The Clothing Machinery 2014 fair was held at the Tüyap Fair and Congress Center between April 24 and 27. In an exhibition area of about 100,000 square meters across nine halls, the fair brought together 467 companies and company representative offices from 26 countries.

The meeting, held for the twenty-fourth time this year, was regarded as one of the important international events of 2014 for the industry.

Malkan Machinery, founded in 1971 as Türkiye's first domestic manufacturer of industrial ironing machines, took its place among the participants of the fair. The company is one of the firms that have participated without interruption since the very first day the organization began. The Clothing Machinery 2014 fair was a new link in this uninterrupted participation.

Factory Manager Metin Kilic assessed the fair on behalf of Malkan Machinery. Kilic highlighted the rise in the quality of the visitor profile, the interest shown in the stand and the orders received during the Clothing Machinery 2014 fair. In his assessment, he also covered expectations about the frequency of fairs and support for SMEs.

This article takes Kilic's assessment as its basis and looks at the Clothing Machinery 2014 fair through the eyes of Malkan Machinery. The data on the Clothing Machinery 2014 fair is based on the figures announced by the organizer. The technical sections explain what the featured products provide in production.

1. The Figures of the Clothing Machinery 2014 Fair

A view from the Malkan Machinery fair stand.

According to organizer data, the Clothing Machinery 2014 fair hosted 467 companies and company representative offices from 26 countries. The exhibition spread over about 100,000 square meters in nine halls. This scale showed the broad scope of the Clothing Machinery 2014 fair in the industry.

The fair hosted more than 40,000 visitors from 66 countries. Buying delegations from 12 countries abroad and 16 different regions in Türkiye attended the fair. Professional visitors from a total of 69 provinces created an intense fair environment for participating companies.

These figures showed the importance the Clothing Machinery 2014 fair held for both the domestic and the foreign market. Visitors arriving from so many provinces shows that garment production is spread across the whole country. Buying delegations from abroad mean direct business opportunities for export-oriented machine manufacturers.

The 2014 edition of the fair carried the accumulated experience of an organization held for the twenty-fourth time. A long-standing fair creates a regular meeting calendar for the industry. For Malkan Machinery, the Clothing Machinery 2014 fair was a stop on this calendar that it had followed since the first day.

2. QUALITY IN THE VISITOR PROFILE: METIN KILIC'S ASSESSMENT

Metin Kilic stated that at the Clothing Machinery 2014 fair they observed a very serious rise in quality in the visitor profile. According to Kilic, the share of professionals with decision-making authority and clear technical questions was high among those visiting the stand. This allowed meetings to move to concrete topics in a short time.

Kilic conveyed that almost all the colleagues with whom they exchanged views at the Clothing Machinery 2014 fair were also satisfied with the visitor profile. This shared observation showed that the rise in quality was not specific to a single stand. Regarding the organization, Kilic also thanked the Tüyap team and its staff.

A qualified visitor means using time efficiently for a machine manufacturer. The technical team answers questions about the visitor's own line instead of giving a general presentation. This carried the meetings at the Clothing Machinery 2014 fair to the quotation stage faster.

Kilic also referred to the assessment they had made before the fair. Before the Clothing Machinery 2014 fair, the company had said, “a Malkan wind will blow again at this year's fair.” According to Kilic, the fair presented a picture that confirmed this expectation.

3. MACHINES WORKING IN A FACTORY ENVIRONMENT

A shot of the Malkan Machinery stand on the fairground.

At the Clothing Machinery 2014 fair, Malkan Machinery displayed its products with advanced technology and high quality standards in working condition in a factory environment. Kilic stated that they were proud of this way of exhibiting. The visitor saw the machines not in a showcase but within the production flow.

Kilic stated that, among domestic and European participants, Malkan Machinery was the firm exhibiting its machines in this way. This choice was part of the company's approach of showing its products under real operating conditions. Visitors were quite impressed by both the stand and the products on display.

Exhibiting in a factory environment has a technical counterpart. When machines work with dry steam, sufficient vacuum and balanced compressed air, the visitor sees a result close to the performance in the factory. The form on the fabric, the surface quality and the cycle time can be followed realistically under these conditions.

