In the week of U.S. patents issued April 28, 2026, LG Energy Solution, Ltd. — the South Korean cell maker that is one of the largest suppliers of automotive and grid batteries outside China — collected 29 grants. The batch is dominated by two themes: containing what happens when a cell fails inside a pack, and the machinery and inspection that build cells in the first place. For a company that sells cells and modules into other manufacturers' vehicles and storage systems, issued claims across those layers describe coverage over both the safety architecture customers rely on and the production methods behind it.

The clearest strand is pack-level thermal safety. US12614812B2 covers a battery module with an improved structure to control the discharge of a flame generated in the module, using a taping member and a top hole in the module case.

A battery module has an improved structure to control the discharge of a flame generated in the battery module.— Battery module with reinforced safety, US12614812B2

Adjacent grants extend the approach. US12614780B2 describes a module with a body cavity that holds an extinguishing material, fed through an inlet and outlet with a rupture part that releases it. US12614770B2 covers a battery-monitoring device with two air-quality sensors that detect rising concentrations of vent materials and escalate from a first to a second monitoring mode. At the cell level, US12614789B2 claims a lithium secondary battery case whose laminate sheet defines a region where gas discharge or expansion is relatively easier, directing where a swelling cell vents. Together these map coverage over the chain of events in a pack failure — detection, controlled venting, flame direction, and active suppression.

The manufacturing and inspection layer

A second large strand covers how cells are made and checked. US12614769B2 describes a server-based system that generates a "roll map" of electrode manufacturing data and a simulated electrode on a graphical interface, tying sensing data to monitoring and identification of the battery. US12614713B2 covers a reproducible electrode-manufacturing system that inspects quality using the surface roughness of the rolling roller, the electrode surface, and the rolling load. US12614787B2 claims a pouch-case shaping apparatus that uses electric-discharge shock waves in a conductive liquid to elongate the laminate sheet without friction damage. These are process patents — coverage over methods on the production line, which is where a cell maker's cost and yield are decided.

The electrodes themselves appear in several grants. US12614725B2 covers a multilayer positive electrode with two active-material layers on the current collector, and US12614715B2 claims a negative-electrode active material combining a silicon-core particle with an LiF coating layer and a graphene-containing second particle — a silicon-anode approach tied to energy density. On the diagnostics side, US12613289B2 covers a battery-diagnosis apparatus that tracks each cell's voltage deviation over a relaxation period after a resting event, a software method for spotting weak cells.

The CPC tags across the batch concentrate in H01M 50 module-and-casing classes (H01M 50/242 housings, H01M 50/3425 safety-vent features), H01M 2220/20 (batteries for vehicles), and H01M 4 electrode classes — consistent with a portfolio built around module hardware, cell construction, and electrode chemistry rather than grid power conversion. There is one notable communications grant, US12615215B2, covering a packet-structure communication system for reducing bus load in a battery system, which extends the footprint into pack-level data handling.

What the week maps, in business terms, is the span of where LG Energy Solution holds issued U.S. coverage: from the silicon in the anode and the multilayer cathode, through the rolling and shaping machines that form the cell, to the gas sensors, extinguishing cavities, and flame-directing module structures that govern a failure. Because those cells and modules ship inside other companies' products, issued claims at each layer describe the parts of the safety and manufacturing process that licensees and competitors would need to navigate. The grants indicate the footprint and its specific numbers, not the volumes shipped or the revenue earned.