Abstract
Additive manufacturing is an emerging technology that brings several opportunities to the manufacturing industry. Therefore, research in this arena on current and future developments is required to make strategic decisions. Under this context, the goal of this research is to develop a patent analysis on additive manufacturing. Keyword-patent analysis is performed to identify the most important organizations, countries, inventors, and technology areas through International Patent Classifications (IPCs) of the additive manufacturing industry. Results show that there is an increase on additive manufacturing research, particularly in 2013 and 2014. The main areas of research are focused on shaping of plastics and after-treatment of shaped products and working metallic powder and manufacture articles from this material. Moreover, the analysis indicates that leading countries on additive manufacturing research are United States, Great Britain and Switzerland. Additionally, top three companies on this area are: Stratasys Inc. (USA), United Technologies Corp. (USA) and Alstom Technology LTD (Switzerland). Its recent research inventions were identified in this study. The main contribution of this research is to offer a template for analysis in other industries, but it also brings valuable insights to decision makers interested in recent patent efforts developed for the advancement of additive manufacturing.
Highlights
Manufacturing is an important sector for the worldwide economy
A total of 735 patents, 336 family patents and 629 inventors were obtained on Additive Manufacturing (AM) between 2011 and January 28th, 2015
129 families were detected in 2013 while in 2014 this amount raised to 247 family patents
Summary
Manufacturing is an important sector for the worldwide economy. In 2009, this sector employed 31 million persons in the European Union, generated EUR 5,812 billion of turnover and EUR 1,400 billion of value added (European Factories of the Future Research Association, 2013). With such economic impact, it is mandatory that entities involved in this sector keep abreast of the competitive environment including technological advances to support strategic decisions on Research & Development + Innovation (R&D+I). Due to current movements in market forces it is expected that not far away from 2020 manufacturers will be confronted by strong challenges for developing more customized products with better performance and less cost. A proper identification and use of relevant knowledge in decision making acquires a key role to gain new competitive advantages (Youtie et al, 2007)
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