# Additive Manufacturing and Chemical Engineering: Looking for Synergies from a Bibliometric Study
## 3 Results and Discussion
### Bibliometric Performance Analysis
#### 3.1.2 Publication Distribution of Countries and Institutions  
As indicated in Table 5, which presents the most productive countries regarding the subject under investigation, the United States emerged as the most prolific country, heading scientific research in the areas of additive manufacturing and chemical engineering with a total of 887 documents, representing 23.6% of the global output. The United States has a high degree of scientific development and technological progress, as well as policies and strategies that promote research and innovation. Moreover, the United States can be regarded as a global superpower in scientific production and is at the forefront of global research in numerous fields, including additive manufacturing. The transition from traditional manufacturing to additive manufacturing may offer substantial benefits in terms of supply chain lead time, raw materials and primary energy consumption, emissions, and life cycle costs for certain industrial sectors in the United States. Consequently, key stakeholders are exploring the potential of additive manufacturing to enhance and capture value in various ways within the context of the current global value chains [31; 32]. The second most prolific country in terms of scientific output on the subject was China, with 569 documents, representing 15.1% of the total. It is imperative to consider China as a significant player in the field of scientific research, particularly given its status as the only superpower capable of rivaling the United States in terms of scientific output and leadership in specific research areas. China is renowned for its rapidly expanding manufacturing sector, which has given rise to considerable environmental concerns. The transition to a greener industrial manufacturing sector has become a priority and considerable investments have been made in the development of new materials, processes, and applications, including the exploration of the potentiality of additive manufacturing [33; 34; 35]. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l l} \hline \hline
**Language** & **Publications** & **Contribution (\%)** \\ \hline Article & 2471 & 65.70 \\ Conference Paper & 663 & 17.63 \\ Review & 385 & 10.24 \\ Book Chapter & 134 & 3.56 \\ Conference Review & 41 & 1.09 \\ Editorial & 29 & 0.77 \\ Note & 15 & 0.40 \\ Book & 9 & 0.24 \\ Erratum & 9 & 0.24 \\ Short Survey & 4 & 0.11 \\ Letter & 1 & 0.03 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 4: The different types of documents published. The podium was completed by Germany, which ranked third with 374 documents, corresponding to 9.9% of the total. Germany is the leading European country in terms of scientific production on this topic, with other European countries represented in the ranking including Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Poland, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Portugal, and Turkey. These countries contribute to the advancement of knowledge and innovation from a variety of levels of development, participation, and impact, representing a range of percentages between 7.9% and 1.4%. Indeed, the collective contribution of these 12 countries amounted to 43.6% (exceeding the sum of Chinese and American contributions). In addition to the factors that facilitate the advancement of additive manufacturing in Europe, such as those shared with the United States and China, which are oriented towards more sustainable production processes [36; 37], the European continent has also faced significant challenges in ensuring access to essential technological products in recent years. These challenges have been exacerbated by circumstances such as the global COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing armed conflicts in the region. In this context, one of the most promising solutions is the development of additive manufacturing [38; 39]. Consequently, significant research efforts have been dedicated to this field. In addition to the European countries, other Asian countries have also made significant contributions to scientific production on this topic.