Arkel’s CEO M. Cenk Ceylan told us about Arkel, which was founded in 1998 by two friends, graduates of Electronic Engineering of Istanbul Technical University, at a small office in Fikirtepe and is one of the global players of the lift sector today.            

Hello Mr. Cenk. Would you introduce Arkel to our readers?

Arkel was founded in 1998 by two friends, graduates of Electronic Engineering of Istanbul Technical University, at a small office in Fikirtepe. The founding partners started with the design of some electronic cards for meeting the need for the cards, mostly imported back then, with the suggestion of some family elders and based on the small demands of firms in the lift sector. Subsequently, they moved to a place to manufacture prototypes first and then doing small size serial manufacturing and they expanded their targets. Today, Arkel is the leading trademark in the areas of R&D and engineering services in the sector, manufacturing lift control cards, control panels, emergency rescue systems, revision and alarm sets, VVVF drive, integrated and mono-block lift control unit and designing other electronic devices needed in the sector. Today, Arkel has managed to make a name and introduce its technology in more than 50 countries, from Europe to the Middle East and India, through direct or indirect sales.       

Would you tell us about Arkel’s manufacturing facility and machinery-park?

As Arkel, we manufacture with a capacity of 150 thousands of electric cards and devices and 5 thousands of control panels per year in a 10,000 square meters of closed area with 25 machines and 100 production line workers. 

What can you tell us about your product groups and services?

Arkel is a company, focused completely on solutions about any electronic system in the lift sector. In this context, we have product groups to meet electric and electronic needs of the lifts. These are primarily lift check cards, VVVF motor drives and then, integrated control unit, put on the market by Arkel in 2013, any peripheral unit, door check cards and again, Arlift and Arline data collection systems developed to collect data from the lift, and systems to collect lift breakdown data via the 81-28 diaphone system, and Arkel Cloud system, which processes these collected data and is presented to our customers as a service. This system is a web-based application and can be used by any of our customers and ensures remote monitoring of the lift’s situation over the Internet.   

In addition, Arkel’s permanent-magnet synchronous engine, put on the market starting from approximately the first quarter of 2018, is included in our product range. Besides these products, we as Arkel, offer our products and services to our customers in the form of systems with the principle of plug and play, provided that they come along with the complete ready installation, a cable and floor and cabin casettes. I would like to mention our after-sale services especially. The strongest aspect of Arkel during its entire background is particulary having an after-sale technical services unit in the eyes of the customers. We continue offering our after-sale services both in the form of remote access and also as on-site service, if required, to our customers all over the world in many different cities.     

Would you tell us about the features of your new product groups?

Our new product groups consist of primarily KM 30S door check card, which we have launched in the Istanbul lift fair this year, the EN 81-28 emergency case communication system that we have named ARLINE, and the mono-block lift check unit that we have named the ARCUBE product. Starting with KM 30S; KM 30S, as you know, is a novel system, developed by Arkel in the context of serial installation integration particularly. It is a communicate card that can integrate in the system over Canbus. Therefore, KM 30S carries out its checking functions and data communication functions over this line by connecting to the serial installation used in the existing ARCODE system and in the ARCUBE systems that we have just launced. In addition, another feature is that we offer KM 30S to our customers as a set, which can easily be applied in the mechanisms, along with its permanent-magnet engine in the sector where Arkel was serving only in the field of door check cards. Thanks to its extremely developed features, data collected in KM 30S can be monitored simultaneously via a check system, our communication modules and our cloud system as well, and breakdowns can be monitored.   

