Analysis of Patents on Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace Applications

In this study, over 3,500 patents related to additive manufacturing (AM) applied to aerospace applications were analyzed for trends in technology direction and competitive environment. As is often found in patent analytics studies, the observed trends provide an early signal of key developments in the field that may not be as yet readily apparent in the marketplace.

The overall growth in patented inventions in this aerospace AM field had been slow since the mid-90’s, but has rapidly accelerated during the past 5 years, and is likely to continue on this exponential growth path into the immediate future. Innovation in this field thus far has been dominated by the major global aerospace companies based in the U.S. and, to a lesser extent, Europe. However, several entities in China, especially those in the government or university research sector, are becoming notably active in this field. Interestingly, manufacturers of additive manufacturing equipment or providers of AM materials have been and continue to be less active inventors.

The most active areas of innovation until recently had been focused on structures not used in service applications, e.g., materials and AM processes related to rapid prototyping or molds used for parts casting. However, recent attention appears to be shifting to critical and demanding areas such as turbine engine components and heat exchangers, and higher performance materials such as high-temperature alloys and ceramics.

These and other commercial and technology development trends will be discussed in this presentation.