Vacuum Degassing Patents: Top Steelmakers & Filing Trends 2026
Vacuum Degassing Patents: who holds RH degasser and circulation-rate claims
Concentrated at the top. The top 5 assignees hold 46 of 77 records in scope (59.7%), and the top 10 hold 66 (85.7%) — a long tail of single-filer entrants fills the rest. Filings built toward a peak of 5 in 2022, then eased to 1 by 2024 — a -50% move from 2021's 2 filings. 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete under normal publication lag and should not be read as a slowdown yet.
- 1NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION12
- 2KAWASAKI STEEL CORP10
- 3UNITED STATES STEEL CORP9
- 4NOEL ALFRED WARNER8
- 5USX ENGINEERS & CONSULTANTS INC7
See the full vacuum degassing technologies 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 about vacuum degassing patents
Who holds the most patents in vacuum degassing for steel?
One integrated steelmaker leads the ranking with 12 of the 77 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-ranked assignee at 7 and the tenth-ranked at 3. The top 5 assignees combined hold 59.7% of all records, and the top 10 hold 85.7%. That gap between the leader and the rest indicates a long-established filing programme rather than a recently arrived challenger, so any competitive review should start with that leader’s family before looking further down the ranking.
Is vacuum degassing patent activity growing or shrinking?
Filings rose to a peak of 5 in the 2022 filing year, then declined to 1 by 2024, a -50% move over that three-year span. It would be premature to call this a lasting decline, however, because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the 2025 and 2026 counts in this dataset are still incomplete. A fairer read is that the field cooled from an unusually active 2022 rather than that interest in the technology has ended.
What technology areas do vacuum degassing patents cover?
The dataset’s IPC mix is dominated by C21C steelmaking, present on 77.9% of the 77 records, with C22C alloys claims on 28.6% and C22B metal extraction and refining on 13.0%. Smaller classes such as C21D heat treatment and F27D furnace accessories appear on under 11% of records each. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these percentages add up to well over 100% and should be read as overlapping claim coverage, not a strict pie chart.
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 Vacuum Degassing Technologies 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.