Life in Finland | Six months of darkness and Santa Claus, what else?

May 13, 2022

This is the first part of Antoine Blanquart’s blog about his tenure in Finland and TT Gaskets. More posts are to follow.

Hi, first let me introduce myself. I’m Antoine Blanquart from France and more specifically from Nice, in the French Riviera, currently studying for a bachelor’s degree in International Business at the IPAG school of business. As a part of my studies, I have an internship to do abroad to acquire new knowledge.

Mr. Aleksi Arpiainen used to work in Switzerland several years ago and kindly offered for TT Gaskets to host me for 6 months, which is an amazing opportunity for me.

This blog is a great way for me to share my impressions and feedback on Finland and on TT Gaskets.  

Our Trip

We left France on March 3^rd with my girlfriend Lisa and arrived in Tampere at 9 p.m. Over the day we lost 25°c, going from 15°c in Nice to –9°c in Finland.

Before arriving at Tampere, I knew practically nothing about Finland. I knew that the capital was Helsinki and that you had a region in the North called Lapland (the country of Santa Claus). It may surprise you, but in the mind of a Frenchman, in Finland it’s daytime for six months and then night for the other six months.

I had already done several tourist trips abroad, but this was my first time traveling to a country for business purposes. It was also my first immersion in a company. I was quite apprehensive about my capacity to cope with a foreign language and business demands. However, it reassured me that I had already had some contacts with Aleksi and Mr. Matti Salo beforehand who contributed to making me feel more at ease. 

Settling in Tampere

When we arrived in Tampere, Sanni Kraneis, the company HR, welcomed us and showed us the accommodations she organized for us. We discovered a great flat, we were really amazed by the size and beauty of it! Sanni was very thoughtful and put some beautiful flowers on the dining table and on top of that, they had done some shopping for us so that we could have breakfast the next morning as we arrived very late in Tampere.

We were settled in our new home for the six months to come.

This is the first part of Antoine Blanquart’s blog about his tenure in Finland and TT Gaskets. More posts are to follow.

Behind the gaskets | Expert interview: Sales Engineer Jarkko is a passionate problem-solver

May 10, 2022

Equipped with a strong background in machine design and product development, sales engineer Jarkko Lekkala started at TT Gaskets in April 2022.

– The best part of working in design is diving deep into technical challenges and finding the best possible solution. However, design can be a very lonely line of work, which is at times in contrast with my social and slightly competitive nature. I’m a restless soul at heart: I like my work to be variable and it’s especially nice if it includes travel, Jarkko says.

Driven by a will to develop himself in a varied work environment, Jarkko found himself at TT Gaskets.

– In this job I get to solve problems together with our clients and combine design with human interaction in the best possible way. Every customer case is different and requires tailored solutions. The solution-oriented mentality that I adopted in my previous design positions is a key asset also in sales.

Jarkko’s first weeks have been a crash course in the workings of the gasket industry.

– Of course, I’ve had some previous experience of working with gaskets, but in my earlier positions they have always been only one part of a larger whole. It’s fascinating to dive deep into a new field and gain knowledge from the gasket professionals here at TT Gaskets, Lekkala says.

With a diploma in engineering from the Tampere University of Technology, Jarkko Lekkala originally pursued a career in sports.

– Nowadays sports are a dear hobby of mine. Racket games, bicycling, motocross, gym training and many different endurance sports fill up my free time. As a balancing activity for sports, I also play the guitar, Jarkko lists.

Strong supplier relations and active anticipation carry through times of uncertainty

May 6, 2022

Different raw materials have become hard to come by during the COVID pandemic. The war in Ukraine only made things more difficult and caused unprecedented increases in prices – especially in stainless and acid-proof steels, but also in other types of industrial raw materials. Luckily, these availability issues have so far had only a moderate effect on us here at TT Gaskets.

Almost all our raw materials come from European and North American manufacturers with whom we have long and close business partnerships. However, strong supplier relations are not enough on their own. First, we must be able to anticipate and predict different possible scenarios, and then find active and innovative ways to shape our own future.

