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Topic · Automotive Engineering

Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies

Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies is a research topic within Automotive Engineering. Science Explorer counts 64k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on additive manufacturing and 3D printing technologies, covering a wide range of materials, methods, applications, and challenges. It includes research on fused deposition modeling, polymer composites, biomedical engineering, ceramics, sustainability, and the societal impact of additive manufacturing.

  • Additive Manufacturing
  • 3D Printing
  • Materials
  • Applications
  • Challenges
  • Fused Deposition Modeling
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Polymer Composites
  • Sustainability
  • Ceramics
Research works
64k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
6.3k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+59%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
30% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies

Which countries lead Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (5.1k and 3.2k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 5.1k works
  2. 2 United States 3.2k works
  3. 3 India 2.7k works
  4. 4 Germany 1.4k works
  5. 5 Italy 949 works
  6. 6 Türkiye 827 works
  7. 7 United Kingdom 772 works
  8. 8 France 652 works
  9. 9 South Korea 610 works
  10. 10 Japan 573 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 30.2%United States: 19.1%India: 16.1%Germany: 8.5%6 others listed: 26.1%30%largest
China5,070 · 30.2%United States3,197 · 19.1%India2,704 · 16.1%Germany1,421 · 8.5%6 others listed4,384 · 26.1%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies research?

By volume in 2022-now, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique publishes the most Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies research, followed by Chinese Academy of Sciences and Russian Academy of Sciences.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 239 works
  2. 2 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 222 works
  3. 3 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 134 works
  4. 4 Fraunhofer-GesellschaftGermany 112 works
  5. 5 Huazhong University of Science and TechnologyChina 107 works
  6. 6 Xi'an Jiaotong UniversityChina 97 works
  7. 7 Northwestern Polytechnical UniversityChina 96 works
  8. 8 Politecnico di TorinoItaly 95 works
  9. 9 Vellore Institute of Technology UniversityIndia 94 works
  10. 10 Nanjing University of Aeronautics and AstronauticsChina 93 works

Who are the leading researchers in Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies include Zhong Lin Wang, Richard M. Ryan and Kostya S. Novoselov.

  1. 1 Zhong Lin Wang United States 491k citations
  2. 2 Richard M. Ryan United States 395k citations
  3. 3 Kostya S. Novoselov United Kingdom 331k citations
  4. 4 Yury G. Gogotsi United States 313k citations
  5. 5 Róbert Langer United States 303k citations
  6. 6 Sudhir Kumar United States 295k citations
  7. 7 George M. Whitesides United States 267k citations
  8. 8 Wei Huang China 267k citations
  9. 9 Yi Ping Cui United States 261k citations
  10. 10 Ben Zhong Tang China 261k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies?

The most cited paper in Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies is "Additive manufacturing of metallic components – Process, structure and properties" (T. DebRoy, Huiliang Wei, James S. Zuback et al., 2017), with 8,766 citations. Next come "Additive manufacturing (3D printing): A review of materials, methods, applications and challenges" (8,400) and "Lost at Sea: Where Is All the Plastic?" (7,767).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Additive manufacturing of metallic components – Process, structure and properties T. DebRoy, Huiliang Wei, James S. Zuback et al. · Progress in Materials Science Open access 12 Oct 2017 8,766
2 Additive manufacturing (3D printing): A review of materials, methods, applications and challenges Tuan Ngo, Alireza Hosseinzadeh Kashani, Gabriele Imbalzano et al. · Composites Part B Engineering Open access 13 Feb 2018 8,400
3 Lost at Sea: Where Is All the Plastic? Richard C. Thompson, Ylva S. Olsen, Richard P. Mitchell et al. · Science 6 May 2004 7,767
4 3D bioprinting of tissues and organs Sean V. Murphy, Anthony Atala · Nature Biotechnology Aug 2014 7,011
5 Metal Additive Manufacturing: A Review William E. Frazier · Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance Open access 7 Apr 2014 5,971
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies research done?

The largest centres of Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Xi'an (China) and Nanjing (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Tomsk.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 792 works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 369 works
  3. 3 Xi'anChina 342 works
  4. 4 NanjingChina 295 works
  5. 5 ChennaiIndia 270 works
  6. 6 WuhanChina 262 works
  7. 7 SingaporeSingapore 226 works
  8. 8 SeoulSouth Korea 216 works
  9. 9 MoscowRussia 211 works
  10. 10 TokyoJapan 186 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. TomskRU · 37.6 works36×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies than the world average.

See Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies on the map

Where is the best place to study Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies?

Among universities, judged by research, Nanyang Technological University, RMIT University and National University of Singapore score highest, combining citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 21.36%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →National University …RMIT UniversityNanyang Technologica…Politecnico di Torino
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Nanyang Technological UniversitySingapore 78.621.0%4.9×85 +19.6%
2RMIT UniversityAustralia 70.222.8%5.8×50 +56.0%
3National University of SingaporeSingapore 69.924.5%2.3×60 +48.0%
4Politecnico di TorinoItaly 68.216.0%9.6×95 +47.4%
5Southern University of Science and TechnologyChina 67.927.1%3.9×46 +195.2%
6Hellenic Mediterranean UniversityGreece 67.737.9%19.8×17 +290.6%
7Northwestern Polytechnical UniversityChina 66.320.2%3.8×96 +54.9%
8Huazhong University of Science and TechnologyChina 63.615.2%2.7×107 +25.5%
9Politecnico di MilanoItaly 62.310.7%5.7×91 +46.8%
10Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 62.118.2%1.3×85 +89.9%

Universities only. The score blends citation excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies, country by country

Is Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 59% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2024. The fastest-growing topics are Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.13% in 2024.

still counting0.050%0.10%0.15%Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies0.11% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies9.7% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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