Nurol Teknoloji: `We Produce National Armor Solutions with National Ballistic Ceramics`
Defence Turkey: Could you give us information about Nurol Teknoloji, which was founded by Nurol Holding in 2008 and performing indigenous design and production activities in the field of "Advanced Ballistic Armor Solutions," and about its footprint in the Turkish Defense Industry today?
Selim BAYBAŞ: We are a Nurol Holding company established in 2008 with fully domestic capital to produce advanced technique ballistic ceramics. Since the day we were founded, we have prioritized research and development, and we have been performing activities to fill a significant gap in the field of ballistic protective solutions, especially in our country. We design and produce personal ballistic protection, vehicle platform ballistic protection, and structural ballistic protection solutions with "National" and "Domestic" sources.
We produce advanced technology ballistic ceramics and hybrid ballistic protective armor solutions such as Alumina, Silicon Carbide, and Boron Carbide, which are needed by the Turkish Security Forces and all friendly and allied countries in the world, under a single roof in three production facilities located in Ankara. We are the only manufacturer in Turkey in this field and are one of very few companies in the world. Thanks to our Boron Carbide, Silicon Carbide, and Alumina ceramics which we produce by our in-house developed special processes, we made our country's mark among the few countries that can produce advanced technique ballistic ceramics.
Our facility has Facility Security, NATO Secret and National Secret clearances for production and sale, and has ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and OHSAS 18001 certifications. With our machine park, qualified human resources, quality infrastructure, accredited ballistic laboratories, and R&D center, we have been performing in the fields of personnel protection, vehicle protection, and structural protection. The ballistic solutions that we develop as per the requirements of our customers are used with full confidence by the security forces both in our country and in various countries of the world.
Defence Turkey: Nurol Holding has stepped into a different defense industry activity field and special product portfolio with Nurol Teknoloji. What can you say about the motivation and objective of this initiative? How has Nurol Teknoloji played a complementary role in Nurol Holding's current defense industry activities in the past period?
Selim BAYBAŞ: As you also mentioned, we are one of the four defense businesses operating under Nurol Holding. We produce modern ballistic armor systems, which are the most critical requirement of our security forces, by making our country foreign independent in the field of ballistic ceramics with advanced technology that is unattainable from other countries in the field of ballistic protection.
In the personnel protection and vehicle armor protection solutions, we produce Alumina, Silicon Carbide as well as the Turkish miracle Boron Carbide ceramics, which provide 1/3 weight and durability advantages compared to the armor steel used instead. We process primary raw materials into ballistic ceramic powders with our own methods and formulas. In this way, we are not affected by some specific import embargoes increasingly imposed on defense industry intermediate products since the powders we produce are for general use.
Our main objective is to develop new materials in order to protect the Turkish Security Forces with protection armors that are the lightest and resistant to the evolving and increasing threats.
The ballistic solutions we produce are not limited to ceramics; we also attach great importance to progress in the field of composites that we produce under the same roof. There is no other business in the world that is able to perform numerous and diverse activities under a single roof. With the delivery of such products, protecting human life, and not tolerating even a single failure to our Turkish Security Forces, we ensure that they are protected against the highest level of threat and have a competitive advantage against threats in the field.
As the first and only ballistic solution designer and manufacturer in Turkey and limited globally, our company considerably minimizes the foreign dependency with its entirely local and national ballistic protective solutions and contributes significantly to our country's economy. To achieve this, we invested approximately US$ 125 million in the last 12 years, and we continue to invest.
As Nurol Teknoloji, we design and manufacture various ballistic protective armor systems for the geometric shapes and threat levels of the vehicles designed and produced by the major tracked and wheeled armored vehicle manufacturers of the Turkish Defense Industry, as well as meeting the ballistic armor needs of our country's defense industry for all platforms.
Defence Turkey: Could you inform us about your company's existing production infrastructure, as Turkey's sole advanced technique ceramics manufacturer, the production capacity as well as the technologies used?
