B23K 26/02 Positioning or observing the workpiece, e.g. with respect to the point of impact; Aligning, aiming or focusing the laser beam
Introduced: January 1980
Last revised: January 2014
Full Title
Working by laser beam, e.g. welding, cutting or boring > Positioning or observing the workpiece, e.g. with respect to the point of impact; Aligning, aiming or focusing the laser beam
Classification Context
- Section:
- PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
- Class:
- MACHINE TOOLS; METAL-WORKING NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- Subclass:
- SOLDERING OR UNSOLDERING; WELDING; CLADDING OR PLATING BY SOLDERING OR WELDING; CUTTING BY APPLYING HEAT LOCALLY, e.g. FLAME CUTTING; WORKING BY LASER BEAM
Filing statistics
IPC B23K 26/02 belongs to the parent subclass B23K, which recorded 516,255 patent applications worldwide between 2013 and 2023. Annual filings grew from 24,268 in 2013 to 67,503 in 2023 (+178%). The most active applicants in class B23 are ITW (ILLINOIS TOOL WORKS) (3,407 applications), FANUC (3,120 applications) and DISCO ABRASIVE SYSTEM (2,777 applications).
Source: EPO PATSTAT, worldwide filings
4 direct subcodes
Child Classifications
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- B23K 26/03 Observing, e.g. monitoring, the workpiece
- B23K 26/035 Aligning the laser beam
- B23K 26/04 Automatically aligning, aiming or focusing the laser beam, e.g. using the back-scattered light
- B23K 26/06 Shaping the laser beam, e.g. by masks or multi-focusing
Top Applicants
Top 10 applicants by patent filingsfor class B23, 2013–2023, worldwide · Source: EPO PATSTAT
- ITW (ILLINOIS TOOL WORKS) US 3,407
- FANUC JP 3,120
- DISCO ABRASIVE SYSTEM 2,777
- HAN'S LASER TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY GROUP COMPANY 2,629
- ROBERT BOSCH DE 2,468
- FANUC 2,273
- DISCO CORPORATION JP 2,267
- GE (GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY) US 1,611
- CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 1,534
- ISCAR IL 1,499