Displaying in a line layout also makes the balance between stations visible. When the passage of a jacket through the shoulder, collar and front body presses is watched, the rhythm of the line and possible bottlenecks become concrete. Visitors to the Clothing Machinery 2014 fair could evaluate this integrity on site at the stand.

This way of exhibiting also let visitors see operator ergonomics. The movements between placing the part on the buck, the closing safety of the press and taking out the product are details that determine efficiency in long shifts. These details can be seen not in a catalog but only on a working machine.

A working display also lets the visitor apply their own quality criteria. The product coming out at the end of the line can be examined by hand, and whether there is shine, a stitch mark or moisture residue on the surface can be checked directly. This concrete observation is the firmest basis of trust at the quotation stage.

Malkan Machinery's Texprocess participation report can also be reviewed as an example of the company's other fair participations.

4. BUYING DELEGATIONS: 12 COUNTRIES, 16 REGIONS, 69 PROVINCES

At the Clothing Machinery 2014 fair, buying delegations took part from 12 countries abroad and 16 different regions within Türkiye. Professional visitors from a total of 69 provinces created a very busy program for participating companies. Kilic emphasized that this intensity continued after the Clothing Machinery 2014 fair as well.

A buying delegation is an organized group of visitors from a certain country or region, made up of manufacturers planning a machine investment. Delegations usually visit stands with a predetermined program and hold one-to-one meetings. This structure gives the participating company the chance to meet many qualified buyers in a short time.

Preparation is decisive in delegation meetings. If the product structure of the delegation's market, technical conditions such as voltage and frequency, and local service expectations are known in advance, the meeting goes efficiently. Having technical documents and references ready builds trust quickly.

Domestic delegations are at least as important as foreign ones. The needs of garment manufacturers in different regions vary by product group and scale. The Clothing Machinery 2014 fair offered the chance to see this variety in a single meeting.

The value of delegation meetings is measured by follow-up after the fair. When the needs noted in a meeting are turned quickly into quotations and survey visits, the relationship becomes concrete. For Malkan Machinery, this follow-up was one of the busiest jobs of the fair.

The buying delegations at the Clothing Machinery 2014 fair brought together manufacturers of different scales. Small workshops looked for single-station solutions, while large facilities wanted to discuss the plan of an entire ironing department. This variety made the fair especially productive for a supplier with a broad product range.

For information on the company's expansion goals, the page on the Malkan Cakiroglu strategic partnership can be consulted.

5. FULLY AUTOMATIC JACKET AND TROUSER PRESSES WITH PLC EQUIPMENT

A view of the stand during the fair.

Metin Kilic stated that after the Clothing Machinery 2014 fair they had strengthened their position internationally, particularly with fully automatic jacket and trouser ironing presses with PLC equipment. These presses were among the products that drew the most interest from visitors to the stand. Jackets and trousers are the product groups in which ironing quality is most noticeable.

A PLC, that is, a programmable logic controller, stores the working sequence and times of the press as a program. Steaming time, pressing force and time, and vacuum cooling time are kept in a separate program for each product.

When the operator selects the program suited to the product, the press applies the same process in the same way every time.

Fully automatic operation limits the operator's job to placing and taking out the part. The closing of the press, the supply of steam, the dwell and the opening with vacuum are managed by the program. This makes the quality difference independent of operator experience and provides consistency between shifts.

On jacket presses, the value of the PLC emerges in region-specific settings. The shoulder, collar-lapel and front body need different pressure and time, and the program stores these differences. On trouser presses, the balance of steam and vacuum that makes the crease permanent according to fabric type is preserved by the program.

Alarm and warning systems on presses with PLC also support quality. A drop in steam pressure, insufficient vacuum or an open safety lock appears as a warning on the screen. These warnings make it possible to intervene before a faulty product comes out.

Recipe management is one of the most practical benefits of presses with PLC. When a new fabric or model arrives, the settings verified on a sample are saved as a recipe and recalled unchanged in later orders.

One of the topics visitors asked about most at the Clothing Machinery 2014 fair was how these recipes are created and stored.

Preventing unauthorized changes to recipes is also part of quality assurance. Allowing setting changes only by authorized persons prevents interventions that could spoil the result within a shift. In this way, a quality that has been verified once can be kept at the same level for months.

