3D printing is a relatively new technology that has become very popular for many different types of people and organizations. There are many people who use it as a hobby and make things for use around the house. There are also many uses for 3d printing in engineering when making prototypes for different things that they are working on. But 3d printing can also be used in the world of museums. There are so many different artifacts around the world that people would not have access to if they could not travel across the world to see them. 3D printing allows people to make replicas of these items and hold them with their own hands without having to leave their houses. 3D printing has become so much cheaper and more accessible over the last 5 years. I remember looking at getting a 3D printer like 5 years ago and if you did not want to put it together yourself you would be spending upwards of 500-600 dollars for something that prints low quality and is very finicky but now there are preassemble 3D printers that print very high quality and are only like 200-300 dollars. This allows for these artifacts to be very widely available because 3D printing is so widely available. This also allows people to hold artifacts that they never could because they would be too fragile to hold. They can make as many of them as they want and break them as much as they want because 3D printing is so cheap and easily repeatable. 3D printing could also be a way for smaller museums to monetize the artifacts that they have in the museum. They could make small replicas and sell them to visitors for relatively cheap. This would allow for the museum to make a little money and the visitor to have something to take with them.
