Sustainability of Additive Manufacturing: A Bibliometric Review of LCA-Oriented Research

This study examines the environmental sustainability of additive manufacturing through a bibliometric analysis of publications indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection. A dataset of 20,000 articles, reviews, and conference papers published between 2019 and 2024 was analyzed using the Biblioshiny interface of the bibliometrix package. The analysis focuses on sustainability-related research in polymer-based additive manufacturing, with particular attention to FDM and SLA technologies, which dominate current industrial applications and exhibit distinct environmental trade-offs. Publication trends, citation patterns, collaboration networks, and keyword co-occurrence structures were evaluated to characterize the evolution and thematic orientation of the field. The results indicate a strongly interdisciplinary research landscape, high levels of international collaboration, and an increasing emphasis on life cycle assessment and energy-related impacts. At the same time, the findings suggest that sustainability considerations remain unevenly integrated across additive manufacturing research, highlighting the need for more systematic and application-specific environmental assessments.