Big Success

Nearly 300 vendors and thousands of visitors pack exhibition halls for Asansör Istanbul’s 16th iteration.

The 16th International Asansör Istanbul, held at Tüyap Beylikdüzü in Istanbul, was deemed a great success, as the nearly 300 vendors who filled booths connected with thousands of visitors interested in learning about the latest in vertical-transportation (VT) products and services. The fair, organized by Tarsus Turkey with the support of AYSAD (Turkish elevator association), took place on March 21-24.

Asansör Istanbul, among the largest international elevator exhibitions, played host to 289 companies, including an international slate of brands from 22 countries and top Turkish manufacturers. New products launched by various companies, including complete elevator packages, residential and commercial building units, hospital elevators, home lifts and personal carriers, boom lifts, goods lifts, escalators, moving walks and hundreds of components across a range of categories were exhibited. The event covered some 50,000 m2 of floor space across five halls at the huge Tüyap facility. The official crowd count for the four-day fair recorded 28,868 visitors from 96 countries. In addition to the huge expo, conferences focusing on the state of the VT industry and recent developments were organized by AYSAD and the European Lift Association (ELA).

Increased Interest

Of the visitors, 5,780 came to Turkey from foreign countries.

This figure represents a 15% increase over the last fair, in 2017. The event opened the door to new trade markets and resulted in millions of dollars’ worth of sales agreements. Organizers indicated Asansör İstanbul had a booming effect on Turkey’s VT industry, boosting its global brand identity at a difficult period marked by shrinking domestic markets and trade-war impediments within export markets.

Leaders of several organizations — SEDEFED (Federation of Trade Associations), ELA and AYSAD — joined organizers for an opening ceremony to welcome participants.

Zekeriya Aytemur, general manager of event organizer Tarsus Turkey, noted the difficulties — economic and political — the host country has faced in recent years. “Despite these circumstances,” he said, “we have managed to open a bigger and more glamorous fair. We take pride in organizing such a fair with the support of our industrialists. We will continue making efforts to help our manufacturers reach every region of the world — not only Eurasia — and will create new channels for this purpose.”

Maturity Attained

AYSAD Chairman Sefa Targıt said organizers have proved the maturity of a sustainable event and international fair: “We are in a bottleneck in parallel with the construction sector; however, everything will absolutely turn for the better. I rely on the dynamic structure and export capabilities of our sector.” Noting the latest book published by AYSAD, he continued:

“Associations may also exhibit their products in fairs. AYSAD is exhibiting two products this year. We have translated the 2014/33/ EU elevator regulations into Turkish, which you may see at AYSAD’s stand. It is a very important publication that we believe will make an important contribution for our industry in terms of security. As there is a huge amount of information ‘pollution,’ we really care about publications such as this. Such materials are published only by AYSAD in Turkey.”

The AYSAD chairman concluded by praising the role non- governmental organizations have had in improving the world.

Digital Transformation

SEDEFED Chairman Ali Avcı said the sustainability of success depends on the vastness of imagination, adding:

“We are in a transformation era. We have the power to change the flow of things through digitalization. Transformation begins with humans, is managed by ideas, and is supported by technology. We at SEDEFED attach great importance to this fair, for it provides an opportunity for the adaptation of the elevator and escalator industry to this process.”

Avcı also spoke of goals for Turkey’s manufacturing industry:

“Our target is to increase our global competitive power through the manufacture of high-technology products and creation of high added value. I believe digital solutions will create a leverage effect for our economy. We believe that the main agenda of our country should be to achieve an A-to-Z digital transformation. We may reinforce the foundations of the transformation in our economy only through qualified production. The most important capital of the digital world is human. In order to create value in Turkey, we need to combine our powers. In this sense, we fully believe that the elevator and escalator industry will write a new story in its contributions for our country. I also believe that this fair will bring an intellectual infrastructure, both for the sector and for the economy of our country.”

“Elevator Sector Not Well Known”

ELA President Roberto Zappa addressed the gathering by offering some numbers to ponder:

“The elevator sector is not well known. To this end, I will give you some interesting figures. For example, there are 457,000 elevators in this country, and 25,000 new elevators are installed each year. Approximately 30,000 people are employed in the field. One million of Istanbul’s population of 15 million people use an elevator every day. There are more than 15 million elevators all over the world, and 6.2 million of them are in Europe. In Europe, 135,000 elevators are installed each year. All over the world, there are two important players in the elevator sector. China is the leader in the world in terms of number of elevators, and ranked second is Europe.”

After the speeches, a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held.

