TAI chooses partner for flat steel

BURSA - Anatolia News Agency

This file picture shows modernization works on a military plane by TAI.

Automotive Spare Parts Industry and Trade (Yepsan), which is based in the northwestern province of Bursa, has become the strategic partner of Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) in sheet steel shaping.

Yepsan has been manufacturing for companies including Fiat-Tofaş, Volkswagen Group, Bentley,
Audi, Takata Petri, Karsan, Contitech and Vibracoustic for a quarter of a century, said Mehmet Baş,
the chair of Yepsan, in a written statement July 7.

The company has won several tenders opened by the state-owned ammunition maker MKEK in 1995, he said, adding that the company has manufactured tank pallet parts reinforcing its place in the defense industry.

“Now it is a pleasure both for us and Bursa that we have become a strategic manufacturing partner of Turkish Aerospace Industries,” he said.

Yepsan also produces steel sheet for the giant A400M military cargo planes, he added. Airbus has developed the planes for seven European NATO nations: Britain, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Turkey.

“We have become the only authorized producer of sheet iron shaping for TAI,” he said.

The company makes the shaping of emergency door steel sheet parts, critical titanium parts for planes and engine exhaust parts for Atak, an attack helicopter co-developed by Turkey and Italian AgustaWestland.

Baş said the company will participate in producing the first domestic fighter jet project slated for 2023, the 100th anniversary of the republic.