Our Student Emre Demirtaş Received TTGV 2020 Dr. Akın Çakmakcı Thesis Award

Our doctoral student Emre Demirtaş, who successfully completed undergraduate and master’s programs in our university’s Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department, was deemed worthy for the 2020 TTGV Awards - Dr. Akın Çakmakcı Thesis and Dissertation Award with his master’s thesis titled “Development of Extruded High Impact Polystyrene Foams”.

Winners of the 2020 Technology Development Foundation of Turkey (TTGV) Awards have been announced. Our student Emre Demirtaş’s master’s thesis at durable consumer goods company Arçelik was deemed worthy for Dr. Akın Çakmakcı Thesis and Dissertation Award. Our faculty member Assoc. Prof. Dr. M. Reza Nofar was the thesis advisor of our student, who is currently pursuing his doctoral studies at İTÜ Graduate Institute and also works as an R&D specialist at Arçelik.

Demirtaş, who successfully completed undergraduate and master’s programs in İTÜ Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department and is currently pursuing his doctoral studies in İTÜ, has been working in Materials Technologies R&D Department of Arçelik A.Ş. since 2016. In his master’s thesis nominated for the award, Demirtaş developed new environment-friendly polymer foam materials by using various chemical blowing agents in order to reduce plastic consumption and provide cost advantage.

Commenting on his thesis studies, Demirtaş said, “In the thesis work we carried out as a university-industry cooperation, with the major contribution of my advisor Assoc. Prof. Dr. M. Reza Nofar, we developed lightweight, environment-friendly polymer foam materials that also provide energy saving and cost advantage. Under the light of the thesis study and as a result of our intense work with interdisciplinary teams from different departments of Arçelik, we put polymer foam parts into service in Arçelik’s domestic and global plants. With the foaming work we patented, we contributed to Arçelik’s sustainability endeavor carried out under its “Respects the Globe, Respected Globally” vision by reducing plastic consumption and carbon footprint. I would like to thank first of all to my advisor Assoc. Prof. Dr. M. Reza Nofar, to my supervisors in Arçelik, who supported and guided our work, and all my colleagues who helped me during my thesis work and the mass production starting phase.”

About the Thesis

The results of the thesis titled “Development of Extruded High Impact Polystyrene Foams” are being used in mass production of plastic parts through the injection foaming process. With its implementation, 5-10% lighter plastic parts and 20-30% energy efficiency in their production can be achieved so that environmental-friendly and sustainable products can be obtained. Since the introduction of foaming technology to the mass production of different parts at Arçelik’s domestic and foreign plants in 2018, more than 20 million environmental-friendly foam parts have been produced and over 3 million TL cost improvement has been achieved. Annual reduction of 320 tons in plastic raw material consumption and 500 tons in CO₂ emission has been obtained. Mass production of foamed parts is continuing and the foaming technology is planned to be generalized to applications of Arçelik other than the injection process.

You can access the list of 2020 TTGV Award winners at the web page of the awards (https://www.ttgvodulleri.org/).