Posted to News on 27th Oct 2026, 11:00
Intertronics helps drone manufacturer solve a critical production challenge
For drone lightshow manufacturer, Starbound Labs, a bonding problem at the prototyping stage threatened to block progress towards CAA approval in the UK. Drawing on adhesives specialist Intertronics' expertise, the manufacturer selected a suitable bonding solution and identified wider design improvements that took months off development and testing time, and accelerated its progress to certification.
Starbound Labs develops lightweight drones for large-scale aerial displays that involve up to hundreds of units flying in formation. Its units weigh just 285 g, a stark contrast against the standard industry weight range from 400-800g and charge in only 20 minutes rather than 90. What's more, its custom real-time kinematic (RTK) antenna weighs less than five grams and enables centimetre-level positioning accuracy relative to a base station.
"The trouble we had with securing electronic components through extreme flight conditions was a major roadblock in development," said Dan Aljassas, Product Designer at Starbound Labs. "We found that the off-the-shelf cyanoacrylate adhesives we were using failed in flying trials and we needed something different."
Starbound Labs approached Intertronics for its adhesives product range and knowledge, visiting its Technology Centre in Oxfordshire. Testing different adhesives against the drone's materials resulted in the selection of Born2Bond Ultra K85. Its environmental resistance and flexibility are ideal properties for the conditions in commercial aerial displays.
"Getting Intertronics' insights before we finalised the design has taken months off this development phase," said Aljassas. "They've made a major difference to our business growth prospects."
By introducing Intertronics into the development process at an early stage, Starbound Labs gained access to specialist materials and manufacturing expertise that were not available in-house.
"Intertronics' investment in finding the right solution really impressed us," recalled Aljassas. "The visit to the Technology Centre really sold us on the depth of their technical expertise, but I hadn't expected their knowledge of manufacturing too."
"Low-cost, general-purpose cyanoacrylate adhesives (CAs) can struggle to bond low surface energy plastics such as the polypropylene (PP) used in the drone design, resulting in poor wetting and weak adhesion," said Craig Geerthsen, Lead Sales Specialist at Intertronics.
"As well as narrowing down the adhesive options, we reviewed the bond line geometries to help improve process repeatability," explained Geerthsen. "We suggested ways to optimise surface preparation and highlighted where increasing the effective bonding area could enhance bond performance."
The discussions and material tests with Intertronics led Starbound Labs to modify the mould tooling used for drone body production. Following successful flight trials using the new design and high performance CA adhesive, the companies continue to work together as Starbound prepares for CAA approval, with the potential introduction of automated dispensing as a future opportunity as production volumes increase.