Implementing our growth strategy and preparations for increasing uncertainty have hastened the development of our purchasing function. We have revamped our supplier review process and taken steps into improving our raw material tracking model. Tampere Universities’ AI-Champions program has been a valuable resource in generating ideas for combining our forecast models with artificial intelligence.

70 years of partnership is a valuable asset

Despite the pandemic making traveling difficult, our purchasing department has been able to find new sources of raw materials by e.g., auditing new suppliers remotely. Our greatest asset in this time of uncertainty has been our strong longstanding business relationships with the world’s top suppliers. We have established deep and mutually beneficial relationships with many of our partners, many of which have spanned several generations over 70 years. Shared commitment to quality and the courage for innovation have made our collaborations fruitful in many ways.

Even despite the ongoing crises we have received great and quick support from many of our suppliers. A warm thanks to our partners! Together we have been able to overcome challenging situations. Trust is a strong foundation for partnerships and carries through even the hardest of times.

The quest for alternatives is on

Versatility has always been a part of the TT Gaskets’ ethos. We are a comprehensive partner for sealing and gasket solutions for our clients, many of whom have been willing to work in even closer collaboration to find alternatives for their raw materials. This has given us the ability to react quickly when anticipation hasn’t been enough.

Investing in our Smart Lab has also amplified the work for finding alternatives. We have been able to produce technical evaluations, compression set calculations even faster and supported our clients’ FEM modelling to approve new alternatives and innovate new technical solutions in their early development phases.

Over 2.000 raw materials in stock

Our COVID taskforce and the executive team’s risk and new potential assessments have enabled an anticipatory and flexible approach for TT Gaskets. We have been able to tackle potential risks that we have observed in our supply chains.

We currently have approximately 120.000 active product items and a stock of over 2.000 raw materials. Our large stocking capacity has always been a motor for our flexible operating model and ensured raw material availability for our clients. Even before the COVID crisis we had increased our stock levels in anticipation of longer delivery times.

Having a sufficient buffer has proved to be a great decision. The yearly 20 percent increase in our turnover during the last two years has brought on positive challenges in terms of availability of certain raw materials. Additionally, the COVID pandemic has increased the delivery times of some of our materials:  even some of our most regularly used materials’ delivery times have risen from 4 to 44 weeks.

Increasing advantage from the solar power investments

The war in Ukraine has brought on sudden price increases of tens or even hundreds of percent for certain metals. Despite taking pre-emptive measures, this has had an influence on some of our end product prices.

Energy prices have also seen a strong increase, but we have been able to minimize the effects of rising expenses by investing into solar power. We implemented our first large solar investment in the summer of 2021, and in the coming summer 2022 we will double our solar power capacity. This enables us to cut our carbon emissions by 34.000 kilograms and generate over 25 percent of our energy consumption from the sun.

Here’s to hoping for a sunny spring! A warm thank you to all our excellent suppliers and customers! A strong will and open collaboration help us to overcome any challenge. We are also happy to welcome new and interesting additions to our sales personnel, enabling us to further deepen our customer collaborations and serve you in all your sealing needs.

Read more about these subjects on our LinkedIn page and website!

Aleksi Arpiainen

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.

Here we go again! The expo season approaches – Here’s where you can meet us

April 27, 2022

Trade fairs and expos are once again organized all over Europe, and TT Gaskets is taking part in many exciting events during 2022. If you want to hear all about the latest news and innovations in the gasket industry, be sure to meet our experts at our exhibition stands!

Here are some highlights from our 2022 event calendar:

September 6­–9: SMM 2022, Hamburg, Germany

With over 2,000 exhibitors and 40,000 visitors from all over the world, SMM is the most important event in the maritime industry calendar.

September 20–23: InnoTrans, Berlin, Germany

With over 3,000 exhibitors from 60 countries, InnoTrans is the world’s leading trade fair for transport technology.

September 27–29: Alihankinta – Subcontracting Trade Fair, Tampere, Finland

The Alihankinta Subcontracting Trade Fair presents the metal, electronics, plastics and rubber industries, industrial ICT solutions, as well as design and consulting within these fields. Finland’s leading industrial event offers visitors a unique overview of the industry’s prospects and future.

November 15–17: Elmia Subcontracting Fair, Jönköping, Sweden

The Elmia Subcontracting Fair is the largest event for manufacturing industry subcontractors in Northern Europe.

