Gamatest Moves Towards Being the Best

Gamatest, aiming to eliminate the external dependency of our country in the field of material testing and to become a pioneering laboratory with its R&D activities in this field, adopts the principle of providing accurate testing and analysis services with its well-trained and open-to-development team as well as the most advanced devices and technologies.

Aiming to be an education and R&D center beyond a laboratory that offers test and analysis services at the highest standards, Gamatest provides services in the field of physical, fastness, flammability level assessment, chemical, and specialized tests.

We are pleased to include Gamatest in the ‘Turkish Textile Machinery Industry’ exclusive, which our Textile Technology magazine has specially prepared for this month. We talked about the present endeavors and future projects of Gamatest in the interview that we conducted with the company’s General Manager, Seven Yılmaztürk.

What kind of studies and for which sectors does Gamatest Laboratory Services Company carry out? Could you please tell us about future projects by providing general outlining details about the company?

Gamatest Laboratory Services INC is a private and independent testing, analysis, and research laboratory established by industrialists and academicians with more than a quarter of a century experience in textile testing and devices with 100 percent domestic capital to serve the textile, ready-to-wear, carpet, paper/cardboard packaging shoes/leather, and toy industries. As is known, Gamma is the beam with the smallest wavelength (<10 picometers – smaller than the diameter of an atomic nucleus) and the highest energy level (100keV), symbolizing the working sensitivity and dynamism of our organization. We see it as our vision to eliminate the foreign dependency of our country in the field of material tests and to be a leading laboratory that will guide our sector with the R&D activities that we will carry out in this field. Our principle is to provide the fastest and most accurate test and analysis services with our well-educated, experienced, open-minded, disciplined, and dynamic team using the most advanced devices and technologies. In line with this understanding and the awareness that we provide a critical service, we attach great importance to the competence of our personnel. Each of our colleagues is meticulously selected, and we work in a continuous training subject with the commitment of confidentiality and impartiality. Our laboratory is equipped with technologies that enable our devices to communicate with each other within the scope of Industry 4.0. We are working to upgrade this technology to a level that allows our customers to monitor the stage of their test requests. In addition, we are trying to implement our projects on web-based software technologies in order to simplify and accelerate the creation processes for the test requests that our customers encounter the most difficulties.

As you know, the devastating pandemic period that started in 2020 had severe effects on most sectors. How did you go through this period as a Gamatest Laboratory Services Company?

As Gamatest, we, unfortunately, had to face the troublesome Covid-19 pandemic at a very critical stage for our company, just when we were waiting for the audit visit during the Türkak 17025 accreditation process. Within the scope of the measures taken, the visit was delayed and this situation caused our accreditation process to be prolonged. In addition, as our business volume approached the targeted figures, we were also negatively affected by the initial shock, along with all sectors. We switched to half-time working schedules in order to protect the well-being of our employees. With the overcoming of the first wave, we adapted to the new normal and caught our pre-pandemic tempo.

Have you had any new investments and projects implemented during this period?

Due to the Coronavirus pandemic outbreak, surgical protective masks have become a strategic product all over the world and there have even been frictions between countries at the point of supply. As Gamatest, we have added tests for surgical protective masks, gowns, and anti-bacterial disinfectants to our testing services in order to meet the need for testing and analysis of these products. We quickly supplied the required test devices. At the stage we have reached, we train our staff under the consultancy of our expert lecturers from universities and hope to complete their accreditations in a short time and offer them to the service of our country. In the medium term, our goal is to eliminate the external dependence of our country on this issue by performing antiviral tests in our laboratory.

What are your expectations for 2021? Do you have new projects; can you please elaborate on them?

Upon the completion of our accreditation processes, we will accelerate our promotion and marketing activities in the new year. In addition to physical and chemical textile tests, we will expand our accreditation scope in our flammability (fireproof-ness) tests. In addition to textiles, we plan to commission our test services for the paper and packaging sector in 2021. We will launch our social media channels to enable our customers to reach us faster and easier. We will expand the scope of our training videos that are prepared for our Youtube channel. In addition, we will start our R&D projects in 2021 in order to develop new test methods. We would like Gamatest to be a training and R&D center beyond a laboratory that offers the highest standards of testing and analysis.

Do you have any works for the ITM 2021 Exhibitions planned to be held in June? Will you have any productions to introduce? What are your expectations from the exhibition?

ITM has become one of the most important meeting and promotion platform for the Turkish textile industry. We want to take part in the exhibition within the scope of our promotional activities in 2021. Until then, if the troublesome pandemic outbreak can be brought under control, we think that ITM is the fastest and most effective way to reach the industry. We hope that life returns to its normal conditions as soon as possible and we come together in environments that we miss.

Interview: Kübra KARACA