6. QUALITY, PRICE AND AFTER-SALES SERVICE

Metin Kilic linked the company's position in international markets to three elements: product quality, price balance and reliable after-sales service. According to Kilic, the customer meetings held at the fair showed that this approach would continue to work in the company's favor in the coming period.

The Clothing Machinery 2014 fair was a chance to see how the buyer responds to these three elements.

Quality in an ironing machine is measured at two levels. The first is the result on the product: form, surface and the permanence of the crease. The second is the durability of the machine itself; being able to give the same result for years depends on the quality of the body, buck and pneumatic components.

Price balance is evaluated by the buyer together with total cost. Besides the initial investment price, energy consumption, maintenance costs, spare parts access and operator training add to the cost over the life of the machine. A well-informed buyer compares quotations on the basis of this whole picture.

After-sales service is decisive, especially for customers abroad. Commissioning the machine, training the operators and quick support in case of a fault secure the buyer's production. The service experience after the first order is the strongest reason for a repeat order.

7. FROM DOMESTIC TO INTERNATIONAL: THE PROJECT APPROACH

A general view of the Malkan Machinery stand.

Kilic conveyed that, besides serving garment and ready-to-wear manufacturers within Türkiye, they had recently begun to carry out projects of considerable size abroad as well. These projects are less about selling machines one by one and more about planning an ironing department as a whole.

The meetings at the Clothing Machinery 2014 fair showed that interest in such projects continued.

The first step in the project approach is the survey. The manufacturer's product group, daily quantity target, existing sewing line and infrastructure are examined on site. With this information, how many stations the ironing department will have and which presses are needed are determined.

The second step is the layout and infrastructure plan. The position of the stations relative to the sewing line and the routes of the steam, vacuum and compressed air lines are handled in the same plan. A correctly planned infrastructure is the precondition for the presses to work at full capacity.

The third step is commissioning and training. After the machines are installed, settings are determined for each fabric group, operators are trained with these settings and trial production is carried out. In a project installed in a distant country, completing these steps fully lets the customer move to production independently.

The biggest benefit of the project approach to the buyer is a single point of contact. When machines, infrastructure and training are planned from the same supplier, the division of responsibility becomes clear and problems are solved faster. This is an important safeguard, especially for manufacturers setting up a large ironing department for the first time.

The company's long-term goals are covered on the Malkan Vision 2025-2026 page.

8. HEAVY DEMAND AFTER THE FAIR: QUOTATION, CAPACITY AND DELIVERY

Another topic that stood out in Kilic's assessment was the “sweet trouble” in meeting customer requests that came in after the fair. The busy course of the Clothing Machinery 2014 fair brought participating companies a heavy workload after the fair as well.

According to Kilic, many meetings ended with taking orders while the Clothing Machinery 2014 fair was still going on.

Orders received at the fair and requests coming afterward directly affect production planning. Preparing quotations, clarifying the technical specification and setting the delivery date should be done in a short time. When demand intensifies, running these steps in order and transparently preserves customer trust.

In capacity planning, the distinction between standard and special orders is important. Standard models can be prepared in a shorter time, while machines made to special requests in terms of buck or size need extra time. Giving the customer a realistic delivery date depends on making this distinction from the start.

Commissioning after delivery is also part of the plan. The installation of the machine, infrastructure connections, first settings and operator training are carried out according to the customer's production calendar. Carrying out these steps without delay in the busy post-fair period is an indicator of the quality of after-sales service.

Kilic stated that orders coming in during the Clothing Machinery 2014 fair gave the team great pleasure and peace of mind. This statement showed that the effort spent on fair preparation was rewarded. The Clothing Machinery 2014 fair was a meeting that directly produced commercial results for Malkan Machinery.

For the company's goals in the following period, the Malkan 2018 target page can be consulted.

9. FAIR COST AND THE THREE-YEAR PERIOD PROPOSAL

An image from the fairground.

Metin Kilic stressed that participating companies attend fairs with very large expenses and that the return on these expenses cannot be obtained in the short term. Stand, machine shipping, installation, utilities and staff costs are the main items of the fair budget. The return on this investment is mostly obtained in the months after the fair.

According to Kilic, an international fair of this scale should be held every three years instead of every two. He conveyed that at the Clothing Machinery 2014 fair they observed many colleagues beginning to voice a demand in this direction. The Clothing Machinery 2014 fair was a meeting where this discussion came onto the industry's agenda.

