**3. Research Method**

The studies were carried out in two stages: (1) pilot studies and (2) main studies. The tests were carried out using the survey method. The survey questionnaire included multi-alternative closed questions.

The pilot study was intended, initially, to identify the needs of the industry's representatives in carrying out work in the field of material testing and additive manufacturing technologies. The pilot study involved 10 companies from the automotive industry and 10 companies from the metal industry from the Lubuskie Voivodeship, employing between 30 and 1400 employees. The survey respondents from the automotive industry were mostly representatives of the management staff of operational, technological and R&D areas (managers (2), directors (2), supervisors (3), principal (1)) as well as the cost leader and technical and the commercial adviser. In the metal industry, half of the respondents were representatives of the production management staff (director (1), manager (1) managers (3) and representatives of specialist technological, quality and sales staff, (5)). Among the 20 companies surveyed, 7 declared that AM technologies were used in their enterprises, of which 3 companies were from the automotive industry and 4 were from the metal industry.

The main research was then carried out in 250 small, medium and large manufacturing companies from western Poland, including 125 representatives from the metal and automotive industries. The research group accounts for 1% of the total number of manufacturing companies from the automotive industry and metal industry group in Western Poland. Among the automotive companies there were 92 small enterprises, 29 medium enterprises and 4 large enterprises, while representatives of the metal industry comprised 120 small enterprises, 27 medium enterprises and 3 large enterprises. The respondents in the automotive industry were mostly representatives of the management (69) and company owners (32), specialist employees, including technologists, logisticians, designers, marketing employees (16) and company support employees, including assistants, accountants, administrative staff, etc. (8). In the metal industry, the respondents to the survey were mainly representatives of the management (72), owners and shareholders (36) and specialist employees, among others, in the fields of quality, production, purchasing, design and construction (13) and company support employees, including accountants and sales/sales department staff (4).

A total of 109 of the 250 enterprises surveyed declared themselves to be users of additive manufacturing technology, of which 57 were from the metal industry and 52 were from the automotive industry.
