With extended opening times during their Summer Bytes Festival, the British National Museum of Computing (TNMOC, www.tnmoc.org) invited visitors to learn about 3D printing on the second weekend in August. Visitors could see printers in action, and try their hand at designing and printing objects on smaller machines. The collection of the museum now also includes a 3D printer as a display item.

"Corporate visitors and general public visitors alike were fascinated by the 3D printing weekend. They were able to see multicolour pens being printed on an advanced machine or small objects such as tiny chess pieces with incredible detail being printed on lower cost models,” said Andrew Spencer, events manager at the museum.

Simon van de Crommert, head of 3D Systems Europe, a market leader company, commented that 3D printing was a new technology, however, it was progressing so rapidly that some printers were no longer sold in the market, and looked so obsolete that they would actually become museum pieces in no time.

The pace of progress is so fast that this tendency will strengthen in the future.