About BALÇIK TORMEC – Heating Element Maker since 1959, Turkey

Prologue

1959 · founded

Five generations in trade, three in industry.

The family’s trade began in 1929 with a village shop in Aksaray and grew up in an Ankara trading house. In 1959 Süleyman Balçık wound his first heating coils on a wooden bench in Ulus, calculating the chromium-nickel wire with Ohm’s law. Today BALÇIK TORMEC is run by the fifth generation in trade – the third in industry – and supplies tubular heating elements to global OEMs.

Süleyman Balçık, founder of Balçık, black-and-white portrait — **Süleyman Balçık**, founder · Balçık archive

“Benim, senin, onun; velhasıl hepimizin yaşantısı bir öykü. Çoğumuz o anıları zahmet edip yazmayız.”“Mine, yours, his – in short, every one of our lives is a story. Most of us never take the trouble to write those memories down.”Süleyman Balçık · Hayatım

Chapter 1 · The village shop

1929–1930s

A village shop in Darıhöyük, Aksaray

The family’s first trade was a village shop: Mükerrem, Süleyman Balçık’s grandfather, sold everyday goods in Darıhöyük, Aksaray, from 1929. Shopkeeping is the root of the “five generations” – trade came next, industry in 1959.

5thgeneration in trade

4thin commerce

3rdin industry

Chapter 2 · The printer’s apprentice

1944–1949

Twenty-five kuruş a day – and books at night

Süleyman Balçık started work as an apprentice at Akın Basımevi, a printing house in Ankara. By day he set and printed; by night he read. In January 1949 the first issue of the poet Orhan Veli’s magazine Yaprak came off the same presses – its imprint reads “Akın Basımevi – Ankara”.

Masthead of the magazine Yaprak, issue 1, 1 January 1949, printed at Akın Basımevi, Ankara — **Yaprak** · issue 1 · 1 Jan 1949 · imprint “Akın Basımevi – Ankara” · TÜSTAV

“Benim çıraklık dönemim Ankara’nın köhne bir binasında matbaa çıraklığı ile başlar. Günlük yirmi beş kuruş. […] Gündüz matbaada çalışır, gece kitap okurdum.”“My apprenticeship began as a printer’s boy in a run-down building in Ankara – twenty-five kuruş a day. […] By day I worked at the press; at night I read books.”Süleyman Balçık · Hayatım

“Bir gün baskı bölümüne uzun boylu, ince yapılı biri girmeye çalışınca başı tavana çarptı. […] O uzun boylu kişi, Orhan Veli şairmişti.”“One day a tall, slender man tried to come into the press room and hit his head on the ceiling. […] That tall man, it turned out, was the poet Orhan Veli.”Süleyman Balçık · Hayatım

Chapter 3 · The trading house

1948–1958

Posta Caddesi No. 21: the family trading house

In December 1948 Seyit Ali Akın and his brother Şükrü Akın founded Akın Kollektif Şirketi in Ankara (trade registry no. 2706). From Posta Caddesi No. 21 the family trading house sold Michelin tyres, Westinghouse refrigerators and Steyr diesel trucks, became Peugeot’s agent “for Ankara and Central Anatolia” and later ran a Fiat service garage. This is where Süleyman Balçık learned the trade: products that have to work, and a seller who stands behind them. When the partnership ended on 31 December 1958, its line of electrical goods became Balçık’s first business in 1959.

1948 newspaper advertisement for Michelin tyres by Seyit Ali Akın and Şükrü Akın, Ankara — **Michelin** · Ulus · 10 Apr 1948

1949 French-language newspaper advertisement for the Peugeot 203 naming Akın Kollektif Şirketi as agent for Ankara — **Peugeot 203** · Istanboul · 9 May 1949

1951 newspaper advertisement for Steyr diesel trucks listing Akın Kollektif Şirketi as Ankara agent — **Steyr** · Hürriyet · 21 May 1951

1949 newspaper advertisement for Westinghouse refrigerators by Akın Kollektif Şirketi, Posta Caddesi 21 — **Westinghouse** · Ulus · 14 Jul 1949

1954 newspaper notice for the Fiat maintenance and repair garage of Akın Kollektif Şirketi in Ankara — **Fiat service** · Halkçı · 24 Oct 1954

1950 newspaper advertisement for a Peugeot covered pick-up by Akın Kollektif Şirketi — **Peugeot pick-up** · Zafer · 8 Mar 1950

Click a clipping to enlarge it. Sources: Gaste Arşivi (Ulus, Hürriyet, Zafer, Halkçı), BnF Gallica (Istanboul), Ankara University DSpace (Cumhuriyet).

Chapter 4 · Balçık

1959

Ohm’s law on a wooden workbench

Heating wire for electric hot-plates was imported from England and Germany. Süleyman Balçık calculated chromium-nickel wire by Ohm’s law – learnt during military service – and wound it into spirals on a wooden bench. Shopkeepers were not interested until an electrical-engineering teacher, Osman Coşkun Irmak, took ten of each. The first product: a spiral element, 230 V · 1000 W, labelled “Türk malı, Ankara”.

Package of Balçık’s first spiral heating element, 230 V 1000 W — **Balçık archive** · the first product, 1959: 230 V · 1000 W

Shop window of Balçık Ticaret in Ulus — **Balçık archive** · the Balçık Ticaret shop window in Ulus

Chapter 5 · Balçık Ticaret

1968

From sole proprietorship to company

Founded in 1959 as a sole proprietorship, Balçık Ticaret was converted into a company in 1968. The trade-registry notice of 8 April 1968 (registry no. 17572) defines the business: manufacture of heating elements and heating appliances, import and export. Iron elements were sold in “guaranteed” boxes marked “Türk malı” – a guarantee printed on the box, and kept.

