A Scottish university student - and inventor of new bagpipe technology - has his sights set on the ‘untapped’ global market for Scotland’s national instrument after receiving several overseas orders.
Robbie MacIsaac, who is in his final year on the University of Strathclyde’s product design engineering course, pioneered the FLUX Blowpipe when he was just 14 years old - a device which could prevent respiratory issues for bagpipers.
While still a schoolboy, he was named the UK’s Most Innovative Young Engineer by the Manufacturing Technologies Association, winning the Technology Design Innovation challenge. Then in 2019, MacIsaac became a Scottish Wild Card Edge winner, before winning the Scottish Young Edge prize the following year, securing five-figure funding.
He was also a finalist at Insider's Made In Scotland Awards in 2020.
The 22 year-old has now grown FLUX Solutions to a businesses generating more than £85,000 in turnover, with orders coming in from across the UK, the US, Canada, France, Germany, Australia and New Zealand.
Most recently, MacIsaac pitched his product on Dragons’ Den last week.
“We have sold over 500 FLUX Blowpipes and had enquiries coming in from across the world,“ he commented after the appearance.
“Although now our biggest market is in Scotland and the UK, the business we’ve received from abroad is a reminder that throughout their long history, bagpipes have travelled to every corner of the globe.
“There are over 140,000 competitive bagpipers worldwide, with research suggesting the greatest portion is in North America alone.
“When you also take into consideration the number of people who play the pipes on a non-competitive basis - at weddings or parades in particular - the opportunity for the Scottish bagpipe sector to succeed overseas is huge, and an opportunity I think is still largely untapped.”
His invention, which can be used with any bagpipe, has been engineered to remove moisture from the instrument by combining the use of temperature, pressure difference and a special absorbent.
The blowpipe prolongs the lifespan of the bagpipes by preventing a build-up of moisture from damaging them, without having any detrimental effect on the sound quality or airflow.
The device could reduce the risk of Piper’s Lung disease, also known as Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis, caused when the lungs are exposed to moisture and fungi living in the instrument.
MacIsaac, who hails from Falkirk and was educated at Strathallan School in Perth, pipes competitively himself and has won several awards.
In 2022, he released the latest of his inventions, the FLUX Bagpipe Humidity Case, which stores instruments at a constant humidity to increase the health and enrich the tone of the instrument, while also being protective and transportable.
“I first started playing the bagpipes when I was nine years old and learned through school - I ended up playing competitively and was honoured to be chosen to close out the main stage after the Red Hot Chilli Peppers at T in the Park in 2016, which turned out to be the last ever festival.
“At school, I developed an interest in engineering where I won some credibility and recognition through various competitions, and ever since I’ve been trying to combine my experience and skills with my passion for the bagpipes.
“Although bagpipes have existed for hundreds of years, there’s always room for improvement, to ultimately make the instrument more accessible, easier to manage and appealing to play.”
MacIsaac works with McCallum Bagpipes, which manufactures bagpipes in a factory in Kilmarnock, and now helps build the FLUX Solutions products.
Kenny MacLeod, managing sales director and co-founder of McCallum Bagpipes, commented: “Robbie has identified a problem that we’ve had for decades regarding moisture entering the pipe bag and making the instrument unstable.
“Bagpipes are crying out to be updated and modernised with some new innovations.
“Robbie’s enthusiasm for the project is also inspiring and great to see, at his young age the future is looking very bright for him.”
MacIsaac also received guidance and funding from the RBS Accelerator programme and the University of Strathclyde's Entrepreneurial Development Scheme.
Alan Feighery, start-up manager at the University of Strathclyde, said: “Robbie’s passion and energy is second to none, the way in which he has balanced being an early-stage entrepreneur, while being an undergraduate student working towards completing his engineering degree, is extremely impressive.“
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