Mobile services enable agile gasket services during industrial maintenance shutdowns

May 29, 2023

What if maintenance shutdowns in the process industry could be done smarter when it comes to gaskets and other essential components? This is now possible thanks to our deep and lengthy collaboration with leading Finnish maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) companies.

Proactive maintenance, planned shutdowns and renovation projects in various process industry sites ensure a continuous supply of raw materials and essential products for our daily lives. In the Nordic countries, this includes the introduction and increasing production of innovative bio-based products. TT Gaskets’ gasket specification review, agile manufacturing and distribution, as well as consulting, are excellent ways to secure and enhance the progress of maintenance shutdowns.

Flexible industrial shutdown services and mobile manufacturing are particularly relevant right now. There are several reasons for this: the safety and documentation requirements for industrial maintenance shutdowns are becoming stricter, the number of new workers in projects is increasing, and operations are evolving into extensive maintenance and investment projects. Additionally, companies are under pressure to make timely decisions to achieve cost targets and ensure a planned restart of production.

Close collaboration yields the best results

Partnership with TT Gaskets enables a flexible operating model during maintenance shutdowns. Our shutdown services address sealing needs on-site, conveniently and without delays. One of our customers utilizing this opportunity is Borealis Polymers Oy, who have previously used our mobile gasket factory previously and are planning to utilize the TTG Smart Container.

Since we operate near our customers’ production lines and listen closely to each other’s needs, we can jointly respond to unexpected changes. Supporting us in this is our modern gasket factory, which is rapidly developing towards carbon neutrality.

Long-term collaboration creates better opportunities for success as we can use the knowledge from previous years’ maintenance shutdowns and deliveries as a basis for planning and anticipation. Open communication guarantees development on both sides. After a shutdown, one of the most fruitful discussions is the project review session focusing on the project’s successes and development areas.

In the future, our various smart services will hopefully also facilitate various smart field verifications when questions arise about the location of gaskets, post-installation operational conditions, and continuous safety and emission monitoring.

80-year-old TT Gaskets celebrates with the extended family

Close collaboration with our extensive network has been and continues to be the key to TT Gaskets’ long and successful operations. I am pleased to announce that we will be celebrating our 80th anniversary this fall. We feel much younger, and of course, age is just a number 😉

At this point, I would like to thank all our partners and other stakeholders for their ongoing co-operation and continuous development. Let’s celebrate our shared journey this fall on LinkedIn and at our birthday events. In the latter part of the year, we will also participate in trade fairs such as Alihankinta and Elmia.

Wishing everyone a wonderful and relaxing summer!

Aleksi

Aleksi Arpiainen is the CEO of TT Gaskets in the third generation. According to him, the success of a family business is fueled by continuous development and innovation. In the blog, Aleksi sheds light on his thoughts on where the world of gaskets is going.

TT Gaskets scores top result in EcoVadis sustainability assessment

May 22, 2023

TT Gaskets has placed in the world’s top percentile in the global EcoVadis sustainability assessment. We scored higher than 80 percent of our cohorts and placed among the best 7 percent. The ranking equals a silver medal in EcoVadis’s classification system. Our sustainability was evaluated for the second time now, and the result was clearly improved from our first EcoVadis assessment.

”Using the appropriate gasket is an environmental act in itself. We wish to advance our customers’ positive environmental impact through our products. Our mission is to enable smarter sealing one gasket at a time,” TT Gaskets’ LEAN and Quality Manager Matti Järvinen says.

“Something that is great for your process might be detrimental to nature. Our gaskets make sure that dangerous substances stay away from where they don’t belong.”

Long-term sustainability investments are paying off

We at TT Gaskets have chosen to commit to long-term sustainability investments instead of compensating our carbon footprint with quick money. Some of our sustainable solutions are costly ventures that will pay themselves back only after a long period of time.

Our recyclable and user-friendly packaging materials are a great example of such efforts. Rethinking our packaging process was a significant investment. On the other hand, as we are optimizing our packaging, we are not transporting wooden pallets or plastic but our products. We have also implemented two solar panel fields with a third one on the way. During the sunniest summer months up to 100 percent of our electricity comes from the sun.

Sustainability is a key theme at TT Gaskets also on a social and administrative level. Sustainable choices help improve our competitive ability.

”Enhanced material efficiency reduces emissions and waste. Employee wellbeing and good leadership bring fluency to work. Our established financial situation ensures that we don’t have to make hasty decisions.”

“We are well of aware of international developments and the changes in our customers’ needs. We are constantly learning and tackling new challenges head-on as we recognize opportunities for doing things in a smarter way.”

Regulation will only expand in the future – we are one step ahead

The EU corporate sustainability reporting requirements are expanding, and the new reporting directive will come into effect in 2025. Some of our partners already require detailed reporting. TT Gaskets wishes to be a responsible company and a trendsetter before the legislature even affects us.

