Drone technology is helping to revolutionise industries across the UK. They are making construction sites safer, transportation links more reliable and energy sector businesses more streamlined.

Whether you operate a wind energy business that needs to monitor turbine blades or you need to manage a construction site and deliver reports on project developments to investors, the use of drones is helping to revolutionise the market. So much so that you may be reading this as you consider hiring a drone inspection firm to conduct surveys for your business. If that is the case then there are a few questions that you should consider.

1 – Do you need a drone program?

Drones can help your business. From aerial inspection to indoor and confined spaces surveys, they can help conduct visual inspection work in dangerous environments and from vantage points that are impossible any other way. While some businesses try to use drones internally; by hiring a drone service provider like ourselves, it can:

Save you money. The cost of commercial drones, the inspection and survey software and the training of drone pilots can be expensive. The upfront costs of an inhouse drone programme are high and the operating budget is equally something that has to be budgeted for.

Safety regulations. It is not as simple as buying a drone and start flying. There are regulations and flight licenses required. Depending on what industry you are in and what you are wanting to use a drone survey for, you may need special permission to fly (ie. near an airport, in a built up population area etc). We have all the experience and licensing to abide by these regulations.

Processing data. Drone inspection is not just about taking a few photos. From thermal imaging to GPS location tagging, 3D modelling and topographical surveys. We have the equipment and the software to process images, video and thermal scans into actionable data.

2 – What kind of inspection do you need?

If you are needing a visual inspection of key assets for insurance purposes every 6 months (for example) then hiring an outsourced drone inspection company is the sensible option. We provide scheduled inspection programmes for many clients across Scotland who require specific, repeat visual inspection drone flights at set times in the year for insurance, health and safety and structure monitoring. Architects and Engineering firms need 3D Modelling of sites as part of their planning and design work but may only need one or two inspection flights per year. We work with many Architecture firms and Engineering Contractors working on sites or new projects. We also provide monitoring inspection work for construction projects that allows investors to see construction progress on investment sites.

3 – What data do you need from a drone inspection?

We operate a fleet of drones equipped with different inspection equipment. If you need standard RGB images of a job site, our 4K camera and video capturing are some of the best in the business and we can take thousands of images of a site that are then processed by our award winning cloud based software.

If you are wanting to monitor the deterioration of a structural asset (such as the laminate on a wind turbine blade) then comparison software can help to inspect the developing deterioration as part of a scheduled maintenance plan.

4 – What type of drone do you need?

We have aerial drones that can conduct powerline inspection in wide open spaces. Drones equipped with visual GPS systems that can be used for areas where signal loss can be a problem (such as under an Oil Platform) and we have confined spaces drones with protective cages that allows them to fly down internal pipes looking for problems. We have drones fitted with High-Res RGB camera. Ones with thermal sensors and others with Multispectral sensors that can be used to monitor plant growth for farming.

Find out more

We provide award winning drone survey and inspection services across Scotland and the North of England. Our team of fully qualified drone pilots can provide visual indoor, outdoor and underwater drone surveys with HD video, thermal imaging and photography media. The significant cost and time savings of drone surveys means that they are a genuine alternative to conventional inspection methods are are fast becoming the number 1 method of conducting regular visual inspections on structures, utilities and infrastructure.

To meet the growing demand for drone surveys, we are constantly expanding our fleet of aerial drones to meet our customers needs and offer the very best in drone services across the country.

At Balmore, we offer the expertise of four decades in difficult access works including roofing, rope access, industrial cleaning and drone inspection services. Our one stop shop approach to inspection, repair and cleaning has grown through our desire to constantly exceed our clients expectations and offer a service that is far superior to our competitors.

To find out more about our drone inspection work and to arrange a demonstration of the benefits of using drones for your visual inspection and survey needs, please contact us today.