Known to be in use for more than 2500 years since ancient times, the word enamel is a word of French origin and means melting or flowing glass. Enamel is obtained by adding a number of metal oxides into frit. Created by the combination of silicon, soda, borax, and coloring metal oxides, the enamel is coated on metal surfaces and baked in high-temperature furnaces before turning into a durable final product. Enamel coatings give products a decorative appearance as well as protecting them from external effects. It prevents the formation and reproduction of bacteria on the applied surfaces and makes them easy to clean. Thanks to these features, enamel has a wide variety of uses today.
It is used in the kitchen in cooking devices such as stoves, ovens, and microwaves; heating devices such as kitchen stoves; durable tableware such as pots and trays; internal and external surface coating of baths and sinks in bathrooms; and boilers. On the other hand, industrial areas of use include food, mining, and machine industry as well as chemical boilers, solar collectors, silos, and turbine blades. In view of the sectors it has contributed to and the market volume, enamel has a significant place in the eyes of manufacturers and end-users.
The Enamel Association was founded with this perspective in 2021 for protecting the interests of the enamel industry that took rapid strides in Turkey in the 1950s, representing the sector on a global scale, and establishing interdisciplinary cooperation for contributing to the development of metallurgy, glass, ceramic and white goods sectors.
In that respect, the Enamel Association has the aim of gathering the leading companies of the sector and other stakeholder sectors under the same roof in order to gain multiple benefits. Particularly in the white goods sector, 22 million of more than 29 million products manufactured in 2020 have been exported. Compared to the previous year, the sector has seized a growth rate of 30 percent in domestic sales and 37 percent in exports. As the market share of the white goods sector shows an upward trend, the enamel market gains acceleration proportionally. The oven market consumes an average of 59 thousand 150 tons of enamel per annum while the annual enamel consumption in Turkey is about 3 thousand 500 tons. On the other hand, the worldwide barbeque market uses about 35 thousand tons of enamel in a year. Given all these data, the primary goal of the Enamel Association is to make sure that strategic moves are made to increase the global market share of the Turkish enamel sector. Further aims are to develop projects with private organizations and institutions by supporting the research and development efforts of the Turkish enamel sector, make public updates with respect to all developments regarding enamel, and globally represent the Turkish enamel sector in the best way by taking the lead in the cooperation between educational institutions and industry. Turkish Enamel Association also has the vision of providing benefits to the Turkish Industry with an innovative perspective.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Buğra Çiçek – President of the Enamel Association