Şenmak Makine Marketing Chief Melek Sarıca evaluated K 2022.

“K 2022 was a qualified exhibition that met our expectations”

She said that the K 2022 Exxhibition, which offers the opportunity to come together with the plastic and rubber industry at a global level, met their expectations. Şenmak Makine Marketing Chief Melek Sarıca said, “The K exhibition turns into a unique opportunity for us that we catch every 3 years.”

Sarıca: “The K exhibiton, we attended for the 6th time this year, once again proved its driving force. We were together with 176,000 visitors and 3037 exhibitors from all continents. We have been eagerly awaiting K2022 after almost no trade fair has been held around the world for the last three years. Although the global unpredictability and uncertainty of events are clearly felt in the sector, we noticed in K that; this did not affect the number of exhibitors or the quality of the visitors. We saw participants embrace the need to think sustainably about plastics. Solutions for the circular economy, energy/resource efficiency and sustainability were the focus. The equipment and machinery were incredible in exhibition. It was clearly felt that the awareness of social responsibility penetrated the plastics industry.”

“A unique opportunity we catch every 3 years”

Stating that 85% of the fair participants are among the potential customer portfolios, Sarıca emphasized that they had the opportunity to network face-to-face by talking to qualified and technical representatives at the fair. Sarıca continued his explanations as follows: “In the case of Şenmak, the most important aspect of K for us was the opportunity to form a face-to-face network."

We manufacture Screws and Barrels for injection and extrusion machines that produce plastic and rubber. Our customer profile consists of machine manufacturers call OEM, and end users who use these machines. So that; The K exhibition offers business opportunities to Şenmak even if all its doors are closed and no visitors are allowed in. 57% of the participants are machinery manufacturers, 28% are semi-finished or plastic and rubber parts manufacturers, which we call end users, that is, 85% of the fair participants are already in our potential customer profile. For this reason, the K turns into a unique opportunity for us that we catch every 3 years. One of the biggest advantages of K is that the exhibitors and visitors are middle and top managers. In most of our meetings, we dealt with qualified and technical representatives. Considering the global uncertainties and energy crises, we prepared a tight and aggressive calendar for K2022, made CRM developments specific to K, and successfully completed the 8-day plan with a team of 15 people in the field. Some of our talks progressed faster than we had anticipated. We established promising new customer relationships, made physical visits and meetings, hosted our existing customers at our booth and signed spontaneous business deals.

With the priority of increasing our brand awareness and market share, we will be collecting the fruits of the commercial seeds we planted in K in the short and long term.”

Turkey's interest in the fair is increasing

Stating that Turkey ranks 4th among the countries participating in the fair, Sarıca concluded her words as follows: “We are also proud of the intense participation of the Turkish plastics industry in K2022. Among the countries participating in the fair, we were in the 4th place with 185 companies after Germany, Italy and China. Our country's export-oriented and successful companies more and more attention join these platforms. In this context; I would like to thank İKMİB and PAGDER for supporting the export targets of the plastics industry.”

IN 2022, WE AIM TO GROW AT LEAST 25 PERCENT IN TOTAL NUMBER OF PRODUCTION AND EXPORTS

Şenmak Makina Sales Manager Bülent Ceyhan talked about the success they have achieved as a company and their targets for the next period.

We would like you to explain the structure of your company and your current business agenda. (product types, annual production capacity, facilities, number of employees, etc.)

Bülent Ceyhan: Our company, which was established in 1987, is the leading plastic processing equipment and screw barrel manufacturer in Turkey today.

As Şenmak, we have attached great importance to institutionalization and development since our establishment, and within this scope, we carefully determined the job and job descriptions by receiving consultancy and institutional support. We have determined the internal rules and guidelines. We determined the work flows and goals of the units. We created our corporate identity and corporate basic principles for branding. Our company, Şenmak, has a corporate structure consisting of 12 departments, employing a total of 94 people, 44 white collar and 50 blue collar.

We produce around 35 CNC and Universal chip removal machines in our facility with a total area of ​​6.250 m2.

By establishing the first R&D center of our country in our sector, we carry out activities to develop new raw materials and more efficient Plasticizing equipment.

Although the production of plasticizing equipment is our main field of activity, we also work on machine designs in this field.