VIP Visit

Hasan Büyükdede, deputy minister of Turkey’s Ministry of Industry and Technology, paid a visit to the fair, during which he spoke, attended AYSAD and ELA conferences and, along with Ministry of Industry and Technology İstanbul Provincial Director Ümit Ünal, AYSAD Chairman Sefa Targıt and Tarsus Turkey General Manager Zekeriya Aytemur, visited vendor booths.

Conferences Draw Attention

International Asansör Istanbul 2019 provided an information platform where the sectoral agenda, including issues related to lift safety standards that were topics for conferences presented by AYSAD and ELA, was discussed. A domestic panel, hosted by the fair and moderated by Targıt, focused on the formula for being a Turkish brand on a global scale. The discussion was met with great interest, owing in part to the panel members: Halil İbrahim Çetin, general manager of the Ministry of Science and Technology Industry and Productivity; Tunç Timurkan, AYSAD past chairman and honorary member; and AYSAD board members Fevzi Yıldırım, Sedat Yıldız and Can Mutlu.

Other seminar topics included the “MAE-Maestro Integrated Lift Controller” by Melih Aybey, general manager of AYBEY Elektronik; “Occupational Health and Safety in the Elevator Installation Sector in Terms of Working on High Buildings” by Hakan Adem Doğan, occupational safety master specialist;

“Pre-Registration Periodical Controls and Loaded Tests” by Aydın Arat, elevator technical officer from the Chamber of Mechanical Engineers; and “Disabled Access in Elevators” by Mustafa Kemal Köken, an instructor with the Chamber of Mechanical Engineers.

Merih Displays MARS Brand

MARS Elevator, the international brand of the Merih Asansör group of companies, introduced new products and shared the latest information on elevator technology, innovations, sectoral experiences and services. Berna Ökmen, MARS Elevator deputy general manager, said smarter, safer and faster elevators were on exhibit at the fair. “We are proud to be a part of Asansör Istanbul Exhibition, which has hosted the industry leaders for the 16th time,” she said.

Arkel Introduces Monoblock Control Unit

Arkel, a leading brand in the manufacture of elevator control systems, introduced a new product, the Monoblock Control Unit, during the exhibition. The product, combining motor drive and controller, is compliant with EN 81-20 standards. It can be used with synchronous and asynchronous machines, and works with systems up to 16 stops and speeds up to 1.75 mps. It comes in 4-, 5.5-, 7.5- and 11-kW versions, and includes contactorless drive with safe torque off function, serial or parallel connection options with lobby and car operating panels, duplex group control, the ability to work open and closed loop, enhanced rollback prevention, quick door opening through door-bridging relays, battery backup options, cloud connection through Arlift, and system update via secure digital card.

Three New Mikrolift Products

Mikrolift Mühendislik, which operates in manufacturing, sales and technical support of elevator electronics, introduced three new products. In addition to the MLDRIVER inverter, which was released to the market in recent years, full serial-communication integrated lift control device MLCOMBO-50 and parallel wiring integrated lift control device MLCOMBO-40 were introduced.

MLCOMBO-50 and MLCOMBO-40, which are certified by Liftinstituut, gained the appreciation of visitors due to their ease of use and compact structure. Mikrolift, which has been producing lift controllers, printed circuit boards and more for many years, exerted its authority on control units through its new ML drive.

Aybey Device Wins Liftinstituut Certificate

Aybey Elektronik, a manufacturer of control systems, received a European Union certificate of compliance for the first contractorless integrated elevator controller designed and manufactured in Turkey, the AE-MAESTRO. The certificate was presented by Liftinstituut during a ceremony at the fair.

The controller operates quietly, thanks to a contractorless system compliant with EN 81-20/50, 81-1, 81-28, 81-70, 81-72, and 81-73 standards. It was designed for electric lifts and offers car serial or full-serial shaft communication, operation support for simplex, duplex, triplex and groups of up to eight lifts, a built-in radio-frequency interference filter and choke coil, an integrated access control with VIP access support, real-time clock and smart thin-film transistor hand terminal.

Company Dinners

Many companies in attendance at the fair hosted their guests at dinners. On the first day of the exhibition, Italian companies organized a dinner attended by many foreign and domestic guests at the Kaşıbeyaz restaurant in Florya. On the evening of the second day, Prolift celebrated its 17th anniversary with a large crowd of guests, both from abroad and from Turkey, at the Florya Chamada. Prolift Chairman Bahtiyar Karakoç made a brief speech and expressed his gratitude for the support of the guests who contributed the company’s success and talked about its global projects. Following the speech, a video showing new production facilities and new products was presented. The same evening, GRAVIT greeted guests from abroad and from Turkey with a pleasant dinner in the Florya La Chateauer restaurant, accompanied by Turkish music and dances.

The next Asansör İstanbul will be held on March 25-28, 2021.