Behind the Gaskets | Expert interview: Experienced design manager is a valuable source of tacit knowledge

February 28, 2022

Celebrating 30 years at TT Gaskets, design manager Jari Suoniemi’s skills and expertise have grown together with the company. TT Gaskets’ numerous innovations have introduced new tasks and work methods.

Gasket design is at the core of Jari Suoniemi’s competence. His experience is so vast and varied that he spends a lot of his time passing on important information and skills to his peers and colleagues.

– I’ve always had the privilege of learning new skills in my work. For example, water and laser cutting are gasket manufacturing techniques that were originally introduced to me as new work methods, Jari says.

In addition to his design work, Jari is also in charge of managing the TT Gaskets production facility.

– I know the building very well, and I’m sort of looking after it. Our building automation and control system helps me monitor changes in heating and expenses. However, my main passion is still designing and creating, so these other duties are kind of a distraction, Jari says with a laugh.

”Gasket design needs to start as early as possible”

Jari started at TT Gaskets in 1992. His introduction to the company came in 1988 with an eccentric press automation project he designed as a thesis work for his engineering studies. The project proved to be significant as the machine is still in operation today. Jari has seen and experienced the progress in gasket design and manufacturing during his long career.

– Our work used to be more customer-driven as we were focused only on production. In my opinion, the industry is now headed towards a good direction. We begin collaborating with our customers in the early stages of their projects which enables us to design gaskets that match their needs, Jari says.

Jari feels there is still room for improvement in the business.

– Gaskets are small and often forgotten until the final stages of a project. This means that we often have only a couple of months to create a plan and design the final products. The industry is very hectic these days, Jari illustrates.

Working in a hurry is not ideal, but Jari is still motivated by the diversity in TT Gaskets’ projects. Interesting and varied tasks ensure that his work does not become monotonous. Jari likes the fact that he now shares his responsibilities with a colleague and doesn’t have to work alone anymore. Other departments and management also chip in.

Spare time with the family

An active working life keeps Jari refreshed also in his spare time. He has four children and seven grandchildren, the youngest of whom was born in February. The family spends a lot of time together.

– We have big get-togethers a couple of times per year. Food is an excellent incentive for luring everybody in, Jari says with a laugh.

Jari’s active everyday life also includes jogging and skiing. His mornings must include a cup of coffee and 100 grams of blueberries with no sugar.

TT Gaskets supports pioneering ownership research in Finland

February 14, 2022

Samuli Knüpfer has been appointed professor of ownership at the Aalto University School of Business, thus becoming the world’s first long-term professor in the field. As one of the founding donors for the professorship, TT Gaskets is proud to be a part of making pioneering research possible in Finland.

“Professor Knüpfer and his team are doing groundbreaking research. Together with my father Matti Arpiainen, we believe that a deeper understanding of ownership structure and models are vital in highlighting ownership culture as an important aspect of our society,” TT Gaskets CEO Aleksi Arpiainen says.

Established with donated funds, the aim of the professorship is to make ownership an integral part of academic research and to produce high-quality data to support societal discussion and decisions.

“As a family-owned business, we consider the strengthening of Finnish ownership culture and expertise an especially important goal. Us patient family entrepreneurs have no quarterly targets. Instead, we aim to produce long-term solutions that contribute to wellbeing. I believe the professorship can deepen and generate new forms of prosperity, and this is something we really want to be a part of,” Aleksi Arpiainen says.

Sustainable growth for coming generations

With the professorship, Finland will now be in the forefront of producing scientific research on ownership for current and coming generations of entrepreneurs.

“There really hasn’t been a lot of academic research in this field so far. We need information on all forms of ownership to enable fact-based societal discussions and conversations, and also to help companies grow and remodel themselves in a sustainable way.”

The Finnish Family Business Network (Perheyritysten liitto) is one of the world’s most active family business organizations and has been an integral part in establishing the professorship.

“Combining the Family Business Network’s empirical experience with unbiased scientific data will surely result in a more comprehensive understanding of ownership. I hope that we can participate and contribute our own experience to the discussions that professor Knüpfer’s research will generate,” Aleksi Arpiainen says.

