Decoding China’s leadership in 3D printing innovation: patent trends and technological evolution

Hao Hao Gu, Yu Li, Zhenpeng Li and Sha Dong

International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies, 2026, vol. 21, 1a-12

Abstract: This study investigates the development of Chinese 3D printing patents, focusing on application trends, geographic distribution, applicants, and International Patent Classifications. To uncover the underlying technical themes, we applied text mining techniques, specifically Latent Dirichlet Allocation, for topic recognition and hidden Markov models to trace their evolution over time. The analysis highlights how key technical topics have shifted, while also reflecting the rapid growth of 3D printing technology in China since 2013 and the notable rise in patent activity from 2019 onward. These findings provide useful insights for governments, enterprises, and research institutes seeking to understand market dynamics and the trajectory of 3D printing development.

Keywords: China 3D printing; patent analysis; LDA; topic recognition; HMM; thematic evolution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ijlct/ctaf136 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:ijlctc:v:21:y:2026:i::p:1a-12.

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies is currently edited by Saffa B. Riffat

More articles in International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies from Oxford University Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().