This paper discusses patterns knowledge transfer in the innovation ecosystem of massive steel forging which is a part of the automobile value chain. We perform a case study on changes in knowledge transfer activities in the period 2015 to 2018. Our analysis is based on two written surveys, expert interviews, as well as the observations of knowledge exchange in several project committee meetings of a large industrial collective research project on lightweight forging, We look at (i) the influence of changing framework conditions on technology transfer patterns, (ii) how these changes influenced cooperation patterns knowledge flows, and (iii) how firm-internal processes were adapted to new knowledge flow patterns. The paper contributes to our understanding of knowledge and technology transfer within value chains which are widely present in our economy. We show the substantial influence of framework conditions on knowledge transfer patterns, that factors like organizational knowledge are important in knowledge chain, and that the absorption of new knowledge can influence multiple parts of the value-added processes. The latter observation also implies that in additional to own research, a high adaptability of the whole organization is required for the absorption of knowledge.