Continuous learning helps to exceed goals, boost motivation and create value for customers

February 8, 2022

We supply safer solutions for companies in over 50 countries, and our clients provide service for critical industries in all six continents. At TT Gaskets, we get energized by challenging ourselves and developing better and safer solutions together with our clients.

Our sealing solutions are used on land, at sea and in the air – gaskets are needed everywhere. Experience from different fields has given us insight, which we have refined through experimentation and collaborative projects with our clients. Over the years, we have become a specialized provider of demanding industrial solutions.

As gasket professionals, our motivation stems from being able to build a safer and sustainable industrial world for the next generations while delighting our customers . Another source of inspiration is our very own Smart Lab where we conduct continuous testing, develop new products, and innovate brand new gasketing solutions.

We aim to apply insight from different industries and distill it into an array of interesting product development ideas. We also gain ideas through co-creation projects with research institutes and start-ups in Finland and abroad. To sum it up, we follow the follow the guidance of iconic French microbiologist Louis Pasteur: ”La chance ne sourit qu’aux esprits bien préparés”, chance favors the prepared mind.

Collaborative gasket design

Our strong culture of embracing challenges with vigor comes from our founder Jussi Arpiainen. As a trusted partner of the Finnish defense forces, he was the go-to man for solving problems and inventing something that did not yet exist. After Jussi, my father Matti Arpiainen understood the power of broad teamwork in problem solving and elevated our design department to a whole new level as CEO. During my time as CEO, the same principles have been refined into our Design Board, a flexible and varied work group that complements TT Gaskets’ design department.

With weekly meetings, the Design Board includes representatives from all departments. This steering group approach to design has brought speed, fresh thinking and better tracking to our product development. The Design Board has also made motivating different organizational levels possible. This way we can find the best and safest sealing solutions either in-house or together with our clients.

Organizations need to keep learning

We have always believed that a learning organization needs non-stop internal and external stimuli in order to give life to new ideas and challenge our thinking. This translates to comprehensive and regular training of our staff. Lately, our managers have been given food for thought at the TTG Academy, and I have honed my own leadership methods at the High Performance Leadership training program organized by Insead and the Family Business Network (FBN-I).

According to Gallup, continuous learning together with transparent communication keep companies moving and help organizations on their journey towards the future. Personally, I would also add finding your own model for foresight and future work to the list. Luckily, future-proofing and foresight work are taken seriously in Finland with several related projects underway. I’ve had the pleasure of being a part of the Tampere Chamber of Commerce’s future work group that focuses on sharing knowledge and expertise. Private and public organizations can benefit and learn from each other in e.g. collaborations between businesses, universities and urban areas.

We at TT Gaskets strongly believe in leadership through information, and have begun a three-year program for developing a more intelligent gasket factory. Our pace of investments will only accelerate towards the end of the year and beyond. Stay tuned!

Embracing challenges as a part of company culture

At TT Gaskets, reinventing ourselves and embracing challenges is inherited from previous generations, integrated in our corporate culture and harnessed as a source of motivation in our daily work. A learning organization must have the courage to question their own boundaries and grow beyond them. Often, we do not end up where we intended to, but found something even better in the process. We take joy in learning something unexpected that can benefit us as well as our customers.

We wish to thank all our clients and the excellent culture of collaborating, exploring, learning and succeeding together in the Pirkanmaa region. Happy new year to all our stakeholders around the world! Together we can envision a safer industrial future for current and coming generations. I hope we can meet this year either virtually or face-to-face at trade fairs and seminars in Finland and around the world.

Aleksi Arpiainen

More posts you might be interested in:
We all have a right to good leadership
What if gaskets could talk? – With an innovation culture, we create new customer value and an even more positive employer experience

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 challenges startups to develop its products

December 9, 2021

Demobooster Tampere is a concept where a company developing a new product presents a challenge and receives solution options from startups. TT Gaskets is challenging the region’s startups and technology companies to improve their service that supports the global gasket trade.

TTG Smart Tracking service enables customers to verify the authenticity of spare parts and track their location. The service has been tested and it works globally.

