Prepared by: Murat Soygür
Operating within a vision of quality, efficiency and sustainability, Frimpeks stands out with its specialist technical team and laboratories equipped to world standards. The company, which closely monitors sector trends, continues to produce innovative solutions through global projects it has developed.
Burak Uçar, who has an engineering background in industry, has worked in the chemical sector for approximately 27 years. Having served in senior management positions at international companies such as Ciba Specialty Chemicals, Huntsman and Sika in the fields of textile chemicals, plastics, paint industry/construction chemicals, adhesives and polymer chemistry, Uçar now holds the position of Board Member Responsible for the Chemistry Division at Frimpeks. We spoke with Burak Uçar about sustainable adhesives.
What are the recent trends and developments shaping the adhesive sector?
The adhesive sector in Turkey and worldwide encompasses many important industries such as wood, labels, paper, automotive, white goods, textiles, composites, flexible packaging and more. As Frimpeks, we see the potential in all these sectors and conduct local production to reduce import dependency. Following extensive polyester and polyurethane R&D work, we have established several business units for the production and sale of specialty adhesives. These business units contain numerous product ranges such as PSA, PVA, acrylic-based adhesives, PUR (Polyurethane Reactive), PUD (Polyurethane Dispersion), 1K, 2K, solvent-based and solvent-free PU flexible packaging adhesives. Through our current investments under the Wood and Building Elements Business Unit, we have established our market position with PUR hot-melt, PUD (PU Dispersion), water-based wood assembly adhesives and liquid PU-based products for the construction industry, while continuing to develop as one of the preferred business partners. Additionally, the textile sector is growing day by day in areas such as bedding, flooring and clothing. With this growth and corresponding high quality requirements, needs are diversifying particularly in the lamination field. The importance of lamination materials used with technical properties such as wash resistance, strength and UV resistance is increasing. In this regard, as of 2023, with our PURPEKS branded reactive polyurethane hot-melt products, we have become capable of meeting all the requirements needed by the sector. The packaging sector is an area where we develop innovative projects particularly focused on food safety and sustainability, and where we monitor global trends. We closely follow German, European and American legislation, and developing innovative products to reduce the environmental impact of packaging products is a priority for us. Water-based and polyurethane adhesives for recyclable packaging and adhesives with food-safe content for the food sector are among our special projects.
Burak Uçar
Quality control in the adhesive industry is quite important for ensuring product reliability, performance and safety. Can you provide information about quality standards in the adhesive sector? What is Turkey's position in this regard?
Turkey's packaging sector has very high quality requirements due to collaborations with developed countries and global brands. World-standard packaging production takes place in our country, and these packages are exported worldwide. Therefore, adhesives used in the sector must comply with regulations following world standards and be of high quality. As Frimpeks, we develop products at the quality level of global adhesive brands and export our products to many countries. Producing adhesives at stable quality, conducting all controls carefully at every stage, and performing performance tests at the customer end are areas requiring high precision and advanced technology. With our specialist technical team and laboratories equipped to world standards, we fully meet these requirements. Within the framework of increasing quality, efficiency and sustainability vision in our country and nearby regional markets, we are witnessing rapid transition in many application areas focused on polyurethane-based premium products and new investments. Along with our current product portfolio and R&D team, we continue rapidly to add value to our business partners in challenging market conditions. Furthermore, despite limited raw material resources, we observe that our country holds the highest position among Middle Eastern countries in wood and wood products advancement. Particularly in wood lamination, profile wrapping and other adhesive applications, we reduce import dependency and produce high-quality reactive polyurethane adhesives as competitors to major international players. Supporting quality criteria with our premium products targeted at this application area and contributing to a sustainable world and environmental concerns through the development of bio-based products form our core strategy. Our country holds an important place globally both in terms of new investments and technological developments in the textile field. With increasing export rates and rising quality expectations among local manufacturers, production and subsequent control phases also gain considerable importance. Additionally, through international certification processes such as Oekotex in the textile field, desired levels in terms of quality and sustainability can be achieved. As Frimpeks, we carry out all necessary certifications and audits in this field.
Business partnerships and collaborations make it possible to sustain innovation. Have there been recent collaborations on your part?
Of course, we have companies both locally and globally with which we are in contact and collaborate. We strongly believe in the importance of these partnerships in order to develop ourselves and meet the expectations of our business partners. Through projects we develop with our business partners in Turkey and worldwide, as well as with end-user brands, we both identify and follow market trends and produce innovative solutions.
To what extent do you utilize automation and artificial intelligence technologies to increase efficiency and productivity in adhesive operations? What transformation have these technologies created in your sector?
To increase efficiency and production quality, we benefit from new technologies in our current production and investments. We also closely follow the artificial intelligence topic and are working on it. Particularly, we designed our PUR (Polyurethane Reactive) production facility to meet Industry 4.0 standards. We can monitor every stage of production remotely and prevent possible quality problems at their source. This allows us to produce efficiently and with high quality. We observe all these similar technologies and developments in automation at companies producing in the wood, packaging and textile sectors, and we can adapt our products accordingly to these dynamics.
What are your strategies to stand out and maintain your position in the competitive adhesive market?
Technical support and close market monitoring... By following global innovations and with our highly experienced team in the adhesives field, we continuously develop new and innovative products. We carefully track our customers' projects and address every type of project meticulously with our specialist team. The timely and on-site technical support we provide to our customers is among the factors that give us an edge. Our primary aim is not price competition but meeting market and business partner expectations through the products and solutions we develop. Quality, cost, supply, technical support and sustainability will be our most important core strategies. We are a local player with a vision of having a say in the global arena. By closely monitoring market dynamics and with our experienced R&D team, our ability to develop new products quickly and consistently is one of the factors that differentiates us.
What are your expectations for the future of the adhesive industry? How is your company preparing for the future to capitalize on emerging opportunities or overcome challenges?
Our primary objective is to maintain a position that business partners will prefer in terms of quality, supply, technical support, cost and sustainability. As a local manufacturer, with our competent R&D team, we can rapidly produce solutions to address needs through new product development and continuous improvements. We place great emphasis on human resources. With our developing team, we closely monitor market dynamics and move forward hand in hand with our stakeholders. The packaging sector in particular is a rapidly developing and rapidly changing sector. It is a sector with many requirements in many areas—from food safety to sustainability, from fast and efficient production to ease of operation. For this reason, adhesives must always closely follow this rapidly changing sector. As Frimpeks, we aim to be among the players that not only closely monitor packaging companies' requirements but also those of end-user brands and the entire value chain, and through joint projects to direct the adhesive sector. The adhesive industry has a broad base of application areas and significant growth potential. The developing IMEA countries (India / Middle East / North Africa), Russia and Iran are among our target markets in our nearby geography. The geopolitical position of our country, our level of industrial development and qualified workforce place us in a fortunate position in these nearby markets. I believe that thanks to both the position of our country and our qualified workforce, Turkey will secure a significant share of this growing market. As Frimpeks, we can analyze market needs very well and make necessary decisions quickly in this regard.
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