Kütahya Tasarım Teknokent Receives Support from TÜBİTAK

Support for Kütahya Design Technopark from TÜBİTAK It has been announced that the project of "TecroCream," a company operating within Kütahya Design Technopark and led by Prof. Dr. Hilmi Yurdakul, a faculty member at Kütahya Dumlupınar University's Engineering Faculty, has qualified for two separate grants from TÜBİTAK. In addition to his duties at the faculty, Prof. Dr. Hilmi Yurdakul, an entrepreneur at Kütahya Design Technopark A.Ş., prepared two separate projects on the localization of various imported structural ceramics used in Turkey's automotive production industry. Both projects have been deemed eligible for support under TÜBİTAK's Technology and Innovation Support Programs Directorate (TEYDEB) 1501-Industrial R&D Projects Support Program and 1507-SME R&D Start-up Support Program. In a statement issued by Kütahya Design Technopark regarding the matter: "In the supported 1501-Industrial R&D project, Prof. Dr. Hasan Göçmez from our Metallurgy and Materials Engineering Department, Dr. Feridun Karakoç from our Mechanical Engineering staff, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Arife Yurdakul from Kütahya Fine Arts Vocational School will also serve as researchers. In this project, ceramic nozzles with high insulation and strength properties used in cutting heads of carbon dioxide (CO2) and fiber laser cutting systems—which are purchased from abroad and enable high-speed processing of high-strength steel and non-ferrous metal alloys—will be developed and localized in our country for the first time and made available for use in the automotive manufacturing industry. The field performance of the developed domestic ceramic nozzles in laser cutting will be conducted at Turkey's major automotive production facilities. In the supported 1507-SME R&D Start-up Project, Prof. Dr. Hasan Göçmez and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Arife Yurdakul will transfer their extensive research, which they have been working on for approximately 10 years, on ceramic centering pins used in projection welding equipment. The development of next-generation ceramic composites that exhibit much higher mechanical and wear resistance than imported ceramic centering pins and can be produced through low-cost processes stands out as one of the objectives of this work. The new composites to be produced subsequently will be made available in the form of centering pins capable of high-adhesion spot welding to aluminum and various steel alloys as a new product in Turkey's major automobile manufacturing plants and supplier industry. With the two different grants it has secured from TÜBİTAK, we extend our congratulations to our Technopark company's employees and our faculty member Prof. Dr. Yurdakul, wishing him success in his work," the statement said.