Twin-Screw Compounding Patents: Who Leads, Where Gaps Sit 2026
- Concentrated at the top. The five leading assignees hold 69 of 169 records in scope (40.8%), and the leading ten hold 66.9% — most of the field's claim space is already staked by a small group.
- Filing has cooled since its 2017 peak. Filings peaked at 9 in 2017 and sat at 6 by the 2022 midpoint, a flat-to-declining trend rather than a growing one — though the most recent year is always undercounted given the ~18-month publication lag.
- Shaping and preparation classes dominate. B29C (shaping of plastics) appears on 88.8% of records and B29B (plastics preparation) on 55.0%, while additive-use and mixing-equipment classes each sit under 15% — a sign of where claims are thin.
What the twin-screw compounding patent record actually shows
Twin-screw compounding sits at the intersection of extrusion hardware and formulation know-how: screw configuration, feeding strategy, devolatilization and residence time distribution are the recurring technical hooks in this dataset of 169 records filed between 2015 and 2026. The search deliberately pairs extruder-hardware language with process-control terms, so the corpus captures both mechanical claims — barrel assemblies, screw elements, drive systems — and process claims around dispersive mixing and devolatilization.
Filing offices skew toward the United States and Europe, with WIPO PCT filings a meaningful secondary channel — consistent with a field where hardware makers and materials companies both file internationally rather than relying on a single home jurisdiction.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 169 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claims.
A peak in 2017, then a flat-to-declining trend
Filings peaked at 9 in 2017 and had fallen to 6 by the 2022 midpoint, with no clear recovery visible before the most recent partial year. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the final one or two years in this chart will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be — treat the tail as incomplete, not as a real drop-off.
Shaping and preparation classes carry most of the claim volume
B29C (shaping of plastics) touches 88.8% of the 169 records and B29B (plastics preparation) touches 55.0% — the two anchor classes for this search. C08L and C08J, covering polymer compositions and processing, sit around a quarter of records each, while equipment-adjacent classes like B01F (mixing and stirring) and additive-focused C08K stay under 15%. Since a record can carry several classes, these figures add up to more than 100% of the record total; they describe overlap, not a partition.
Shares are the percentage of the 169 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Twin-Screw Compounding with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about twin-screw compounding and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records in this corpus
US9102091B2 — Twin screw extruder
An extruder is disclosed, and more particularly, a twin screw extruder for mixing, compounding, kneading and/or extruding of materials. The twin screw extruder includes a barrel assembly having a housing. The twin screw extruder further includes a first screw provided within the housing and comprising threads. The twin screw extruder further includes a second screw provided within the housing and comprising a threaded portion and a shaft portion devoid of threads. A drive system which drives the first screw and the second screw.Filed by King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, published 2015-08-11 — an early entrant in this dataset's window, notable for claiming a mixed threaded/unthreaded second-screw configuration rather than a conventional fully-threaded twin-screw pair.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | EP1600276A1 | Counter-rotating twin screw extruder | 202 |
| 2 | US5208267A | Starch-based, biodegradable packing filler and method of preparing same | 151 |
| 3 | US5158725A | Continuous mixing of elastomeric compounds | 150 |
| 4 | US5711904A | Continuous mixing of silica loaded elastomeric compounds | 129 |
| 5 | US5185382A | Starch-based, biodegradable packing filler and method of preparing same | 93 |
| 6 | US5938994A | Method for manufacturing of plastic wood-fiber pellets | 78 |
| 7 | US6220745B1 | Device and monitoring system for removing liquid from high melting point resin by means of co-rotating twin s… | 75 |
| 8 | US6179460B1 | Twin screw extruder with single-flight kneading disks | 51 |
| 9 | EP1093905A2 | Twin screw extruder with mixing screw elements | 47 |
| 10 | US20060261509A1 | Method for making fiber reinforced polypropylene composites | 45 |
Citation counts accumulate over time inside a searched corpus, so older records are structurally favoured — read this table as a map of influence on later filings, not as a ranking of current technical importance.
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 numbers mean for a filing decision
Three read-throughs from the composition and concentration data, aimed at where to spend drafting effort next.
The core claim space is already staked
Five assignees account for 69 of the 169 records in scope. That is not a monopoly, but it means the central mechanical claims around screw configuration and barrel design have dense prior art from a handful of repeat filers — new entrants filing broad hardware claims in this zone should expect crowded art.
Shaping claims dominate; additive and mixing-equipment claims are thin
B29C and B29B between them touch most of the corpus, while B01F (mixing and stirring) and C08K (additive use) sit under 15%. That gap does not mean nobody is compounding with novel additive packages — it means fewer of those formulations are being claimed through equipment-linked patents in this search window.
