Fastest
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 →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/wind-turbine-drivetrain-and-gearbox-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Wind EnergyWind turbine drivetrain and gearbox patents: who holds the lubrication and bearing claims, and where filing has gone flat
- Filing peaked in 2019 at 15 records and has declined since, with the 2022 midpoint down to 2 — a sign that core claim space around lubrication and bearing failure is now largely staked out rather than expanding.
- F16H gearing shows up in 53 of 96 families while additive manufacturing (B33Y, 10 records) and powder metallurgy (B22F, 9) appear as thin cross-filings, not a dedicated claim track.
- Europe leads with 33 filings, the US follows with 28 and China sits at just 4 despite being a major turbine manufacturing base — a filing gap worth checking before assuming freedom to operate there.
96
Published Records
55%
Top-5 Share of All Records
+300%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
EP
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (3 records) with 2024 (12) — 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 96 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks 96 patent families filed between 2015 and mid-2026 at the intersection of wind turbine gearboxes, drivetrains and direct-drive generators, filtered to documents that explicitly address bearing failure, torque density, lubrication, load spectrum, or condition monitoring. The IPC scope centres on wind motor classifications (F03D) crossed with gearing and transmission mechanics (F16H1), which means the corpus captures mechanical and lubrication engineering rather than the broader electrical generator or power-conversion side of turbine design.
Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the apparent drop-off in the most recent years understates real filing activity; 2026 in particular is a partial year. Read the trend as directional rather than exact for anything after roughly 2024.
Filings by year, 2017-2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Wind Turbine Drivetrain and Gearbox covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
The Data
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 96 families: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
A peak in 2019, then a flattening
Filings rose to a peak of 15 in 2019, then eased toward a midpoint of 2 in 2022. That pattern is consistent with a field where the dominant lubrication and bearing-monitoring architectures were claimed early, leaving later entrants to file narrower improvement patents rather than foundational ones.
Gearing and bearing mechanics dominate, ancillary processes are thin
F03D (wind motors) appears in nearly every record by definition of the search, but F16H gearing shows up in 53 families and F16C bearings/shafts in 15 — confirming the corpus is genuinely about drivetrain mechanics. Additive manufacturing, powder metallurgy, sealing and lubrication systems each appear in single digits, suggesting these are supporting claims within broader gearbox patents rather than areas with their own dense prior art.
Shares are the percentage of the 96 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Wind Turbine Drivetrain and Gearbox covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
Go deeper on Wind Turbine Drivetrain and Gearbox with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about wind turbine drivetrain and gearbox and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaKey Patents
The prior art doing the most citation work
Representative recent filing
Lubrication ring, wind turbine gearbox and method of assembly thereof
ENVISION ENERGY CO., LTD.
A segmented lubrication ring assembled from ring segments spaced to absorb thermal expansion, forming fluid channels that transfer lubrication between two gearbox parts. Each segment carries a mounting point for securing it in place, addressing lubrication delivery across a jointed gearbox interface.Filed by Envision Energy, published 2026-03-26 — illustrates that incremental lubrication-delivery hardware, not new lubrication chemistry or monitoring logic, is where recent filing activity concentrates.
Most-cited records in this corpus
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20050034925A1 | Dry sump lubrication system with removable oil reservoir for wind turbine gearbox | 66 |
| 2 | WO2003031812A1 | Dry SUMP lubrication system with removable oil reservoir for wind turbine gearbox | 49 |
| 3 | CN201277153Y | 风电齿轮箱行星润滑供油装置 | 40 |
| 4 | US20190136945A1 | Gear assembly for a wind turbine gearbox having a flexible pin shaft and carrier | 26 |
| 5 | WO2019196994A1 | Wind turbine drivetrain component with low friction radial shaft seal | 11 |
| 6 | EP3020965A1 | Wind turbine gearbox, use and method | 11 |
| 7 | US20150192110A1 | Wind turbine gearbox | 11 |
| 8 | US9784245B2 | Wind turbine gearbox | 10 |
| 9 | US20210102528A1 | Wind turbine drivetrain component with low friction radial shaft seal | 8 |
| 10 | US10682705B2 | Gear assembly for a wind turbine gearbox having a flexible pin shaft and carrier | 7 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had longer to accumulate references; treat them as markers of influence on later drafting, not as evidence of current commercial relevance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Wind Turbine Drivetrain and Gearbox covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Run it yourself
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Where to run it
For builders
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 →Insights
What the numbers mean for a filing strategy
Three patterns stand out once the trend, the IPC mix and the citation table are read together.
Filing momentum
15 in 2019 → 2 in 2022
peak to midpoint
The core claim space is largely settled
The run-up to 2019 and the subsequent decline suggest the foundational architectures for gearbox lubrication and bearing-failure monitoring were claimed in the late 2010s. New filers are more likely to find room in specific hardware refinements than in broad system claims.
Based on year-by-year filing counts, 2017-2026
Geographic split
EPO 33 · US 28 · China 4
filings by receiving office
China is under-represented relative to manufacturing scale
With only 4 filings at the Chinese office against 33 at EPO and 28 in the US, applicants protecting drivetrain IP in China specifically may face a thinner local prior-art screen than the global picture implies — worth a separate FTO check rather than assuming parity.
