Lily Camera Drone

Manufacturer: Fudy Solutions
Designer: Ryan Kelly
Location: Taiwan
Project Type: Produced
Product Launch Location: USA
Packaging Contents: Camera Drone
Packaging Substrate / Materials: Paperboard, plastic
Printing Process: Offset printing

Hailed a “drone revolution” when the product trailer was revealed to the public, this miniature vessel-like drone is completely waterproof and equipped with a 12 million pixel feature lens and two other lenses to track focus and enhance stability while in flight. Lily incorporates new concepts such as allowing being hand tossed into the air, automatic tracking and other new “consumer drone” features.

Lily Robotics is a newly established company based in Silicon Valley. The Lily drone comes with new functions such as hand toss to flight, automatic tracking and other functions not yet available on the market. As the company promotes innovation and daring to dream, a variety of different protective materials were used to try to create a new yet protective lining so that consumers may experience Lily’s innovative spirit from the moment they open the packaging.

Although the product promotes the idea of a palm-sized mini-drone, its 1.2 kilograms of weight may result in larger vibrations in transit. Lily also comes with multiple parts and is about the size of a burger with four foldable wings. Taking all of the above into account, how to incorporate sections of the packaging to stabilize the product within becomes the biggest challenge.

Various materials were experimented with to provide a protective lining. Multiple samples using PP, PET and PS were made. In the end, the lining of the cover was made through PP vacuum forming, and the lining of the bottom was made using two attached vacuum formed pieces of PS. The choice was made according to PP’s properties allowing for a more streamlined appearance while PS made it easier to mold cavities to support and stabilize the product within the packaging.

What’s Unique?
Cork was also considered as a possible lining material as its vibration damping and biodegradable properties as well as unique organic qualities make it extremely well-suited to this purpose. However, due to difficulties in obtaining large amounts of cork and high production costs at the time Lily entered the market and taking into account cork’s propensity to crumble, it was eliminated as a possible option. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that after many years of work and development, cork is now being incorporated into a variety of packaging for multiple products.