– We are now at a stage where information about our tracking service should be disseminated to our customers, and we also need to develop a suitable business model for it. We participate in Demobooster Tampere to get bold ideas for increasing the notoriety of the new service, says Smart Engineer Jaakko Niukkala.

Demobooster Tampere 2021

Startups and technology companies in the Tampere region now have a unique opportunity to showcase their expertise and put the solution they have tailored for TT Gaskets into practice.

Demobooster Tampere is organized by DIMECC and Business Tampere. It culminates in the DemoDay event to be held in January, where the innovation challengers will hear the solution pitches from startups. The challenger, in this case TT Gaskets, will continue to work with the most feasible idea.

Read more and take part in the challenge!

TT Gaskets is developing a smart solution for ensuring gasket installing

September 7, 2021

Can’t get a good night’s sleep because you installed a gasket earlier today? Are you having nightmares of leaky flanges? Don’t worry, we have a solution under way.

Installing is the most critical part of gasket’s lifetime, but currently there are no viable options to ensure the success of it. Except to put the medium to flow and check whether it leaks or not. Training and consulting of gasket selection and installing is of course available, also from us, but eventually the responsibility of successful installing is on the mechanic. Off the top of your head, you could easily think that even a trained chimpanzee can turn a wrench. But in reality, installing a gasket requires thorough preparation and execution with correct tools.

Friction tames even the strongest mechanic

Sealing is based on mechanics where the torque applied to the bolts is transferred to the gasket through the flange surfaces. This force seals the flange to withstand the pressure and temperature stress from the piping and prevents leakages.

The force transferred from the bolts to the gasket depends significantly on friction, so using a proper torque on the bolts does not necessarily mean sufficient surface stress on the gasket. Even though a calibrated torque wrench is an essential tool for installing, the numbers on the wrench are not an absolute truth. If the lubrication and other preparations are not done correctly, applying correct torque on the bolts may still cause a leak.

Once again, we harness technology to help people

In co-operation with top-of-the-class experts, TT Gaskets has started to develop a technological solution for ensuring successful installing of gaskets. The first step we took was a remotely readable tag for gaskets that removes the simplest mistakes. By identifying the gasket in between the flanges, a wrong or missing gasket is much easier to notice.

The second step currently under development is a remotely readable sensor that measures the surface stress of a gasket. The sensor gives immediate feedback of the success after installing. We are currently searching for potential field test partners as we are soon making functional prototypes.

The future goal for this innovation project known as TTG Smart Gasket is to connect gaskets to the IoT network of a facility – to create an IoG (Internet of Gaskets). We are gradually moving towards that goal, as gasket manufacturing is not well-known for acting rashly. All in all, sensors measuring the surface stress of gaskets both during installing and use will have a large role as we create smarter sealing for a safer tomorrow.

Read more >> Smarter sealing for a safer tomorrow – Obtaining information of a gasket

Fast Track Service – Customized gaskets in 24 hours

September 2, 2021

The premium Fast Track Service is suitable for urgent gasket needs. Your order will be shipped from our factory in Tampere within 24 hours of confirming your order.

When time is money and the role of the spare part is critical in production, quick actions are needed. TT Gasket manufactures your order of a few pieces from almost any material except metals. Submit your order, wait for it to be confirmed and we will take care of the rest.

– Normally, our delivery time is about 2–3 weeks, but by using the Fast Track Service, the product passes the queue, and the lead time is reduced to less than 24 hours. It’s not practical to implement large order batches through Fast Track, as the purpose is to serve urgent needs, says Smart Engineer Jaakko Niukkala.

Passing lane for fast delivery

Fast Track Service is meant for flat pieces made from soft materials. For products that need machining or multi-stage manufacturing the lead time is usually longer. The parts are manufactured by cutting, after which the quality control thoroughly inspects the customized product before packing and shipping it.

– The Fast Track Service is priced separately, meaning that the unit price familiar to customer’s purchasing department only applies to orders with the normal delivery time. The purpose is to serve the process of express orders for both parties. When the order goes directly to the Fast Track Service, there is no need for a separate agreement and the parts will be delivered faster, Niukkala explains.

Do you need parts fast? See the easy steps and place your order now!

Fast Track and other services are presented at the 2021 Subcontract Fair – read more!