Filing has not grown since its mid-decade peak
The trend from a 2017 peak of 9 to 6 at the 2022 midpoint reads as flat-to-declining rather than an expanding field. Recent-year momentum among the leading assignees in this dataset shows no filings in the latest tracked year for any of the top names, though the ~18-month publication lag means the newest year understates true activity.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to twin-screw compounding, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the ground, and where it thins out
The assignee ranking runs 73 companies deep across the 169 records in scope — a long tail behind a concentrated top.
One filer sits well ahead of the field
The top-ranked assignee holds 16 of the 169 records, noticeably ahead of fifth place at 11 and tenth place at 6 — a steep drop-off rather than a gradual one, typical of a field anchored by one or two specialist equipment makers.
Two-thirds of the field sits with ten names
113 of the 169 records in scope trace to the ten leading assignees. Below that line the ranking stretches across 73 companies total, with many holding only one or two records — a long tail of occasional filers rather than a second tier of consistent players.
A few durable filing partnerships stand out
Ten co-assignee pairs appear in the data, with one pairing between a Japanese machinery maker and a materials company recurring across nine records — a sign of a sustained equipment-and-formulation collaboration rather than a one-off joint filing.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Steer Engineering Private Limited | 0 | — |
| Dow Global Technologies LLC | 0 | — |
| The Japan Steel Works, Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Mitsubishi Engineering-Plastics Corporation | 0 | — |
| Rohm and Haas Company | 0 | — |
| Borealis AG | 0 | — |
| Steerlife India Pte Ltd | 0 | — |
| Teijin Aramid B.V. | 0 | — |
Where to take this from here
The dataset shows concentration and composition; turning that into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision takes a closer read of the specific claims.
Check the exact claim language before drafting nearby
Screw-configuration and barrel-assembly claims from the leading assignees are dense; a closer claim-by-claim read of the top records is worth doing before committing drafting time to that zone.
Explore claims in EurekaWatch the under-claimed branches for movement
Additive-use and mixing-equipment classes are thin now, but a single well-drafted filing can anchor a sub-area quickly — worth a standing watch rather than a one-time check.
Set up a monitoring search in EurekaCommon questions about twin-screw compounding patents
The assignee ranking in this dataset runs 73 companies deep across 169 records, but it is heavily concentrated at the top: the leading assignee holds 16 records, and the top five together hold 69 records, or 40.8% of everything in scope. Below the top ten — who together hold 66.9% of records — the list thins into a long tail of assignees with only one or two filings each. That shape is typical of a field with a small number of specialist equipment makers and materials companies doing most of the active filing.
Based on this dataset, filing activity peaked in 2017 at 9 records and had fallen to 6 by the 2022 midpoint, which reads as flat-to-declining rather than an expanding field. That said, publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the last one or two years in any trend chart will always look artificially low and should not be read as a real drop until later data confirms it. None of the leading assignees show filings in the most recent tracked year, though this is consistent with the lag rather than necessarily a pullback.
US9102091B2, filed by King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology and published in 2015, claims a twin screw extruder in which one screw carries threads along its full length while the second screw combines a threaded portion with a shaft portion devoid of threads, driven by a shared drive system. That specific mixed threaded/unthreaded configuration on the second screw is the narrower feature to check against; a conventional design with two fully-threaded screws would sit outside its literal claim scope. Anyone designing a twin-screw system with an intentionally bare shaft section on one screw should review this patent's claims in detail rather than assuming it only covers generic twin-screw hardware.
IPC composition in this dataset shows B29C (shaping of plastics) and B29B (plastics preparation) covering the large majority of records, while classes tied to mixing equipment (B01F) and additive use (C08K) each sit under 15% of the 169 records. That gap suggests devolatilization vent geometry, feeding-strategy control for filled or fibre-loaded compounds, and residence-time-distribution sensing are less densely claimed relative to core screw and barrel hardware. Thinner filing density in these areas does not guarantee an easy grant, but it does mean less prior art to design around.
In this dataset, the United States receives the most filings at 67, followed by the European Patent Office at 36 and WIPO PCT filings at 18; Japan, Canada and China each account for single-digit counts. This spread indicates that assignees active in this field tend to pursue US and European protection first, with PCT filings used as a route to broader international coverage rather than direct filing in every market. Japan's relatively low count is notable given that at least one major Japanese machinery maker appears among the leading assignees.
Research Twin-Screw Compounding in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole twin-screw compounding 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.