- Capability group
- Advanced Materials & Manufacturing
- Domain
- Critical Technology · Hard Power
- Identifier
- factbase.org/cap/EMBM2M9E1B
- Reference
- 3D printing Wikipedia
Papers
89.7k
2020–2024
Paper growth
+114%
2020–24 on 2015–19
Patent families
66.7k
2020–2024
Filed abroad
30%
families in more than one office
In the framework
What the capability covers and what it leaves to others, and the indicators it will be measured by.
Bounds
Covers the manufacturing technology; its industrial diffusion reads at the deploy layer, and the factories themselves belong to Strategic Infrastructure.
Lineage
Carried from v0.0 (formerly Additive manufacturing (including 3D printing)) with the same identifier, absorbing High-specification machining processes (retired): additive and subtractive precision are one making capacity, separated in v0.0 only by technique.
Indicators
- research publication share in additive manufacturingResearch
- industrial additive systems installedPending
- machine tool production and trade balancePending
Research
Papers classified to the capability, by year and by the nation of their authors' institutions, 2020–2024. Read from the v0.0 research topics Additive manufacturing (including 3D printing) and High-specification machining processes.
Papers by year
The five leading nations, papers by year
Share of papers, 2020–2024
Of papers with a known author nation; 27% have none and are left out.
- 1China17.8%14,249 papers
- 2United States13.6%10,885 papers
- 3India7.5%6,019 papers
- 4Germany6.2%4,953 papers
- 5United Kingdom4.4%3,510 papers
- 6Italy3.6%2,849 papers
- 7Russia2.5%2,019 papers
- 8Australia2.5%2,015 papers
- 9France2.3%1,866 papers
- 10South Korea2.3%1,865 papers
Leading institutions, 2020–2024
By fractional count: each paper divided among its authors' institutions.
- 1RWTH Aachen University415fractional papers
- 2Huazhong University of Science and Technology362fractional papers
- 3Northwestern Polytechnical University326fractional papers
- 4Harbin Institute of Technology306fractional papers
- 5Polytechnic University of Turin298fractional papers
- 6Shanghai Jiao Tong University285fractional papers
- 7Pennsylvania State University284fractional papers
- 8Nanyang Technological University277fractional papers
- 9Oak Ridge National Laboratory266fractional papers
- 10Xi'an Jiaotong University254fractional papers
Patents
Patent families by the nation of origin of their applicants and their earliest priority year, from the CPC and IPC classes the capability is read from. 2025 onwards is incomplete: families are published 18 months after priority.
Families by priority year
The five leading origins, families by year
20,380 applicants filed here in 2015–2024; the five largest held 11% of families (HHI 32 of 10,000: unconcentrated).
Share of families by origin, 2020–2024
- 1China55.4%36,995 families
- 2United States12.1%8,067 families
- 3Japan9.7%6,500 families
- 4Germany6.0%4,000 families
- 5South Korea6.0%3,979 families
- 6France1.8%1,199 families
- 7Taiwan1.1%746 families
- 8Switzerland1.0%643 families
- 9United Kingdom0.8%529 families
- 10Italy0.8%505 families
Applicants filing most internationally, 2015–2024
Families filed in more than one office, by applicant as the offices name them.
- 1FANUC CORP2,162international families
- 2HEWLETT PACKARD DEVELOPMENT CO1,623international families
- 3FANUC LTD1,601international families
- 4GEN ELECTRIC964international families
- 5SIEMENS AG919international families
- 6MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORP534international families
- 7SEIKO EPSON CORP528international families
- 8HEWLETT PACKARD DEVELOPMENT CO LP370international families
- 9BOEING CO343international families
- 10RICOH CO LTD304international families
Classification read
- B33Y Additive manufacturing: processes, machines, materials, products · 664.6k documents
- B29C64/00 Additive manufacturing of plastics · 479.1k documents
- B22F10/00 Additive manufacturing from metal powder · 242.3k documents
- B22F12/00 Machines for metal additive manufacturing · 133.1k documents
- B28B1/001 Additive manufacturing of ceramics and concrete · 16.5k documents
- B23K26/342 Laser build-up welding and cladding · 19.1k documents
- B23K15/00 Electron-beam welding and cutting · 30.3k documents
- G05B19/18 Numerical control of machine tools · 226.8k documents
- B23H Electrical discharge and electrochemical machining · 109.9k documents
- B24B13/00 Grinding and polishing of optical surfaces · 22.3k documents
Shares inventions with
Capabilities whose classes the same families also fall in, by overlap (Jaccard).
- Advanced Robotics3,239 families · 0.039
- Structural & Composite Materials1,787 families · 0.027
- Semiconductor Equipment & Materials1,671 families · 0.012
Companies
50 companies in this capability, across 8 regions. The leading 12:
- 1StratasysLargest polymer additive manufacturing system maker by revenue, with FDM and PolyJet printers, materials and software (dual HQ Rehovot and Eden Prairie, Minnesota).Manufacture
- 2EOSWorld leader in industrial laser powder-bed fusion systems for metals and polymers, with a large installed base in aerospace, medical and tooling.Manufacture
- 33D SystemsInventor of stereolithography; sells SLA, SLS and DMP metal printers plus materials and healthcare AM services.Manufacture
- 4FANUCWorld's largest maker of CNC controls and a major maker of robots and Robodrill/Robocut machine tools, and the top international patent filer in this capability.Equipment & materials
- 5DMG MORIOne of the world's largest machine tool builders (with German arm DMG MORI AG), making 5-axis and mill-turn machines and LASERTEC hybrid additive systems.Manufacture
- 6TrumpfLeading maker of industrial lasers and sheet-metal machine tools, and supplier of TruPrint laser powder-bed metal 3D printers.Equipment & materials
- 7HP Inc.Multi Jet Fusion polymer and Metal Jet binder-jet platforms make HP a top production-AM vendor and the second-largest international patent filer in this field.Manufacture
- 8GE AerospaceLargest serial user of metal AM in aero engines (LEAP fuel nozzles) and owner of Colibrium Additive (ex-Concept Laser, Arcam EBM and AP&C powders).Integration
- 9Siemens (Siemens EDA)Sinumerik CNC controls, NX/Xcelerator CAM and AM software, and in-house AM for gas turbines (Materials Solutions) make it a top precision-manufacturing patent holder.Software & services
- 10Nikon (Nikon SLM Solutions)Acquired SLM Solutions (Lübeck) in 2023, gaining large-format multi-laser metal powder-bed systems such as the NXG 600, alongside its own Lasermeister DED line.Manufacture
- 11Bright Laser Technologies (BLT)China's largest metal AM firm, supplying large multi-laser powder-bed systems and printed parts to Chinese aerospace and defence.Manufacture
- 12Farsoon TechnologiesOpen-platform metal and polymer powder-bed fusion system maker with a fast-growing installed base in China and abroad.Manufacture
