CORPORATE

The Akçalar factory carries out the body, painting and assembly work for Renault Megane, and the assembly and painting work for Karsan Products (Jest, Atak, ATA).
Megane vehicle-shaped sheet metal parts are supplied and then joined using electrical resistance welding (ERW). Production is completed by attaching the opening parts onto the body whose geometry has been created.
Now assembled, the body is painted in the following stages: cataphoresis, mastic, primer, topcoat, and varnish, respectively.
Work on the painted body is completed in Assembly with the trim, mechanical and final processing. Electrical checks, wheel balance and brake tests are performed. After waterproofing and a road test, the vehicle is made ready for delivery.
Karsan products follow a slightly different route. Made in the body shop, the carcass outer surface is cleaned in the paint shop, then an epoxy primer is applied, and finally the topcoat of paint. In addition, the insides of the profiles are coated with a water-based rust repellent wax applied using special nozzles.
The painted body passes along the assembly line, which follows the principles of simple production and is flexible so that vehicles with different characteristics can be made on the same line. The vehicle is then made ready for customer delivery by undergoing final checks where all its features are tested.

The Renault Megane’s body is made in the Welding Section.  Forty robots operate in the body shop, where the bodies are made using spot welding techniques.
The responsible units check and monitor all process parameters (current, force, timing and coolant system), process descriptions, and plant equipment against the check plans.   All products made in the welding workshop are subjected to destructive and non-destructive tests at specific intervals and spot welding checks are carried out.  The dimensional accuracy of the produced bodies is measured using a 3D measuring device at the intervals specified in the quality plans.  Once they are made, the bodies undergo quality control checks before being sent to the Paint Section.

The sheet metal bodies off the vehicles arriving from the Welding Section and the necessary spare parts are subjected to two basic processes  in the Paint Production Unit -- Functional and Cosmetic.

Functional Processes
To protect the body from rust, all parts are baked after being immersed in PHOSPHATE and CATAPHORESIS baths using a fully automatic system. Once this is done, the bodies are then sent to the next stage, which is mastic and undercoating. The mastic applied to the sheet metal joints waterproofs the vehicle and prevents the sheet metal joints form rusting. To protect the chassis from road impacts and to reduce road noise, the undersides are coated with PVC. Sound absorbing asphalt plates are laid on the inside sub-floors and cooked in ovens.
The vehicles are coated with PRIMER paint and then baked in ovens to protect all the  interior and exterior surfaces from stone impacts from the road,  to increase rust resistance, and to make the body surface smooth for the topcoat of paint.

Cosmetic Processes
Pained and baked in the TOPCOAT paint bay according to the colours tested and approved by the main licensor,  the vehicles are sent to the quality control station. Apart from this, the quality control operators at the exit of each line and  the supervisors in the paint labs ensure that production quality remains in compliance with the main licensor's standards.  Once they have been painted and passed quality control, the vehicles are directed to the painted vehicle stock area  to be sent to the Assembly Production Unit.
 

KARSAN-branded JEST, ATAK, and ATA minibuses and buses as well as the Renault Megane passenger car are assembled in the Assembly Section.

Painted bodies from the paint shop are turned into the final vehicles after the screwing-tightening, liquid and gas filing, bonding, and manual operations are completed in the assembly workshop.  Various types of equipment are used to apply these techniques. To ensure that those used for screwing and tightening operate error-free, equipment reliability is checked daily using self-metering systems and adequacy measurement-calculation-analyses are carried out annually. In addition to this, compliance of all process parameters (torque values, air pressure, vacuum values, temperatures, dimensions, etc.) with the check plans is monitored. All safety points are recorded, tagged, and monitored. The process quality operators on the line check all these points visually and by using the hammer-dynamic torque measurement (transducer) method.  The vehicles are then sent to the Quality Unit where all other functions are tested so the vehicles can be delivered in perfect condition to the consumer.

Conformity checks of all functional and appearance quality requirements are applied according to the prepared quality plans, taking into account the objectives shown in the quality policy.
As required by the on-site quality system:

*Defective products are not sent on to the next stage.

*All the requirements of this system from provision of the part or material from side-industries to delivery to the customer are ensured.

*Final Inspection takes delivery of the vehicle after the Assembly production Line has finished its work.

It ensures product quality by checking the accuracy of the operations performed on the vehicle against globally accepted indicators.  All vehicles are given a 2.8-km road test on the specially prepared track at the factory. This test track simulates various road conditions. Each vehicles arriving from the assembly line undergoes special tests such as the brake tunnel, bumpy roads, steps, roads with small/large stones.

The HOSAB-2 factory makes the bodies for the KARSAN-branded JEST, ATAK, and ATA minibuses and buses. Production is made by joining shaped metal sheets and profiles on a separate welding fixture for each vehicle, mainly using the gaseous sub-welding method.
The responsible units check and monitor all process parameters (current, force, timing and coolant system), process descriptions, and plant equipment against the check plans.   All products made in the welding workshop are subjected to destructive and non-destructive tests at specific intervals and spot welding checks are carried out.  The dimensional accuracy of the produced bodies is measured using a 3D measuring device at the intervals specified in the quality plans.  Once they are made, the bodies undergo quality control checks before being sent to the Paint Section.

Karsan’s Bursa OSB plant makes tractor cabins and platforms under the agreement made with Türk Traktör, which operates in the field of tractors and agriculture machinery. Working in 3 shifts, the plant has an annual capacity of 10,000 cabins.

The cataphoresis coating facility in the Karsan OSB Factory has a coating capacity of 2 million m2 per year and the ability to apply wet paint. 

In addition to meeting Karsan's in-house needs, the plant also provides industrial cataphoresis coating services that cater to outside requests.