Trade regulations and customs taxes impact some industries more than others, particularly newer markets like drone manufacturing, which often face heavier effects than more established industries due to less diversity in the supply chain.
ORQA FPV, a drone manufacturer from Croatia, recognized this issue long before the trade war of 2025. Today, the supply chain and manufacturing base they have built within the European Union put them in the best position to offer alternatives for those seeking manufacturers that do not rely on large overseas factories.
One of the key components of building a robust supply chain is leveraging Formlabs' Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) 3D printing technology in-house. With two Fuse Series SLS printers and Nylon 12 Powder and TPU 90A Powder materials, SLS printing allows them to have a streamlined, cost-effective workflow and helps them get to market faster while producing high-quality parts of all types that the drone industry requires.
ORQA started in 2018 from a business incubator for entrepreneurs, with three young founders who saw a gap in the supply chain of the drone industry in Europe. “Users in the European Union and the U.S. in the public safety sector cannot access cutting-edge technology because many market leaders are blacklisted for security reasons,” said Antonio Kovac, Chief Mechanical Design Engineer at ORQA.
Although foreign companies can sell cheap FPV drones and accessories to the general public in the U.S. and the European Union, public safety and security agencies are often restricted from using products from those companies. Businesses and agencies funded by the government must rely on a supply chain with limited options for accessing cutting-edge drone technology. The founders of ORQA saw this disparity and began developing prototypes to showcase at CES 2019, during a time when the drone trend was rapidly growing.
The prototypes showcased at CES helped drive the Kickstarter campaign to success — selling up to 600 pairs of advanced display goggles. Most of those prototypes were produced with the older SLS printer EOS Formiga. “In the first two to three years of design and testing, we used the incubator's printing lab, which had both FDM, SLA, and large EOS Formiga machines. It helped us get our early orders, but it was expensive and too large for us to purchase ourselves,” Kovac said.
When ORQA expanded its product line — from goggles for drone racing, circuit boards, antennas, bases, propellers to ready-to-fly drones — the team realized the need for its own 3D printer to support mass production, repetitive prototyping, and continuous testing of actual parts.
Why ORQA chose to add the Fuse Series printer to its production process
Expanding the customer base and adding new product lines is good for business, but the ORQA team was limited because they had to share the 3D printing lab with others. Even though they had some space in the office for a printer, it wasn't enough for an older SLS model like the Formiga. After using the EOS printer alongside others for several years, ORQA decided to install their own printer in the office, choosing a powerful solution that could grow with the business.
— Antonio Kovak, Mechanical Designer, ORQA FPV said
“At that time, especially in the mechanical department, we considered it a must-have if we wanted to grow. If we had to order parts from Shapeways, it would take two months to try an idea once, but now we can print jobs within a day.”
Speed, production volume, and material switching
When the Fuse 1 could produce parts daily, ORQA grew even faster, from three founders in 2019 to a team of over 140 today. The company's growth aligns with the overall expansion of the drone industry. Drone manufacturers in the U.S. and the European Union need parts that pose no security risks, and drone service businesses (such as construction inspections, offshore wind turbine maintenance, etc.) require high-quality drones for their work.
ORQA can meet those demands by designing and manufacturing everything in-house in Croatia — from electronic speed controllers (ESCs), antennas, flight control systems, FPV goggles, to complete assembled drones.