Trade registry notice for Balçık Ticaret, 8 April 1968 — **Registry notice** · 8 Apr 1968 · no. 17572

Box of a guaranteed Balçık iron heating element, Türk malı — **Balçık archive** · “guaranteed” iron element box

“Tezgâhtarlığı bırakıp rezistans üretimine ağırlık verdim. […] Boru kılıflı rezistansa girdim.”“I gave up shopkeeping and concentrated on producing heating elements. […] I moved into tubular sheathed elements.”From shop to factory · Süleyman Balçık, Hayatım

Chapter 6 · Fairs and the first export

1975–1976

“Balçık water heaters and elements are guaranteed”

At the 1975 İzmir International Fair Süleyman Balçık stood on his own stand. A workshop in Ostim had been added in the 1970s. The following year the first export left Ankara: a consignment to Tunisia worth 385 US dollars. Numan Balçık, the founder’s son, joined the business in 1978.

Süleyman Balçık at the Balçık Ticaret stand, İzmir Fair 1975 — **İzmir Fair** · 1975

Team in the Balçık Ticaret shop with Süleyman and young Numan Balçık — **Balçık archive** · the team at the shop

385 $First export, Tunisia, 1976

60+Export countries today

Chapter 7 · Mechanisation

1980s

From threaded beads to MgO filling machines

Early tubular elements were insulated by threading ceramic beads onto the coil by hand. Numan Balçık had filling machines built in Ostim that compacted magnesium-oxide powder around the coil – the principle still used today: wind the wire, insert the coil into the tube, fill with MgO, reduce the tube by rolling so the powder compacts, then bend to shape.

Wire winding in early Balçık production — 1 · Winding

Coil being placed into the tube at an early workbench — 2 · Coil into tube

Tube being filled with magnesium oxide powder — 2 · MgO filling

Rolling mill in early Balçık production — 3 · Rolling

Bending of a tubular heating element in early production — 4 · Bending

“Benim oluşturduğum makinelerden önceki yapıda üretim boncuk dizilerek yapılırken ben dolum yapan makineleri Ostim’de yaptırıp teknolojimizin Avrupa standardına gelmesini sağladım.”“While production was still done by threading beads, I had filling machines built in Ostim and brought our technology up to the European standard.”Numan Balçık · Balçık corporate presentation, 2011

Chapter 8 · Kahramankazan

2000

The factory in Kazan

Production began in 2000 in the first factory building at Kahramankazan, north of Ankara. ISO 9001 followed in 2001; in 2003 Numan Balçık took over management, and in 2006 the Italian brand Tormec became part of the company – bringing stem-type thermostats, STF sealing and later double-safety and hybrid thermostat designs into the range.

First factory building in Kahramankazan, early 2000s — **Early 2000s** · the first building in Kazan

Numan Balçık, Chairman of the Board — **Numan Balçık** · Chairman of the Board

“Babamdan öğrendiğim en önemli nokta sabırlı olmak. […] Mutlaka dürüst olmak.”“The most important thing I learnt from my father is patience. […] And always to be honest.”Numan Balçık · Balçık corporate presentation, 2011

Chapter 9 · Half a century

2009

50 years · 1959–2009

Fifty years after the first spiral left the wooden bench, Balçık was a tubular-element supplier to white-goods and water-heating OEMs at home and abroad, with VDE approvals held since 2000 and ISO 9001 since 2001. The SODEX stand of 2010 carried the line “50 years · 1959–2009”.

Balçık stand at the SODEX fair 2010 with the 50 years banner — **SODEX** · 2010 · the 50th anniversary stand

Chapter 10 · Range and automation

2016

A documented range, automated lines

By 2016 the range was documented by application – ovens, washing machines, small appliances, water heating, professional kitchen and industrial – in sheath materials from AISI 304/316L/321 to Incoloy 800/825 and copper. On the shop floor, automated assembly lines took over repetitive stages of the process first mechanised in the 1980s.

Automated assembly line at the Balçık plant — **Automation** · assembly line

Balçık stand at the SODEX fair 2016 — **SODEX** · 2016

The 2016 catalogue is kept as an archive edition: browse it online or download the PDF. Today’s range: product groups · specifications by product group.

Chapter 11 · The next generation

2022–

Fifth generation in trade, third in industry

Buğra Can Balçık and Utku Balçık, grandsons of the founder, took over the operational structure of the company. Their course: an engineering partner for A-segment OEMs – with co-design, a validation laboratory and VDE-approved product families – and the same rule the founder learnt as an apprentice: say what you will do, then do it.

Third generation of the Balçık family at the Kahramankazan plant — **Balçık archive** · the third generation in Kazan

400People

60+Countries

20 MElements / year

Sources

Archives & documents

Balçık corporate history, corporate presentations (2011, 2012, 2018), Tormec agreement (2006) and the company photo archive · Süleyman Balçık, Hayatım (memoir) · Ankara Trade Registry notices (1948, 1968) · newspapers via Gaste Arşivi (Ulus, Hürriyet, Zafer, Halkçı), BnF Gallica (Istanboul), Ankara University DSpace (Cumhuriyet) · TÜSTAV (Yaprak) · Balçık family research file “Akın’dan Balçık’a” (2026).

Research and compilation: Buğra Can Balçık, 2026. Translations of quotations are ours; Turkish originals are given first, omissions are marked […].