Pınar Keskioğlu, Efectis Era Avrasya Sales Manager: “Efectis Era Avrasya provides services for the testing and certification of cables for customers all over the world.”

Hello Pınar. First, could you please introduce yourself to our readers who has the chance to know you for the first time through this article?

Of course, I would be pleased. I am Pınar Keskioğlu, I was born in 1985 in Gümüşhane. I graduated from Anadolu University, Department of Economics. I am married with 2 daughters. I am an active person who likes to be around people. One of the most important things in life for me is to love whatever I do. This is exactly why I have been working with Efectis Era Avrasya for many years with pleasure. As the sales manager, I have been responsible for sales operations in the Turkish market for about 6 years.

Could you tell us about the history of Efectis Era Avrasya and about your services?

Efectis Era Avrasya was established with the partnership of Efectis Holding with headquarters in France, and Era Laboratories (Turkey). Just like Efectis Holding, under whose roof we are structured, Efectis Era Avrasya’s area of expertise is testing, certification and fire engineering services.

To give some details about Efectis Holding: It is one of the oldest and largest fire testing laboratories, and certification and engineering organizations in Europe, with accredited laboratories in France, the Netherlands, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. Efectis serves as a European Union Notified Body authorized for CE marking in its sites outside the UK and is also the authorized Notified Body for UKCA certification with its UK / Northern Ireland site. As it is known, UKCA certification is the conformity assessment that has become mandatory for the products put on the market or to be exported to this market after Brexit.

Efectis Era Avrasya, combining more than 70 years of experience of Efectis Holding, provides fire testing services in addition to certification and fire engineering services and especially CE marking, to meet the needs of several countries in a wide geography from Turkey, the Middle East and Europe, from the Turkic Republics to Russia, from India to China.

What do you think about the reasons why manufacturers prefer Efectis for their testing and certification needs?

With 14 fire resistance furnaces, 3 mobile fire resistance furnaces and 52 reaction to fire testing equipment in 7 testing laboratories, Efectis spreads over four countries. We have the competence to perform accredited tests in over 850 testing standards and thus have a well-deserved global recognition. This broad infrastructure, when combined with the experience of 10 years and our expert technical staff, puts us in an advantageous position in terms of customer preferences. To talk specifically about Efectis Era Avrasya, we can recap the reasons for the satisfaction of our customers in different geographies on four main elements: competent staff, technical equipment, strong communication and fast delivery…

It is worth noting that the Certification Director of Efectis France, Yannik Letallec, is the Head of the Construction Products Regulation Notified Bodies Group at the European Commission, enabling us to take an active role in legislative arrangements and increasing our adaptability to changes.

You mentioned that another service area you lay importance is fire engineering services. What does the term fire engineering means?

Although it is important for all types of buildings to be safe for fire, it is very critical in some building types where the risk of life and property safety is high. These building types include airports, shoppin malls, underground structures such as subways and tunnels where thousands of people are inside at the same time. Contrary to the general belief, the fire safety process in buildings cannot be provided by detection and alarm systems installed in a building. These should of course be for intervention in a possible emergency, but the roadmap of how to ensure the fire safety of the building should be considered from the very beginning. If the project has a specification, it should be defined there, its implementations should be checked from the project drawing to the construction phase, and of course, control and evaluation and follow-up should continue throughout the building’s operational period. Since our subject is the cable industry today, we cannot fail to underline those industrial facilities should also be evaluated in this context. The correct design and periodic monitoring of the different fire loads created by the raw materials, chemicals, storage areas used in the production process, and the settlements that change over time and many other factors are indispensable in terms of both life and property safety.

The fire engineering team of Efectis Era Avrasya, with nearly 35 years of experience, provides services both in Turkey and in different countries according to local and international legislation and requirements.

Let’s move on to the cable industry. What kind of services can manufacturers receive from you?

According to the Construction Materials Regulation, the cables used in buildings must bear the CE mark according to the EN 50575 standard. The CE mark means Conformity to Europe, and products that do not have it cannot be exported to European countries. What is even more critical is that, within the framework of the Customs Union Agreement signed on March 6, 1995, the CE marking is mandatory for the products to be placed on the market in the Turkish market.

As the European Union Notified Body No. 2184, Efectis Era Avrasya is authorized for CE marking according to the EN 50575 standard. We carry out all reaction to fire tests defined for CE marking within the scope of this standard in our laboratory.

The reaction to fire performance classes defined in the EN 50575 standard are Aca, B1ca, B2ca, Cca, Dca, Eca and Fca. The testing methods to be carried out according to the reaction to fire class declared by the manufacturer are evaluated together with the smoke density, acidity, and flame drip criteria, which are additional classification methods.

The CE marking process varies according to the fire performance of the product. While it is sufficient to perform only the initial type tests for the Eca and Dca classes, both the initial type tests and the factory manufacturing control inspections for the Cca, B1ca, B2ca classes must be carried out by the Notified Body. In addition, we can perform circuit integrity tests of cable and carrier systems accredited according to E30, E60, E90 classes, according to DIN 4102-12 and EN 50577 standards.

I am pleased to say that cable manufacturers have more control over testing and certification requirements than most industries. This, of course, makes it easier for us to move forward together in CE marking processes that involve many technical details. Efectis Era Avrasya provides services for the testing and certification of cables for its customer portfolio all over the world.

How would you evaluate the pandemic period for your company?

The Covid-19 pandemic, effective since the beginning of 2020, of course required us to revise our business plans and targets, and to adapt to the process. In this period, where even domestic travels were restricted from time to time, our communication with our customers in many different geographies was interrupted, and trips for inspection and testing purposes could be carried out with delays. However, it should be noted with pleasure that; Efectis Era Avrasya has seen the positive effects of its adaptability and dynamism in decision making and has managed to maintain our growth momentum despite all the difficulties.

The convenience provided by the infrastructure we have created to provide online services to our customers since the first days of the pandemic has also had an impact on this.

We are moving towards the last quarter of the year 2021, what are your targets and predictions?

In 2022, we have accelerated our efforts to establish a laboratory in Turkey where we will perform special facade tests and a fire resistance laboratory in Qatar. While activating of our new laboratories, we will be able to meet the testing demands of domestic and international fire-resistant construction element manufacturers even faster.