60 “Classy” years in the industry

Celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, the well-established class institution of the sector, Türk Loydu Foundation, is frequently mentioned in terms of the dynamism and efficiency they bring to companies, as well as the products and services they offer to the sector. Türk Loydu Chairman of the Board of Directors, Cem Melikoğlu, said that in addition to providing classification services to thousands of military and commercial ships in the maritime sector, they also provide conformity assessment services in many areas from nuclear power plants to suspension bridges in the industrial sector.

Stating that Türk Loydu celebrated its 60th anniversary this year, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Cem Melikoğlu, said, “When we look back, thousands of military and commercial ships in the maritime sector have been classified; In the industrial sector, we provided conformity assessment services in many areas from nuclear power plants to suspension bridges. We continue to add new projects to our pride projects by taking part in many mega projects of Turkey. As Türk Loydu, we lead the development of our country's defense industry capacity and capability by carrying out the design and construction control and material product certification of the military ships built by the Turkish defense industry for the naval forces of both the Republic of Turkey and friendly and allied countries. We have been involved in more than 1,000 military projects and have earned ourselves a prominent place in the industry. We continue our services as a reputable classification and conformity assessment institution with companies and representations in 7 different countries at the point we have reached today by expanding our fields of activity day by day over the years.

We brought a new dimension to the industry with digital solutions

Explaining how the Electronic Plan Approval application offered by Türk Loydu in terms of digital solutions affects business processes and its contributions to its customers, Melikoğlu said: “As Türk Loydu, we always try to understand the expectations of our customers and stakeholders. If you want to go further and better, there is no other way. We ensure that the change in the world of technology is included in the processes, and that they use the opportunities developed in terms of software.”

International cooperation 

Noting that Türk Loydu has many collaborations and projects in the international arena, Melikoğlu said, “We can say that we have brought Türk Loydu to a level that can be considered an authority in the national and international arena, especially in the field of defense industry, thanks to our expanded expert staff, the trainings we provide, and the innovations we have made. In addition to our membership to INSA (International Naval Safety Association), which is the military equivalent of IMO and whose main purpose today is the formation of the Naval Ship Code, the military adaptation of SOLAS with the contributions of member navies and classification societies, we have been a member of the NSCA (International Naval Ship Classification Association) since 2004. We are an active member of the Classification Association. We make significant contributions to various working groups formed within this association and to the naval ship rules developed there. In addition to our defense industry projects, we have been among the high-performance classification societies for the last 16 years in the controls made by the port states, and with this performance, we have also contributed to the rise of the Turkish Flag to the 8th place in the Paris MoU White Flag list. We are justifiably proud of the fact that the word "Turk" is included in our name in every frigate built, every fast boat, every defense industry export made abroad, and every successful breakthrough we have made on behalf of our country.

High performance" at Paris MoU

Explaining their work on Port State Inspections (PSC), which has an international dimension, Melikoğlu said, “We maintained our "High Performance" success in the Performance Table of Classification Societies announced by the Paris MoU this year as well. We have maintained our 10th place in the category of high performance classification societies, which we have been taking part in for the last 16 years. One of the most important factors of our success as Türk Loydu is our fleet monitoring system. Within the scope of monitoring activities, a risk assessment system is created by analyzing all the findings detected in the Port State Controls (PSC) and the data obtained as a result of the research processes. As a result of this evaluation, corrective actions are taken for the ships in our fleet. Türk Loydu has a Port State Control Procedure and a Fleet Monitoring Procedure, which are prepared to continuously raise the standards on ships with its past knowledge and continuous improvements. In Türk Loydu classed ships, all PSC and Flag State inspections are reviewed within the scope of these procedures, all deficiencies are recorded and these records are systematically evaluated and deficiencies are corrected. With our expert team working in this field, we will continue to maintain our success thanks to the daily monitoring and analysis of Port State Controls, as well as the digitalization and improvements made in the field of fleet monitoring.”

Cem Melikoğlu, Chairman of the Board of Türk Loydu Foundation, continued his statements as follows;

Industry and certification sector activities: Within the scope of our industry and certification sector activities, which constitute an important part of Türk Loydu's service portfolio, we continue to expand our service areas, particularly in the energy, construction, mining, manufacturing, chemistry, transportation and logistics sectors. We continue our work in many mega projects consisting of various structures, bridges, stadiums, hospitals, aircraft maintenance hangars, industrial facilities and different types of civil structures, especially the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant and the newly opened Çanakkale Bridge.

R&D center studies: With the Covid-19 Pandemic, we have seen that the demand for digital solutions is quite high. We are making great efforts to strengthen our digital infrastructure and improve the digital solutions we offer. In our R&D Center, which we established in 2019, we are working to provide various technological and innovative solutions that can be beneficial to all sectors served by Türk Loydu, especially to the maritime and defense industry, and to our country in general.

We have developed 3D plan approval software to replace the traditional design documentation and review process, improve information exchange between different actors in the industry, and ultimately speed up the classification process. We collaborated with the remote survey platform Marinspector to improve the remote survey possibilities and started using the world's first hands-free Android tablet class wearable glasses developed by Realwear. Of course, in this process, we established the remote survey center, which got us very excited.

Autonomous ships: Rule development activities of the unmanned anti-submarine warfare (DSH) and unmanned surface vehicle (IDA), built by the main partnership of Sefine Shipyard and Aselsan, are carried out by Türk Loydu.

Decarbonization and fully electric propulsion vessels: Last year, Türk Loydu successfully completed its classification activities for Gisaş Power, the first series of the world's first zero emission tugboat Zeetug project. In this context, we started to develop our own rules for lithium-ion battery powered boats. In 2021, work has begun on the production of three more, two 30 tons BP and one 45t BP, as a continuation of the Zeetug series, which was selected as the best tugboat in the voting of International Tug&Salvage Magazine and is the world's first zero emission tugboat. These three tugboats, which will be built according to the rules developed by Türk Loydu for lithium-ion battery powered boats, are planned to be delivered in 2022. 

Türk Loydu's digital solutions

TL EPAS is an electronic plan approval system owned by Türk Loydu that can be accessed via a web browser on the internet. Thanks to TL EPAS, we can easily perform online all transactions such as control and approval of hull, machinery and electrical plans for the classification of newly built ships under the supervision of TÜRK LOYDU. We can perform control and approval of hull, machinery and electrical plans for classification for a class transfer or we can perform control and approval of hull, machinery and electrical plans for a yatch as well.Thanks to TL Hull Scantling software, another software developed by Türk Loydu, our customers can easily calculate the structural dimensioning calculations of steel ships, the calculation of geometric properties, the strength and ultimate strength criteria of hull beams, the local strength criteria of plates and support elements, and the evaluation of cross sections, and transverse bulkheads along the ship.

In addition, our 3D Ship Structural Analysis Project, which we conduct with the support of TÜBİTAK, continues at full speed. We aim to complete our project in 2024 and present it to users as a new digital product. 

TURK MARINEWS