Companies partaking in the EcoVadis assessment receive a comprehensive list of development targets that enable critical evaluation of the company’s operations. Järvinen emphasizes that despite the great results, corporate responsibility is a continuing process. We are determined to become a completely carbon-neutral business by 2027. The goal is ambitious but entirely achievable with yearly interim targets.

“Our first target is to reduce the emissions of our own operations to zero and minimize energy and heating emissions by producing our own energy. Some emissions cannot be eliminated, but we will start by addressing everything we can directly affect. Then we will think about how we can minimize indirect emissions.”

What is EcoVadis?

• Leading global sustainability ratings provider
• Provides assessment for environmental, social, and ethical performance
• Ranks businesses in relation to other companies within the same industry
• Scores companies on a scale from 0 to 100
• Has provided assessments for over 90,000 companies globally

Markku Jormanainen joins our sales team – ”TT Gaskets’ product development is on a level of its own”

March 20, 2023

The TT Gaskets sales team received a welcome addition when industrial trade veteran Markku Jormanainen started in the role of Key Account Manager in February. Markku has been working with the sales of compressed air and welding products as well as gaskets for over 30 years.

“I have been working in industrial sales since 1993, and I consider TT Gaskets a kind of culmination for my career. This is an awesome company; I think our product development capabilities and green thinking are on a level of their own.”

Markku will be focusing on our wholesale operations and serving process industry customers in the Finnish market. The familial culture at TT Gaskets made an impression on him already on his first workday.

”There’s a relaxed atmosphere at TT Gaskets. Everybody has made me feel extremely welcome, and orientation has been exceptionally thorough. The close-knit team really feels like a family.”

Hailing from the city of Joensuu, Markku divides his free time between different nature and sport hobbies.

”I’ve got so many hobbies that I don’t even have time for all of them. Spending time in nature is my greatest passion,” Markku sums up.

Cobot and lathe cell bring speed, precision and flexibility to metal gasket production

February 23, 2023

A lengthy investment project was realized with the inauguration of our new cobot and automatic lathe cell at the start of 2023. Also known by their more informal names Aino and Ilmarinen, the new production machinery has introduced unparalleled precision and speed to our gasket manufacturing.

”We started preliminary work on the investment after receiving an offer request for cylinder head gaskets from a known motor manufacturer. The product they wanted featured very high quality and tolerance requirements. Lengthy testing and several prototypes resulted in successful components which we then began to produce using traditional gasket manufacturing methods,” Production Manager Teemu Piipponen recounts.

Early in the collaboration we acknowledged that to increase production capacity, the manufacturing process needed to be sped up and automated. Thus, preparations for acquiring a lathe cell began, and took almost two years to finalize.

Data flows within the cell

The lathe cell consists of a multi-use lathe, measuring and laser marking instruments plus protective oil application. The dual-spindle lathe can take on several different work phases simultaneously, and automated measuring ensures that each part meets every requirement. The finished parts are individually marked, and protective greasing is applied. The cobot Aino speeds up lead times by inserting and transporting materials and units between different work phases.

”Data is transmitted in every direction within the cell. If the measuring instrument finds that the production tolerances are starting to drift, it’s a sign that the lathe’s blades are wearing out or there may be some other unforeseen problem. The lathe can then automatically adjust its bits and process accordingly,” Piipponen illustrates.

Double-speed manufacturing

Experience has shown that as the number of interfaces between production machinery increases the risk for malfunctions also rises. We wanted to find a provider who could deliver the entire lathe cell implementation as a complete turnkey delivery.

”We could’ve purchased all the machinery separately, but we wanted to partner up with a company that could implement a single interface for the entire cell. MTC Flextek had the expertise to connect all the equipment into a solution that is seamless to operate,” Piipponen says.

The 700,000-euro investment has already been harnessed into our day-to-day production. The lathe cell has halved the production time of a single gasket and automated several repetitive tasks. This enables TT Gaskets’ experts to focus on tasks that require a human approach.

For our customers, the lathe cell enables faster production times, higher-quality products, and flexibility in our production. We can also produce challenging metal gaskets and parts with increased precision and quality.

“Parts that previously required several work phases and lathe bit swaps are now manufactured in a streamlined way with the lathe cell handling all work phases simultaneously. It has halved the production time of one gasket from five minutes to approximately two and a half minutes.”

Investing in the future

Teemu Piipponen predicts that gasket quality and tolerance requirements will only increase in the motor industry in coming years. The green transition places an emphasis on higher efficiency and lower emission levels for all kinds of engines.

”Manufacturing these kind of motors requires precision-made metal products and components that are simply not feasible to manufacture manually. We have learned a lot about working with different metals, their properties as well as machining data and different lathe bits in a short time while working with the lathe cell,” Piipponen sums up.