The three-year period proposal has a technical reason. The design, prototype, trial and series production stages of a new machine take a long time. A fair held less often can give companies the chance to present more mature and field-tested innovations.

On the other hand, fair frequency should also be considered from the buyer's side. A sparser calendar can reduce the chance of a manufacturer planning an investment to see current technology. For this reason, the period discussion requires a balance that takes participant and visitor expectations into account together.

International examples are also often cited in this discussion. Some large specialized fairs were held on a three-year cycle for many years, and participants planned this interval according to their product development calendar. Which cycle is more efficient varies with the pace of innovation in the industry and the investment habits of the buyer audience.

For the company's next fair vision, the Garment Tech Istanbul 2025 vision page can be consulted.

10. EXPECTATIONS OF FAIR SUPPORT FOR SMES

Kilic also shared his expectations about domestic and international fair support. He stated that they expect the relevant ministries and institutions to develop incentive and support programs at higher rates and amounts for manufacturer-exporter SMEs. He emphasized that they would continue to voice this expectation on every platform they have the chance.

For SMEs, fair participation is an investment that consumes an important part of the budget in a short time. Support programs generally cover part of stand rent, freight and promotion costs. The rate and scope of support directly affect how many fairs a company can attend.

It is also important for the country's exports that manufacturer-exporter SMEs are visible at international fairs. In the machinery industry, every new export market means not only a sale but also a long-term service and spare parts relationship. Fair support works as a tool that speeds up the building of these relationships.

The predictability of support is just as important as its rate. Simple and predictable application and payment processes help SMEs plan their fair calendar in advance. The expectation voiced at the Clothing Machinery 2014 fair also covered this predictability.

11. MEASURING THE RETURN OF A FAIR

The success of a fair is evaluated not only by the number of visitors but by measurable results. The number of qualified meetings, orders received during and after the fair, quotations given and requests from new markets are the main indicators. When these indicators are recorded, the return on the fair investment becomes clearer.

A post-fair review meeting determines which products drew interest and which meetings should be prioritized. This review also guides the product selection and stand design of the next fair. In this way, every fair becomes more efficient with what was learned from the previous one.

The orders Malkan Machinery received at the Clothing Machinery 2014 fair and the heavy demand after the fair showed that these indicators painted a positive picture. Kilic's assessment revealed that the fair was productive for the company both commercially and institutionally.

12. CONCLUSION: CLOTHING MACHINERY 2014 AND MALKAN MACHINERY

The Clothing Machinery 2014 fair brought together 467 companies from 26 countries and more than 40,000 visitors from 66 countries at Tüyap. Malkan Machinery continued at this edition the uninterrupted participation it has maintained since the first day of the fair. The rise in quality in the visitor profile was the company's most positive observation of the fair.

Displaying products in working condition in a factory environment and fully automatic jacket and trouser presses with PLC equipment were at the center of the interest shown in the stand. The orders received during the fair and the heavy demand afterward showed the commercial return on preparation.

Metin Kilic's assessment recorded this result together with expectations about fair frequency and SME support.

13. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

When was the Clothing Machinery 2014 fair held? The fair was held April 24-27, 2014, at the Tüyap Fair and Congress Center. This was the twenty-fourth edition of the organization.

How many companies and visitors attended the Clothing Machinery 2014 fair? According to organizer data, 467 companies and company representative offices from 26 countries took part. The fair hosted more than 40,000 visitors from 66 countries.

How did Malkan Machinery exhibit at the Clothing Machinery 2014 fair? The company displayed its products in working condition in a factory environment. Visitors could watch the machines within the production flow.

Were orders taken during the Clothing Machinery 2014 fair? According to Factory Manager Metin Kilic, many meetings ended with orders during the fair, and heavy demand came afterward as well.

Why was a three-year fair period proposed? According to Kilic, the return on participation costs could not be obtained in the short term. A sparser calendar could have given companies the chance to present more mature innovations.

What support did SMEs expect? Kilic stated that they expected higher rates and amounts of domestic and international fair support for manufacturer-exporter SMEs.

What is a PLC recipe used for? A recipe stores the verified steam, pressing and vacuum settings for a fabric and model. In this way, the same result can be repeated with different operators and in later orders.