The impact of 3D printing on manufacturing will be as profound as the Industrial Revolution by the estimation of some tech industry pundits.
Today there are certainly a growing number of industries building 3D models, with fields as diverse as aerospace and biotechnology finding a use for 3D printing.
Lower cost 3D printers are beginning to find their way into homes too, with 3D printers priced at around £1,000 available in office and computer stores, as well as shopping hubs like Amazon.
There’s also a burgeoning community of hobbyists building their own 3D printers based on open source designs, such as RepRap, and sharing designs for a wealth of objects through the online portal Thingiverse.
Even more exotic uses of 3D printers are being researched, including machines that build bone using stem cells and that create objects out of wood filaments, cement polymer and salt.
“3D printing is really reaching out and touching everything. It’s comparable to the web in that it’s a technology that can be applied to whatever you want it for,” said Dave Marks, media and content director for 3D Printshow, which provided the printers for the show.
The breadth of what 3D printers can build was on show at the Science Museum in London, which yesterday opened an exhibit of more than 600 3D printed objects ranging from satellite sensors to prosthetic arms.
3D printing has several advantages over traditional manufacturing techniques. Building a model doesn’t require spending thousands or more to set up machine tools and then thousands more when you want to change that model. It makes it financially viable to build 
one-off models and to tweak and customise 3D models in a way that would rapidly become hugely expensive using traditional manufacturing methods. Making simple repairs to old household appliances, rather than replacing them, also becomes more viable when spare parts can be printed off in your living room, rather than having to be tracked down and ordered online. Using a 3D printer also cuts down the supply chain: the network of factories, warehouses and shipping companies normally needed to get a product to an end user.
3D printing can also build objects using novel materials with complex shapes and structures that would be extremely difficult to reproduce using traditional methods. General Electric recently revealed a 3D-printed ceramic and carbon fiber jet engine whose lightweight design should allow for fuel economy unmatched by conventionally made counterparts. Waste can be reduced as the printer is generally using only the materials needed to build the object, rather than carving material out of a larger structure to create an object.
But in general 3D printers are also slow, two-inch high figurines printed out at the Science Museum exhibition took about one hour to print, are far more expensive than traditional manufacturing techniques for mass production and consumer grade 3D printers are only able to produce relatively simple plastic models.