Receiving office counts across all 96 families
Citation concentration
66 citations on one dry-sump record
top-cited filing
Lubrication delivery hardware anchors the field
The most-cited records are dry-sump lubrication systems and planetary lubrication supply devices rather than sensor or software-based condition-monitoring patents, indicating that physical lubrication delivery has drawn more downstream drafting attention than digital monitoring approaches.
Citation counts within the searched corpus
Eureka AI Agent
Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to wind turbine drivetrain and gearbox, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Wind Turbine Drivetrain and Gearbox covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Players
Who is filing, and where activity has cooled
Recent-year momentum across the named assignees is flat: every tracked entity shows zero filings in the latest year, and the one with a year-over-year figure recorded a full drop.
Momentum check
0 in latest year
across all tracked assignees
No assignee is currently accelerating
Every major assignee in this corpus, from general electric equipment makers to dedicated turbine manufacturers, shows zero filings in the most recent tracked year. Given the 18-month publication lag, this likely reflects reporting delay rather than an actual halt in R&D.
Recent-year momentum by assignee
Co-filing pattern
9 co-assignee pairs
collaboration density
Collaboration is limited and concentrated
Only 9 co-assignee pairs appear across 96 families, and the strongest pairings recur around a single organisation working with individual named inventors rather than joint ventures between manufacturers — collaboration here looks more like internal inventor teams than cross-company alliances.
Co-assignee pair counts
Steepest decline
-100% YoY
single largest drop
At least one active filer went to zero abruptly
One assignee's filings fell 100% year-over-year to zero, a sharper drop than the general flattening seen across the field, which may reflect a shift in filing strategy, jurisdiction, or a pause pending new R&D output.
Year-over-year change, most recent period
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| General Electric Company | 0 | — |
| Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy | 0 | — |
| Vestas Wind Systems A/S | 0 | — |
| Envision Energy Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Wanzhi Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| DIESEL APS | 0 | — |
| HYDRASPECMA AS | 0 | — |
| Remy Technologies, LLC | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Wind Turbine Drivetrain and Gearbox covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's Next
Where to take this analysis
The filing and citation patterns above point to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, white-space filing, or competitive tracking.
Check China-specific freedom to operate
With only 4 filings at the Chinese receiving office against much heavier EPO and US activity, a targeted Chinese prior-art search is worth running separately before committing to a filing or product-launch strategy there.
Run a China-specific searchTrack the flat-to-declining assignees for reactivation
Every major assignee shows zero filings in the latest year; given publication lag, monitoring these accounts over the next 12-18 months will show whether the field is genuinely quiet or simply behind on disclosure.
Set up assignee monitoringProbe the additive-manufacturing and powder-metallurgy overlap
B33Y and B22F each appear in under 10 records, thin enough that a well-drafted claim on 3D-printed or powder-metallurgy gearbox components could sit in genuinely open space.
Explore white space with EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Wind Turbine Drivetrain and Gearbox covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions on wind turbine drivetrain patents
The most-cited records in this space are dry-sump lubrication systems with removable oil reservoirs, alongside a planetary lubrication supply device, rather than a single dominant modern assignee. These older, heavily-cited filings function as foundational prior art that later applicants must design around when claiming new lubrication delivery hardware. Current filers such as Envision Energy continue to file incremental lubrication-ring and seal improvements on top of that base, but no one assignee holds a commanding share of the citation network.
No — filings peaked at 15 in 2019 and had fallen to 2 by the 2022 midpoint, and every tracked assignee shows zero filings in the most recent year. Some of that recent drop is an artefact of the roughly 18-month gap between filing and publication, so the very latest years will look thinner than they eventually turn out to be. Even accounting for that lag, the overall shape is flat-to-declining rather than growing.
Europe leads with 33 filings at the EPO, followed by the United States with 28, then WIPO PCT filings at 15 and India at 9. China records only 4 filings in this dataset, which is notably light given the scale of Chinese wind turbine manufacturing and suggests either a filing gap or that Chinese activity in this space is captured under different search terms or classifications not covered here.
Additive manufacturing (B33Y, 10 records) and powder metallurgy (B22F, 9 records) both appear only as thin cross-filings within broader gearbox patents rather than as dedicated claim tracks, as do sealing (F16J) and lubrication systems (F16N) at 9 records each. This suggests that claims combining 3D-printed or powder-metallurgy gear components, low-friction radial shaft seals, or condition-monitoring sensor fusion with core gearbox architecture sit in comparatively open space compared with the dense F16H gearing and F16C bearing art.
Not necessarily. Citation counts accumulate over time within a searched corpus, so older filings such as the dry-sump lubrication patents from the early-to-mid 2000s naturally collect more citations simply by having been available longer for later applicants to reference. A high count signals influence on how the field's claims were drafted, not that the underlying technology is still the commercial state of the art — newer, less-cited filings like the 2026 lubrication ring may reflect current practice more closely.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Wind Turbine Drivetrain and Gearbox covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Research Wind Turbine Drivetrain and Gearbox in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole wind turbine drivetrain and gearbox 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.