As you already know, emergency case communication systems have become mandatory in Turkey too with the EN 81-28 standard. ARLINE consists of several other properties in addition to its common emergency case rescue function. One of them is that it enables communication of the service maintenance personnel between the modules that we call the master and slave due to an internally integrated intercom system with its direct intercom function. At the same time, the lift breakdown data are collected as similar to the data collection device of ours that we discussed previously and it can transmit these data to the Arkel Cloud system without a need for an additional equipment. Arline steps forward from among the other EN 81-28 communication devices in the market in this context. Another striking new product of ours is our Arcube product, which we have launched again in the Istanbul Lift Fair and then we have introduced in different cities. It would be good to discuss Arcube specifically. Arcube must be discussed as a solution for transition to a new era from an integrated structure, which was added to the global lift sector by Arkel previously. We have named this solution as the mono-block lift check unit. What do we mean by mono-block is that it is a complete check unit, manufactured as a single structure in a single body and manufactured in a factory completely, with all of its tests completed. In other words, this is a brand new structure offerred to our customers as tested with Arkel guarantee and Arkel quality and as completely ready for assembly in the field, beyond a device placed in a panel. This structure is quite compact and provides great advantages in the applications with a need for a place and with a place problem, in contrast with the solutions with a panel particularly. Since it is quite light, it offers assembly convenience and transportation convenience in the field and the opportunity to put into service with easier workmanship. It operates quitely with a structure containing no contractor. It is a solution with high performance and also provides both high performance and comfort as accustomed from our Arcode product previously. One of the important features for preference by our customers is that this reliable structural feature has also been maintained in Arcube. Arcube fits to revision works becoming prominent in especially the shrinking lift market and can be rapidly adapted to the existing lifts. It can work both with an asynchronic and synchronic engine and with both a parallel and serial installation. It can work as both an open circuit and closed circuit. It is a brand new era giving us the opportunity to offer solutions for many different needs with a single device. Arcube is a brand new and unmatched product not only in Turkish market but also in the global lift market. Arcube, in this sense, changes in many customary applications in the sector. The primary one is that it is a rather advantageous product in terms of delivery time since it is a ready product off the rack. In other words, Arcube has appropriate motor features for lift assembly without a need for waiting for panel manufacturing time. Arcube can only be located and provided to our customers off the rack by means of our sale channels or by Arkel. In addition, it can be integrated with the current Arkel products fully. It offers great advantages in this sense. It enables our customers, who especially work with Arkel, to use their products with Arcube. Another advantage of it is that our customers can check their all assembly, installation, service, maintenance and breakdown determination opportunities in the near future with an improved-reality application downloaded in their cellular phones. Besides, we are also generating a platform, where our customers can access support services with again an improved reality application in the field directly with a remote access opportunity in our technical services department. This is also a brand new concept in the lift sector. As Arkel, we are very happy and proud to have achieved this concept for the first time.

You have been registered as an R&D center in June 2018. Can you give us information about your R&D studies?

Like you said, we as Arkel, have been operating as an R&D center since June 2018. I don’t want to dwell on the definition of R&D center here but our valuable readers must have already been aware that you need to have projects that have met certain criteria, to have designed really novel products and have engineered these products and have managed to manufacture them. And you need to have a specific number of personnel. We have been currently continuing our R&D operations with nearly more than 20 projects as an official R&D center which has met all of these criteria. R&D is one of the most critical functions because Arkel has achieved its position in the global lift sector and will proceed much more ahead of the sector in this position from now on due to designing new products and new systems and due to making inventions on our own fully. ARCUBE, which I discussed before and ARCODE, which we had launched in 2013, are great examples of these. These are the systems drawing the road map for the real change processes of the lift sector. Arkel has turned out to be the developer of these because it has continued its investments on strong R&D activities always. This year, by the end of May 2019, we have started to run our unit at technopark. We aim to exchange ideas with R&D units of different disciplines and firms in different sectors under the roof of technopark with our innovative projects especially and receive the ideas of different sectors. Also, we thought that it would be appropriate to be under the roof of a technopark in order to find applications for our own ideas in different sectors and we are continuing our activities there. Our R&D organization at the technopark has been continuing its studies under our current R&D unit. We have been continuing our R&D projects without stopping. Though ARCUBE, which we have launched this year, is a brand new system, we have already started engineering and design of the next system after the ARCUBE project. Therefore, R&D is an endless process for us and tens of projects are continuing regarding many different products and solutions.    

What are the export targets of Arkel, exporting to more than 50 countries?

Yes, Arkel is in the position of an international corporation, exporting to more than 50 countries as of today. One of the most crucial sides of this is India, set as the second largest lift market of the world. We operate in India right now with our nearly 50 personnel. Our export operation targets are not limited with India for certain. We have targets of expanding our growth in exporting in especially the European, Middle Eastern and African markets just like in India with direct investments sometimes and with indirect investments some other times. We execute our plans for this purpose based on the characteristics of each country and geographical location and their needs. We target to take Arkel to the leadership in technology and at the same time in trading in the global lift sector. I can say that we are taking firm steps towards our target on this road.

Which products of your you will be featuring in the Interlift 2019 Augsburg Fair that you will attend?

First of all, the Interlift Fair is one of the activities we care for greatly. This year, we will introduce our innovative products and system solutions in the fair. As Arkel Electric Electronics, we present innovative products to the lift sector every year. Some of these products are the improved versions of our current models in terms of both the changing lift standards and user safety and ergonomics and some of them are the products, which are the first in the market we operate and ease the lives of our users immensely. Visitors of our Augsburg Interlift Fair stand this year will meet a wide and innovative product group including our solutions of Internet of Things (IoT), which they can connect Mono-block lift check system Arcube and their lifts to mobile devices.

What are your anticipations from the Fair?        

Our greatest anticipation is to unite our innovative products and systems, which we had introduced to our valuable customers visiting Istanbul Lift Fair, and different visitors at again the Interlift 2019 Fair. Because, despite we have achieved the access of a very large mass to these products with the effect of social media, digital platforms and Istanbul Fair, we aim to unite our visitors and our still new products and systems in the Interlift 2019 Fair. We will be introducing our product ARCUBE to the global lift sector one more time, like we did in Istanbul Fair here.