Selim BAYBAŞ: We successfully produce Ceramic Armor Materials with the technologies we own as Nurol Teknoloji. We have the highest RB Boron Carbide capacity in the world, especially with our existing infrastructure and indigenous production methods for Boron Carbide armor materials.
Using powder metallurgy methods, we shape the mixtures prepared entirely with Nurol Teknoloji formulas in high-capacity presses as per the sizes and forms required by our customers. With our existing presses we have the opportunity to shape ceramics up to 45x45 cm, including also "multi curve" geometries.
With our indigenous sintering method, we perform sintering in vacuum and inert gas atmospheres at temperatures up to 2300 ˚C in our high-tech furnaces. Therefore, we produce first-class mechanical boron carbide and silicon carbide ceramic armors. In addition, we also produce Aluminum Oxide armor plates in open atmosphere furnaces that can reach a temperature of 1700 ˚C, and we offer our customers a wide range of options. We continue to increase our capacity and technology progressively with our investments and R&D activities.
In addition to our ceramic production capability that makes a difference in the world, we offer solutions for the needs of our customers with our composite armor production capability under a single roof. We simultaneously apply temperature, pressure, and vacuum parameters in our autoclave furnaces and combine complex-shaped ceramics with composite fabrics.
Our concentration in the production of armor ceramics is to ensure sustainable product quality. We regularly monitor all stages of production, from raw material to final product. We carry out production activities with technological infrastructure, effective process management, lean production tools, and qualified staff. We implement the Kaizen studies based on the lean manufacturing systematic with the participation of all employees and standard work instructions, and we are working to stabilize production with value flow analysis applied in processes. Furthermore, we carry out our 6S activity delicately to ensure that the production area is clean and tidy.
Defence Turkey: Having developed a core technology with its strong R&D structure in the field of advanced technical ceramics and subsequently developed materials and products in its own laboratories, Nurol Teknoloji is exerting efforts to serve our country by combining the advanced technology materials and solutions needed by our country with its cutting-edge research capabilities. Could you inform us about the company's vision of R&D as well as the ongoing activities?
Selim BAYBAŞ: We are fully aware that the only way to achieve sustainability is through innovation. Therefore, it is within our priority plan to allocate enough resources to R&D, branding, all kinds of innovations, and to make investments for the state-of-the-art technologies in our sector. We plan to identify innovative products for the international market, prepare technology road maps, develop projects to implement armor solutions with international high protection levels for land vehicles, and develop projects to improve the ceramics we use in our ballistic solutions such as silicon carbide and boron carbide.
In addition to such efforts, Nurol Teknoloji has become the 1245th R&D Center of our country as of January 2021, under law no. 5746 on supporting research, development, and design activities. We continuously improve our engineering infrastructure, workforce, and human resources. By performing digital transformation in processes and infrastructure, we also support academic collaborations both qualitatively and quantitatively.
Defence Turkey: Nurol Teknoloji is capable of producing hybrid ballistic solutions for its customers in Turkey and abroad through the ballistic composites it produces. What are the ballistic protection standards/levels that you offer to your users?
Selim BAYBAŞ: As Nurol Teknoloji, we produce all of our personnel ballistic protection, vehicle platform ballistic protection, and structural ballistic protection products with our special formulas and methods, in accordance with the international protection levels and standards.
These standards are as follows:
We can successfully test products at all ballistic protection levels in accordance with the requirements of NIJ 0101.04, NIJ 0101.06, NIJ 0115.00, NIJ 0108.01, TS EN 1063, TS EN 1522, STANAG 2920, STANAG 4569, and MIL PRF46103 standards, which are especially demanded in Personnel Protection, Vehicle Protection, and Structural Protection and accepted as the international ballistic standard. Apart from these standards, we also carry out internal tests according to the ballistic standard tables of other countries.
Defence Turkey: Do you also carry out the certification process of the ballistic ceramic and composite armor solutions, or do international organizations such as the TNO Netherlands get involved?
