaller 7.0% share despite being a natural fit for low friction coatings, which may indicate less-crowded claim space there relative to drilling or medical uses. Any white-space assessment should be paired with a fresh IPC and claims search focused on the specific sub-application in question, since aggregate shares do not resolve claim scope at that level of detail.
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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.