Eliar Elektronik Ensures C Faultless Production and Sustainable Quality

With its R&D activities since its establishment in 1984, Eliar Elektronik has brought many devices, systems and softwares to the economy of the country and contributes to the automation of industrial sectors such as textile finishing, glass, insulation, ceramics and chemicals.

Eliar Elektronik first established as an industrial automation company and in 1998, the textile industry applications also started. Serving the textile sector with dyeing machine PLC, controllers and software, the company started to build mechatronic systems in the field of chemical and dyestuff automations in 1996.

Eliar Elektronik, is the first and only R&D center in the field of industrial automation systems and it is 196th in the R&D center in Turkey. Serving almost every part of the world with 35 years of experience, the company has more than 150 employees.

We have conducted a special interview for this issue of our magazine with Export Sales and Marketing Leader Mr. Cihan Devirenoğlu and Turkey Sales and Marketing Leader Mr. Özgür Sarıtaş. We had a nice conversation with them about the company’s activities and the domination of the Turkish and world markets.

Eliar Elektronik is serving many sectors but textile industry is always on the focus. Can we listen all the areas of activity in the textile industry?

Özgür Sarıtaş: We provide services mainly to dyeing, finishing, denim and garment (washing) sectors. If we talk about the garment sector, Eliar Elektronik is a true brand in the world. We are also the first company to bring automation to the garment industry. In this sector, automation was considered to be impossible due to many limitations about the garment washing processes. But with our systems, first we have proved that it is possible and finally after many references now a serious demand for automation has started to emerge. We have delivered projects to big and highly reputed companies both abroad and in Turkey. What we call automation is including controlling devices, mechatronic dispensing systems and the software that enable all of them to communicate with each other. As you know, the workforce is costing a lot for textile processing mills. The automation projects we are delivering decrease the labour requirement dramatically. Our aim with the automation systems is not only to reduce the chemical, but also to save the thrown out.

Cihan Devirenoğlu: We offer our mechatronics and electronic automation systems to all textile processes that utilize chemicals and dye. By this way, we can control the machinery that functions intended at textile operations, monitor remotely, collect data, and provide the transfer of the right amount of chemicals and dye at the right time. We are, too, trying to reduce the costs of a textile facility by increasing the efficiency of that particular facility. We aim to increase total quality and take care of more duties with fewer people. After the installment of our products, the company gains a more efficient and quality production.

Can you tell us about your dominance in the Turkish market?

Cihan Devirenoğlu: Eliar is established in 1984 and is operational since then. The mechatronics automation systems were introduced to the market in 1996. As the labor and energy costs started to increase after 2000, the value of the systems we established increased and investments in automation started. As the labor and energy costs started to increase after 2000, the value of the systems we established increased and investments in automation were initiated. After 2000, the sales volume of the company started to increase. Eliar, saw the revolution of the Turkish textile firms and gained experience from this transformation. In addition, the tendency of the customers to pay as little money as possible, increased competition, and the search of big businesses to find ways to cope with these problems while smaller businesses had to close down their establishments opened up a beautiful corridor. Eliar was able to walk through this corridor. The company currently has more than 950 systems worldwide and more than 60% of which is located in Turkey.

Özgür Sarıtaş: At this point, we can consider the lower costs as an important factor. Of course, our products are preferred not only because of their costs. The highest gain is reproducible quality. For this reason, many textile companies are basing their organizations on quality and need products in the style we produce in order to ensure sustainable quality. The same quality cannot be achieved continuously depending on human labor. That’s when automation systems come into play. Eliar has become a solution partner for all new investments in the Turkish textile sector. This is because of the references we have gained so far. We can confidently express that we are the market leader with our mechatronic and electronic systems in the Turkish market.

What is your capacity in the international market?

Cihan Devirenoğlu: We are actively operational in three main target areas; Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India. About 70% of our export-oriented projects in 2018 were flexible and customized solutions. Here, we can infer that world demand is shifting towards the tailored production side.

Özgür Sarıtaş: In the markets we mentioned as Central Asia, and especially in Uzbekistan, we are in a leading position. There are our systems installed in all of the companies that use automation. We can say that we are also market leaders in Turkic Republics and Russia. Our sales unit consists of two separate departments. The first unit covers the markets we sell products to, while the other deals with the countries that we dominate in exports. When we look at it from the export point of view, we can observe that we are spread all over the world.

What are the reasons that your customers prefer Eliar?

Cihan Devirenoğlu: Textile automation has three principles: electronics, software, and mechatronics. We are the only company that has these three and our biggest strength comes from this aspect. In addition, we are the only textile automation in our country. The fact that we have more experience than our competitors makes us advantageous. Thanks to our experience, we are able to respond much faster at the point of product development and provide flexible products tailored to customer demands. Moreover, when one of our customers tells us to automate my factory in the best possible way, we can make key-ready projects from the very beginning to the end. We are the only company that actively can do this in the world market.

Özgür Sarıtaş: Together with these, there are factors that arise from the trouble-free structure of our products. We also have a significant establishment in the technical service side. We take steps to find solutions for our customers with our customer satisfaction unit. Periodical visits are made to the systems we have installed. If the installed machine is connected to the internet network, we can monitor the performance of that machine remotely and report it to our customers.

Do you perform customized productions for customer demands?

Cihan Devirenoğlu: For a while, the decision making process of the customers, especially on automation investment, takes a considerable amount of time. Businesses are looking for a solution partner. We work with companies, the majority of which are corporate and have businesses in multiple countries. The level of partnership we have established with each of these customers is also different. We produce different solutions for different projects for our customers. They also have a lot to offer. As a result, many products are developed and improved as a consequence of customer demand. After completing the three projects of the same company and start the fourth one, there is no longer a competition possible with other companies. We can say that we are growing together with our business partners.

What are your expectations from 2020?

Cihan Devirenoğlu: Once we install an automation system to a company, we still can extend the expiration dates of the automation systems, even if the firm got a lot bigger in time. This system can be stretched out and modified in order to serve new machinery. Most of the time, an automation system suffices for 50 machines. Despite this situation, as of the end of 2019, we have exceeded our threshold that previously failed to overcome. We named this threshold, which is only for textile automation, as ’10 Million Euros’. In the following years, we aim to move forward without falling below this value. We now have a turnover of more than 15 million euros, of which 55% is export.

What do you expect from ITM 2020? Do you have any products that you plan to promote for the first time in the exhibition?

Cihan Devirenoğlu: We will host our visitors in two different halls in ITM 2020. We will introduce a product at the fair that will change the profile of rotation printing automation. Print automation systems that were available so far, were able to automate a certain portion of dyes or chemicals. We have increased the capacity of it. From now on, all the available amount will be included in the automation with our system and all of them will be intertwined. So the same machine will be able to weigh liquid, powder, and paste. It will be enough to integrate this machine with the system where prescriptions are prepared for printing. We will also have this kind of software solution for customers who don’t have the software for preparing prescriptions. The customer will prepare the prescription of the pattern to be printed, and this printing automation system will automatically dose in the required amount of dye or the necessary chemicals according to this prescription and arrange it connectable to the printing machine. The printing machine, then, will take in certain proportions and apply it to the fabric. We expect this machine to attract great interest from domestic and international buyers.

Özgür Sarıtaş: In addition, the ability of this machine that it weighs powder paint will allow a serious reduction in production costs. When this process is automated, the machine becomes a uniform machine and, moreover, there is no more dealing with the paint costs.

Interview: Kübra KARACA