Interested in our gasket services? Contact us!

TT Gaskets maintains high customer satisfaction with enhanced feedback cycle for swift response

February 1, 2023

Customer feedback has always been extremely valuable for our company. We are now transitioning from our previous longer feedback cycle towards continuous feedback collection. Our aim is to react to changes more quickly and streamline our service according to your feedback. TT Gaskets’ customer satisfaction scores have consistently been good in the past, but we hope that quicker response times can increase satisfaction to an even higher level.

The first customer survey according to our new model was conducted in the autumn of 2022. We received an outstanding number of answers from all the countries we are currently operating in.

Our customers were especially satisfied with the following aspects of our service (out of a maximum score of 5):

• Professionalism of our staff: 4,5
• Product quality: 4,4
• Trustworthiness as a partner: 4,4
• Environmental responsibility: 4,3

The overall grade for all areas in the survey was 4,17 and our NPS score was 47. We are extremely proud of these great results! All feedback is important and valuable. We are grateful that our customers take time to answer the surveys – this way we can continue to meet their expectations and market demand.

In addition to good grades, we are also grateful for the open feedback we received in the survey. The bulk of the feedback was good and encouraging but naturally we also discovered some areas of development from the comments. Some of the feedback was related to delivery times, an area that also received the lowest grade (3,7). Much to our regret, we have lately faced difficulties in meeting some delivery time expectations due to limited raw material availability, while information regarding availability has also been lacking. We are improving our future communications within the information we receive from our suppliers!

All in all, we are very pleased with the survey’s results and the continuing trust our customers place in us. We hope that our service continues to meet your expectations also in future surveys!

TT Gaskets invests in the German-speaking market – David Lindgren joins our sales team

January 25, 2023

We are happy to introduce David Lindgren, the latest addition to the TT Gaskets family! As Key Account Manager, David will be taking our products and services to the German-speaking market in Central Europe.

After living in Switzerland for the last five years, David is now located in Munich. He has a long and illustrated history of working in procurement within different industries such as commercial vehicles, the automotive industry, and reciprocating compressors. David’s great experience of TT Gaskets as a customer got him into talks with CEO Aleksi Arpiainen when it came time to look for a new professional challenge.

“TT Gaskets is a pioneer in the global gasket business. I’ve been really impressed with the out-of-the-box thinking and advanced solutions that the great TTG team is producing at our world-class facilities. What sets us apart from a lot of competitors is our ability to provide R&D services, tailored solutions, and sealing as a service. TT Gaskets’ sustainability and circular economy practices are also on a level of their own,” David highlights.

As well as working with our current customers, David will also be in charge of establishing new partnerships in German-speaking countries.

Motivated team with a shared mission

David started on January 1^st and has spent most of the month in Tampere getting to know his colleagues plus the ins and outs of the sealing industry. He sees a lot of market potential for TT Gaskets’ solutions and Finnish quality in Germany and its neighboring countries.

“The TT Gaskets team really feels like a family. We have a lot of highly motivated young experts who share a mission of making sure that our customers receive the best possible service. I’m having a great time learning about the wealth of gasket materials and manufacturing methods we have,” David says.

David has been a regular visitor in our country since 2006 and has a strong personal connection with Finland.

“I have a passion for the Alps in Central Europe, and I equally love Finnish nature and all its sports possibilities like skiing and mountain biking. I’m always taking Finnish delicacies and other stuff home for my German friends and relatives. You could well say that this is my second home!”

Don’t hesitate to contact David with any of your gasket and sealing needs in Central Europe!

David Lindgren
tel. +49 162 541 8370
david.lindgren@tt-gaskets.de

3D printing enables agile production and helps bring creative ideas into reality

October 3, 2022

TT Gaskets’ investment in an industrial 3D printer has brought agility into the product development of different productional accessories.

Getting accustomed to 3D printing started by practicing creating different shapes and measuring the dimensional accuracies of different plastic types.

As we got comfortable with the technology, the printer was soon used in real-world applications. In-house product development quickly resulted in new innovations such as jigs and interchangeable trays that hasten laser marking, brackets for expanding our conveyor line, marking plates and other productional accessories.

These kind of creative solutions and applications make our production more agile thus benefiting both TT Gaskets and our customers. Many of the ideas for 3D printed objects have come from our production line. In some cases, an idea has been refined into a 3D printed product right away and implemented into our production the following day.

Great production benefits at a low cost

3D-printed objects have proven to be surprisingly fast to design and print – one object takes four to five hours on average to complete. Considering their low printing costs, the productional benefits are great – often these accessories hasten different operations significantly. Savings are indirectly generated at other departments as traditional methods and tools are not required to manufacture accessories and our production capacity can be fully allocated towards customer work.