Our center, which started its operations in 2018 and still continues to be the first and only R&D Center in the plastics processing machinery industry, is on the R&D 251+ list in the research of Turkey's Top R&D Spending Companies with an expenditure of 2 million 463 thousand TL in 2020. It is ranked 445th. In 2021, our R&D expenditure amount is 2 million 850 thousand TL.

The products we produce are used in the most functional processes of polymer processing machines that serve Automotive, White Goods, Construction, Agriculture, Textile, Energy Lines (Cable) and many other sectors with Plastic and Rubber raw material content.

We produce an average of 4 thousand sets of screw barrels per year. This number means 4 thousand production machines and 65% of our production is exported to the world's leading machinery manufacturers.

Growth and investment are the agenda of our company, which has grown by more than 50% last year.

What kind of firsts has your brand brought to our country in its field?

Bülent Ceyhan: Since the day it was founded, ŞENMAK has been a pioneer in many innovations, since it has been focused on continuous development and improvement. Since our products work mechanically, their strength properties require a high level of importance. In this context, our focus is on developing products with higher durability, longer life, more efficiency and high quality production.

Developed by our R&D center; ŞENMAK-N, ŞENMAK-N+, ŞENMAK-K, ŞENMAK-K+ and ŞENMAK-F, a screw coated with PTA welding powders becomes three times more durable than a screw undergoing traditional production processes. In this way, our primary privilege is the quality we offer to the market. In this sense, ŞENMAK has been a company that is constantly followed and imitated by its competitors.

Thanks to the know-how of working with the world's leading machinery manufacturers, the personnel we train contribute to the development of the sector. In this context, ŞENMAK pioneered the establishment and development of 5 sector companies within its body.

Can we learn about your business agenda and 2022 goals?

Bülent Ceyhan: Our company, which has achieved ambitious growth figures one after another, has had the chance to monitor the needs of the market more closely. With the confidence of these developments, our most important agenda for 2022 is manifested as both increasing the export figures and expanding our production facility.

Accordingly, we aim to increase our total production and export figures by at least 25 percent.

Our primary goal is to continuously increase this rate and to provide benefits for our company and our country. We continue our work with great motivation in order to add new customers from many countries of the world to our references. Our 2022 targets now include non-European markets and overseas countries.

Based on our experience, I can say that there are three main factors that we differentiate and achieve success in reaching our goals; quality, reasonable lead times and availability.

In addition to this, we have decided to invest in 2 new production processes that are not included in our company, and we have completed the contracts.

How is the decision to invest in a new production line, R&D, facility or technology? What kind of investment have you made recently?

Bülent Ceyhan: The biggest determining market is our customers. However, in order not to lag behind today's innovative and creative solutions, you must foresee. In other words, letting yourself go with the flow of life means falling behind your competitors. The business should not manage you, you should manage the business. This means anticipating customer expectations before the customer, researching and doing the necessary studies. This is exactly what ŞENMAK does. It participates in national and international fairs, conducts customer visits and consumer surveys, and realizes facility and technology investments by consolidating all these activities.

In 2021, we included two machines that are bottlenecks for our company in our production lines.

What incentives are there for production and how does your company benefit from it?

Bülent Ceyhan: As in our country, we benefit from the investment incentives of KOSGEB and the Ministry of Industry. We carry out our technological and productivity projects with the consultation of relevant institutions and academicians.

In your factory; Can you tell us about the production processes from raw material input to design and R&D studies, and from there to shipping?

Bülent Ceyhan: We manage all our processes with "Şenmak System". Thanks to the "Şenmak System" that we developed within our company in order to increase the production process and standardization, communication between all departments is provided through the system.

We can manage all processes with a single system. As a result, corporate resource planning and communication power within the company increase, and not only that, it also saves us a great deal of time.

Since our activities start with customer demands first, all technical specifications, technical drawings and production documents are prepared by the engineering team when the customer demand reaches our company. In addition, our raw material needs are determined at this stage.

Our Quality Assurance Plans, which are also prepared in the Engineering department, are directed to the relevant departments through our "Şenmak System" erp program that we have developed within our company.