Selim BAYBAŞ: In our laboratories at Nurol Teknoloji, we are able to inspect and test raw materials, ceramic products, composite products, and many ballistic panels through high-tech quality control devices and equipment.
We conduct the tests of all ballistic products we design and produce in our Ballistic Test Laboratories at our Şaşmaz and Gölbaşı premises, which have TÜRKAK TS EN ISO/IEC 17025:2012 and NIJ accreditation.
We conduct and report all ballistic tests independently and properly. However, our business partners abroad may, from time to time, request tests from internationally accredited ballistic test centers. In such cases, we send our products to the requested international ballistic test centers for testing.
Defence Turkey: Could you update our readers about Nurol Teknoloji's position in the international market, its export targets, the features, and superiorities that differentiate it from its competitors in the market?
Selim BAYBAŞ: The defense industry is the fastest growing industry in the world, where technological developments are at the fore. Due to the high added value of defense industry exports, we believe countries that are strong in this sector have a strategic competitive advantage.
Accordingly, the concern of the countries for protecting themselves against internal and external threats creates the need for security and defense, and this need generates to have armed forces for countries and, therefore, mandatory defense spending. The difference and importance of Nurol Teknoloji emerge at this point. The fact that we are a well-known company in the international market is due to being one of the very few companies that can design and produce advanced ballistic armor solutions produced with Boron Carbide, Silicon Carbide, and Alumina Ceramics. Additionally, we offer cost-effective products which we develop with our special methods and formulas. Most importantly, we produce very effective products that protect human life, and we would like to state that these are the factors that make us unique in our industry.
We export 30-35% of the products we produce. We aim to increase this export level to provide foreign currency inflow and minimize our country's foreign dependency. Our priority markets for export are, of course, friendly and allied countries.
In this respect, we also have capacity increase plans, and we plan to use this capacity increase for export. In addition to the sales, we have made to several countries in the world, we also have ongoing projects. As the world's lightest armor solutions supplier, we aim to be a global company in our field.
Defence Turkey: What would you like to say about Nurol Teknoloji's strategies and objectives for the next 5 years?
Selim BAYBAŞ: Turkey, due to the geography, is a country that must strive for the modernization of its Armed Forces continuously.
In the field of ballistic protective products, we are one of the few companies in the world that can produce advanced ballistic armor solutions with boron carbide, silicon carbide, and alumina ceramics. We aim to develop innovative, lighter, and more durable products with high added value to lead the market in 2021 and increase collaborations with universities and industrial centers.
The ballistic solutions we produce are not limited to ceramics; we also attach great importance to make progress in the field of composites that we produce under the same roof.
One of our objectives for the following years is to deepen and expand in these domains, to progress faster, to create new business areas with increasing diversity, and to ensure that they become each other's customers. Our goal is to achieve steady growth and development. In our journey of transforming from good to great company, we wish to create absolute determination, correct companions, corporate and cultural transformation. We plan to transform our organizational structure and corporate processes in order to become a global company.
During this process, we want to continue contributing to our country and the global defense industry with the guidance of technology and science.
Defence Turkey: Is there anything else you would like to convey to our readers as a remark?
Selim BAYBAŞ: It would be appropriate to say that the foreign dependency of the Turkish defense industry, which was at the level of 70% in the past, fell to 30% as of the end of 2020. We greatly appreciate the self-sufficiency and, most importantly, the nationalization goal of our defense industry in recent years. We would like to proudly express that we also have a contribution to this achievement.
In the new world order, we will continue to protect our security forces by offering the most innovative, effective, lightest, and most reliable solutions against threats that are increasing every single day, as we can easily see that an effective and strong defense industry is indispensable for our country, considering the special conditions of the geography we are in.
Finally, we specifically want to point out that we are proud of the strength of the Republic of Turkey and to serve our country.
Defence Turkey: Dear Selim BAYBAŞ, thank you for your time, and we wish you success in your future endeavors