We have also conducted internal experimentation on 3D printing different gasket components, and the results are promising. Time and further research will show if this technology can be utilized in our sealing products in the future. Meanwhile, we are also investigating the possibilities and benefits of 3D printing metals.

Daily management improves safety and brings out new ideas

September 28, 2022

The TT Gaskets daily management board is a tool for maintaining quality and delivery security. Work planner Jenny Virta writes about how daily management helps rationalize production.

The daily management board (or just the board) has been a part of the TT Gaskets production line for a couple of years now. What does it mean in practice?

After each shift or workday, the board is used to go through the day’s tasks and events. Safety is our top priority which is why it is always the first matter on the board. After security comes quality: if there are any quality issues to be noted, the corresponding department will assess the matter and see how it could be avoided in the future. I feel that this is a great way of maintaining continuous improvement over our quality. The previous week’s delivery security is also evaluated on the board.

Each day we also review the department’s cleanliness and possible anomalies. The board is color coded so that deviations are easily spotted and assessed if necessary.

One of the most important features of the board is the section for new ideas. It helps us enable better practices for our employees thus rationalizing our production line. Most of the new ideas come from our production employees. Suggested ideas and their statuses are reviewed each Monday.

The TT Gaskets’ solar power plant expansion is ready – The sun can now power our entire facility

September 22, 2022

The expansion of the TT Gaskets solar power plant is finished. Having begun in early summer, the project was finished in target schedule and the new panel field was inaugurated in August 2022.

After the expansion roughly one fourth of our yearly energy demand can be met with our own solar power. During the sunniest summer months up to 100 percent of our electricity comes from solar panels and no additional energy from the national network is required.

Solar panels now cover the roof and south-facing facade of the TT Gaskets main building almost entirely. Both the original panel field and the expansion were implemented by Solnet.

– There is now a total of over 1,200 panels or 2,500 square meters of panels installed. The new field has 775 panels. Our solar power plant has produced a total of 290 megawatt hours since the summer of 2021, which translates to about 110 metric tons of CO2 emission reductions, TT Gaskets Smart Engineer Jaakko Niukkala highlights.

Read more: We manufactured gaskets by solar power – first in the world

See what our solar power plant looks like from above:

Behind the Gaskets | Expert interview: Senior purchaser Matti Alasuvanto is at home in unexpected situations

September 6, 2022

Senior purchaser Matti Alasuvanto oversees TT Gaskets’ raw material acquisition. He is also an expert in making sure that our customers succeed in their material choices.

The TT Gaskets nomenclature includes over 3,500 different raw material options. The procurement and logistics of these materials is Matti Alasuvanto’s everyday business.

– My job is to make sure that our customers have the right raw materials available at the right time, right price and right place. The goal is to ensure service security and keep our clients happy, Matti lists.

­­Matti’s workdays include handling offer requests, orders and assessments as well as continuous metric analysis. He is a valued problem solver and specialist when sudden material sourcing or recommendation needs arise.

– This job often features sudden and unexpected situations which is why it’s useful to have plenty of previous experience to lean on. I love it when I can tackle a challenge that has previously remained unsolved, Matti says.

Problem solving and nerves of steel

Purchasing has been Matti’s bread and butter since 1998. He considers procurement an interesting field thanks to its versatility and continuous learning possibilities. His passion for purchasing may be at least partially inherited: Matti’s father worked in purchasing and logistics for half of his career.

– My original plan was to stay at TT Gaskets for five years or so. However, I’ve really enjoyed this job and have been able to develop my role that I’ve now been here close to 12 years, Matti says.

With no shortage of duties, Matti’s days can be quite hectic.

– I calculated that I received approximately one job or request every 160 seconds on average in 2021. Great organizing skills, creativity, quick problem-solving and nerves of steel come in handy in my line of work, Matti says.

Jogging around his hometown Pirkkala, playing basketball and his astronomy hobby bring a much-needed balance in Matti’s everyday life.

Continuous development and lifelong learning

In addition to his wide-ranging work, Matti has developed his expertise by completing degrees, qualifications, courses, and other studies in both Finnish and international universities. Matti is grateful that TT Gaskets has provided versatile options for personal development.

Staying up to date on the latest technologies and methods requires continuous learning, but at the same time Matti highlights the importance of his core competence.

– Software robotics, machine learning and IIot (Industrial Internet of Things) are examples of new technologies that can truly streamline purchasing. However, I’ve learned that before you can take advantage of digitalization and other new applications you must have a solid foundation – those tried-and-true principles and processes that I’ve practiced since the 1990s.

Matti gives nothing but praise for the TT Gaskets community.

– Our truly skilled production employees and teams work seamlessly across department boundaries. I’ve made several great friends while working at TT Gaskets.