Educational facilities may require printer supplies for 3D machines in the future, as the technology could radically change how lessons are taught.

Bre Pettis of MakerBot Industries explained to Forbes magazine that the innovations have become more accessible over the last few years, which could lead to teachers and students making greater use of such products.

His firm has begun a pilot programme in a number of schools in New York that use such machines to assist in children's learning.

According to MakerBot, the technology "engages students in the world around them, kindles a curiosity about how machines work, how objects fit together and how the designers… have found solutions to a variety of design problems".

Mr Pettis said the use of 3D printers in the classroom enables pupils to have an idea, create it and than make it again if it does not work.

It is this ability to remake objects in order to improve them that he said is the "powerful" part of the technology.