Kaleliler: The connection power of wind

Kaleliler, which offers fasteners for wind energy with the production of bolts, nuts, studs and special materials in a wide portfolio, continues to invest in its manufacturing line. Kaleliler, which automatized the production line last year for improving production efficiency and the stability in production quality, which is a very important issue in wind energy; continues to make many new investments such as an automatic hot dip galvanizing line, new hot forging line, new friction test machine and a new tensile testing machine with larger capacities in 2022.

Kaleliler Deputy General Manager Demet Mumcu, with whom we interviewed about the activities and future targets of the company which makes significant investments in wind energy, evaluated the details for Rüzgar Enerjisi Magazine.

Can you introduce us the quality brand of the fastening elements industry Kaleliler, and give us information about the services that you serve for wind industry?

Our company Kaleliler Fasteners was founded by Mr.Kazım Kaleli in 1995, in Ankara/ Turkey. Kaleliler is now exporting about 40% of its production to Europe. Since one of the strongest production ranges of Kaleliler Fasteners is HV Bolt Sets and high-quality threaded rods and has the capability of hot dip galvanize coating; KLR bolt sets and foundation bolts are used in Wind Energy Sector since 2019. Kaleliler is an approved supplier for Wind Energy Companies like Nordex Energy, Siemens-Gamesa.

You are a brand that takes place in important projects in wind industry? Can you talk about the products that you offer for the industry and the projects that you found solutions for, with these products?

Kaleliler supplied fasteners to many pro- jects in Wind Industry; foundation bolts and anchor cages, tower bolts. The production, heat treatment, and surface treatment operations are done in-house by our hot dip galvanizing unit which is automatically controlled and operated by robots, all 10.9 bolts can be coated safely according to the related standards. During surface treatment, all production steps are monitored and traceability is available for the whole production. Accredited institutions and experienced technical personnel (All kinds of tests like destructive and non-destructive, TORQUE TEST including M72}

With the help of our ERP system, quality documents are saved in the system. Kaleliler has a very experienced team of production and quality control.

You’ve made an important investment for wind energy with the full automatical fa- cility that you commissioned last year. Can you talk about the advantages that you’ve provided with this facility and the feed- backs that you received from the field? (For example, the elimination of the risk of hy- drogen fragility)

Since the risk of surface treatment is very important for high-strength bolts, our company made an investment in a new Coating Line for hot dip galvanizing surface treatment.

In this new line, all operations are being performed by robots and the parameters are being registered in the system. The temperature is regulated according to the specifications and is controlled during the operation. For the pretreatment of the bolts; the cleaning is performed by mechanical cleaning and ultrasonic cleaning which is also automatically controlled and works without acid, so we can say that there is no risk of hydrogen embrittlement for 10.9 bolts since acid is not used for cleaning and the temperature requirements are appropriate for 10.9 bolts with bigger dimensions.

You’ve got important investments in the focus of digitalization in production. Can you talk about your efforts in such an important subject as wind energy?

Kaleliler made another investment in order to control the production digitally. Since all parameters will be registered in the system more precisely and will have an effect on productivity this is also a very important in- vestment for the industry. We have adapted IOT machines to each machine in our production facility. Therefore, the production data will be saved in the system in real-time and all products will be transferred with the appropriate barcodes in the production area. That will help to eliminate the risks in traceability.

We’re about to enter the last quarter of 2022. What do the figures tell in your sales and other services? What are your expectations and targets for 2022?

We already have an increase of approximately 110% in our Export Sales by the end of the first half of 2022.

We expect an additional increase by the end of 2022.

Regarding Wind Energy, 2022 is not a busy year for wind projects in Turkey. We take this as an advantage to complete all our new investments like new Hot Dip Galvanize Line, New Hot Forging Line, New Test Equipments like Friction Test Machine and a new Tensile Test Machine which have bigger capacities and there will be a new Heat Treatment Line by the first quarter of 2023. Consequently, we can say that we will be more than ready for the next season.

Kaleliler always makes investments according to the latest technological improvements and requirements. Quality and 100% Customer satisfaction are the main objectives of our company.