OlgunCelik was established in Izmir, Turkiye in 1945 to produce various chassis components in the automotive sector. Plant1 was opened at the Manisa Organized Industrial Zone in 1981. Plant2, that is one of the most modern leaf spring manufacturing plants in Europe was opened in 2008.
The company has established a structure that offers leaf spring design and production to automotive original equipment manufacturer (OEM) companies. OlgunCelik Product Development Department has been recognized by the Turkish Ministry of Industry and Trade as R&D centre since 2010. Our vision is becoming one of the most preferred technology company around the world for presenting suspensions and light weight solutions. With working experience at Full-Service Supplier level, OlgunCelik undertakes critical responsibilities in vehicle projects as the design and strategic partner of global OEM. OlgunCelik R&D team has the expertise to participate in suspension development projects, and as a trusted partner, it is fully integrated into client’s product development processes. R&D centre is continuously developing new methods to reduce the time required to develop optimum design and uses well-known finite elements software to achieve this. OlgunCelik believes in the benefits of cooperation with universities and taking full advantage of Turkish Ministry of Industry and Trades support for R&D projects, it carries out applied research and design work on finite elements. The company also develops robust leaf spring design methods by using CAE tools. By correlating the theoretical results with real life, it considers the effects of variation in production and material parameters and achieves more precise correlation. OlgunCelik sees the results of its R&D efforts through regular patent application submissions and publishes articles at the most prestigious international conferences.
OlgunCelik decided to extend its capabilities with composite design, development and manufacturing investments. Main goal for this initiative was to set-up know how and infrastructure for composite leaf springs that are very strong alternative to legacy products made with steel. OlgunCelik is working on composite leaf spring development since 2013. OlgunTech BU set-up was realized to focus on composite product development and manufacturing technologies. Composites development and production efforts were not limited with leaf springs. Other structural components such as bumper beams were also studied within this period. The strategic transformation plan of the organization is to offer lighter weight products to the end user, to expand the product portfolio by developing and producing alternative components based on polymer composite knowledge and production infrastructure. This initiative has been recognized as a product and business diversification opportunity for the company targeting mainly automotive sector. Non-automotive fields like defence & aerospace are also investigated to add into new business development pipeline.
OlgunCelik has made a long-term exclusive partnership with Fraunhofer Institute including design, development, prototyping and manufacturing automotive composite components as the first step of the strategic transformation plan. The Composite Material Technologies and Composite Leaf Spring Development project initiated with the Fraunhofer Institute within the scope of the TEYDEB (supported by TUBITAK) project was carried out successfully. The company's technology roadmap was determined by gaining competencies about composite material properties, composite product design and production methods, composite product verification skills, and composite supply chain dynamics thanks to the project completed at the end of 2016.
The pilot production area was established with the equity capital of the company in 2020. OlgunTech BU is using different fabrication methods like vacuum assisted resin transfer molding, prepreg vacuum bagging and prepreg compression molding. OlgunTech team and facilities are currently capable to perform below listed activities: Composite components and system design FE Analysis&simulation Manufacturing process development and simulation Prototyping Low-rate production Design validation&testing. Regarding the mentioned OlgunTech and OlgunAutomation BU technical capabilities OlgunCelik is motivated to participate to Horizon Projects for design, development, simulation, manufacturing, and validation of glass/carbon fibre composite components from material, components and systems point of view.