Our Quality Assurance Plans, consisting of 5 stages, are implemented as follows;

1 - Input Control

2 - Process Control

3 - Focused Control

4 - Random Control

5 - Final Check

Our Process controls, which we carry out at every stage of our production and by recording in the electronic environment, are secured with our Final control application.

What kind of methods and systems are used for quality production with zero downtime / zero error? Which automation hardware and software technologies do you use mostly?

Bülent Ceyhan: We use 3 different information systems in our company;

· Internationally used CAD and CAM in our R&D and Engineering departments

(Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Machining) programs

· ERP system for Production and Planning management

· Inspection Manager (Quality Control System) for Quality Assurance

Our information systems management is carried out within our organization by considering the needs of our business and is constantly updated according to the needs.

Could you give information about your machine park and tell us about the investments you have made in this field and the advantages it provides in the last period?

Bülent Ceyhan: Our Machine Park; CNC controlled Turning, CNC milling, CNC Deep Hole Drilling, CNC Honing, CNC Grinding Machines Welding Machines and various Universal machining machines.

Some of the most important features that make our company stand out are; Turning up to Ø320 mm in Ø20 mm, drilling and honing up to 5000 mm, one-piece screw production up to 8500 mm and cylindrical grinding operations. These dimensions are beyond many of our competitors in Turkey and Europe.

What kind of hardware and software do you use to speed up the operation processes and ensure the right shipment in your warehouses?

Bülent Ceyhan: We provide our warehouse management with a sub-software that we have developed within the scope of "Şenmak System" developed within our company and that can meet all needs. The FIFO principle is used in order to keep both product stocks and operating materials up-to-date.

What is your vision for the Digital Transformation of the Industry? Can you tell us about your pilot applications, if any?

Bülent Ceyhan: Most of the products we manufacture at Şenmak contain the know-how of our customers. For this reason, information security and reliability are at the forefront for us. While we guarantee confidentiality to all our customers in this regard, we also keep them in our system. All of our customers know that we work with the principle of high confidentiality, we always give a guarantee. The circulation of printed technical information in our company has been reduced to "0", with some exceptions. We manage all operations with our Tablet and PC applications. Thus, we save time while keeping the information up-to-date, secure and reliable.

Cleaning Screws and Barrels

Screw and barrel systems are the most sensitive parts of plastic processing machines. For this reason, cleaning and maintenance is extremely important in order for the screw and barrel to work with the precision and efficiency of the first day.

Screw and barrel must be cleaned before periodical maintenance checks during raw material changes or during long-term stops and must be kept by coating with appropriate protective oils.

Screw and barrel can be mechanically or chemically washed. In the chemical cleaning of the screw and barrel, the screw and barrel are cleaned with the help of a cleaning agent fed into the screw barrel in the system operating under normal process conditions, without being removed from the system and separated from each other. When processing sensitive polymers, chemical cleaners should be used at every opportunity, and there should be no degraded burnt polymer in the places where the polymer comes into contact and passes.

If the mechanical cleaning of the screw and barrel are; It is applied while the screw and barrel are on the machine -by feeding a different raw material-with a suitable solid cleaning compound or by removing them from the machine and separating them from each other. As much as possible, raw materials should not be left on the screw and barrel during short or long-term stops. If possible, the raw material in the hive should not be emptied immediately, even during short stops while polymers such as PET, PA, OC, PVC are working.

The points to be considered in mechanical cleaning are as follows:

• When removing the screw and barrel from the machine, the screw and barrel should be removed as much as possible without leaving any raw materials in the machine.

• Immediately after disassembly on the machine -if possible while the screw and barrel are hot- the screw and barrel should be separated from each other.

• Screw barrel that are separated from each other should never be placed on metal or hard ground. Wooden or plastic floor should be preferred.

• The screw should not be cleaned with hard objects such as a file. Brass should be cleaned with a brush, bronze brush, spatula, copper felt or cloth. No dust should be left on the screws.

• Dirt and rust on the screw barrel that cannot be cleaned with simple methods should be cleaned by a specialist with polishing.

• If there are burrs on the screw, only the burr area should be carefully softened with sandpaper and polished as much as possible.

• It should not be forgotten that the screw and barrel should be as bright as possible and there should be no burrs, cracks and damaged surfaces on which the raw material can be attached.