How UK Drone Specialist heliguy Drives Innovation With In-House 3D Printing

The drone industry has many distinct requirements, a major one being the ability to combine extreme ruggedness and durability with lightweighted components. Success in the this relatively new industry relies on the ability to manufacture in new ways, and drone companies that excel are using additive manufacturing for its ability to provide unique solutions.   

heliguy, one of the UK’s leading drone specialists, has long been exploring how they could integrate 3D printing into their design, product development, and manufacturing processes.

Learn from Ross Embleton, Lead Product Designer, how heliguy was able to streamline its product development process and bring manufacturing in-house — improving lead times, reducing costs, and gaining more control over its workflows with stereolithography (SLA) and selective laser sintering (SLS) 3D printing technology from Formlabs.

Since the company’s inception in 2008, heliguy has focused on driving innovation in the drone industry, providing businesses of all sizes with expert support and training. As the adoption of drone technology has evolved, the breadth of heliguy’s customer base and the variety of applications has grown exponentially. 

Independent businesses in the construction industry fly drones for quoting building repair jobs faster and safer, agricultural corporations to monitor large swaths of land, police and defence organisations for search and rescue operations, entertainment industry giants such as the BBC for filming, and scientists and researchers to reach remote or treacherous areas. The sky really is the limit when it comes to heliguy’s client base. With the applications seemingly boundless, more sectors are adopting drones into their workflow.

“When we first looked at buying 3D printers, one of the questions that we had was, who do we align ourselves with? We’re quite fond of following a particular brand and staying within that ecosystem. Formlabs have such a wide range of fantastic technology, it was very difficult to ignore them,” said Embleton.

During the research phase of the 3D printing implementation and integration into their business, heliguy worked with Formlabs UK Partners SolidPrint 3D and Additive-X, and had multiple test parts printed on both the Form 3L large-format SLA 3D printer and the Fuse 1 benchtop SLS 3D printer.

“[As] soon as we got the parts back, we knew immediately that Formlabs was going to be our choice. And the support that we got from SolidPrint 3D as well was fantastic. So we couldn’t ignore that,” said Embleton.

For example, one of the latest unique projects heliguy’s team developed was a tactical dog camera to provide police with vital situational awareness. The dog camera benefits from advanced camera and image transmission technology from the drone industry.