Gasket material tool pilot is off to a great start

October 28, 2022

The TTG Material Tool is now in its pilot phase and is being tested by one of our customers.

The TTG Material Tool is our solution for enabling easy gasket material selection for our customers. Now in its pilot phase, the new service is being tested by one of our wholesale customers and has enabled them to provide instant answers to their end customers’ questions.

– Their sales staff can use the TTG Material Tool to easily check which of our products are suitable for their end customers’ applications even when our experts aren’t immediately available, Smart Product Specialist Jaakko Niukkala says.

Further development and expansions ahead

User experiences gained from the pilot will function as the basis for the tool’s next development steps. Our goal is to introduce the TTG Material Tool for other customers with similar operations.

– After the pilot we will develop the tool and assess, in which direction we should expand the service: should we increase the available materials, import new functionalities, or include our entire product portfolio? Niukkala illustrates.

Predicting the future is not easy – but we try our best nonetheless

October 20, 2022

Small, efficient, courageous, and motivated teams are the key to flexibility and rapid development. This is especially true in cases where team members feel comfortable, can engage in open communication, and support each other regardless of circumstances (see The New York Times). We at TT Gaskets also have strong belief in these values.

Former Israeli president Shimon Peres once said that the best way to prepare for and predict the future is to invent it yourself. This has been an important guideline also for us. My grandfather and TT Gaskets’ founder Jussi Arpiainen wanted to contribute to the future of Finland’s independence by innovating gasket materials from techno-chemical substitutes and later continued his work by developing next generation metal gaskets. We had to pave the way for our future success by innovating brand new solutions for the needs of the Finnish Defense Forces.

My father Matti Arpiainen encouraged his team in a similar manner. He introduced water cutting and toolless gasket manufacturing to the Finnish market in the 1980s together with VTT and other operators. His goal was to speed up the manufacturing of prototypes and pre-sealing series while bringing a production-oriented approach to gasket and insulation product manufacturing.

Listening helps in preparing for the future

The TT Gaskets’ strategy illustration reminds that we have two ears and only one mouth for a reason. We listen closely to our customers, influencers, and other industries. Our observations form a synthesis that helps flesh out an idea of the future.

We have a great understanding of our customers’ needs thanks to continuous listening and staying up-to-date on industrial trends. We support our customers’ operations by combining mechanical and simulative gasket design. This flexibility and the possibilities of data are at the core of our customers’ future needs – be it different procurement routes, service concepts of intelligent sealing solutions. These concepts can produce unprecedented value for our customers as they develop their processes towards a more sustainable and economic direction.

We have made investments towards developing our services and shaped them together with our customers. At the same time, we have invested and will continue to invest in robotizing our processes, finding new production methods, and monitoring the quality, safety, and efficiency of our manufacturing processes.

I have had the pleasure to participate in finding solutions for the future and witness the drive of our excellent development team. Sometimes there have been challenges in our development projects. Nevertheless, we have always emerged a bit wiser thanks to not having to be afraid of making mistakes. Respect and mutual trust are strong, and by working together they have only become more prominent.

Deepening collaborations with customers

I am sure that we will discover new forms of flexibility in the future. We can, for instance, share knowledge more seamlessly and give our customers access to our manufacturing chains and stock levels, enabling them to submit restocking requests for their own warehouses. This saves time and money, and we can focus on making our collaborations even deeper and more technical in nature.

We are expanding our abilities to support our customers with new annual maintenance and shutdown services that save time, resources and money while generating valuable data for coming projects. We can also support our customers’ maintenance and install crews’ continuous learning with our training solutions. These innovations will come in handy for our customers in the process and manufacturing industries as generational change and workforce internationalization become more prominent themes.

We have continued our considerable investments in our product development and testing laboratory as well as the expertise of our staff. We offer flexible testing and design support for sealing future machines and equipment and provide system data on the validity of gasket installations and life-cycle tracking.

Collaboration helps map out the future

It isn’t easy to foresee the future, but by collaborating and conversing with different parties it is possible to shine some light into tomorrow. This approach forms the basis of all our operations together with a belief for a better future and the courage to innovate the future ourselves.

A great big thank you to all our customers and partners for our encounters in recent weeks! It has been great to meet you in large numbers at our factory as well as in SMM Marine fair in Hamburg, InnoTrans in Berlin, and the Alihankinta Subcontracting Fair in Tampere. We are already looking forward to the Underleverantör Fair at Elmia, Sweden, as well as many meetings at our factory and our customers’ premises.

Wishing you all a lovely autumn and rewarding reading, make sure to stop by next year at the latest to learn more about our new and revolutionary manufacturing solutions!

Best wishes for the future,
Aleksi Arpiainen

Life in Finland | Aurora Borealis and company insights

June 13, 2022

This is the third part of Antoine Blanquart’s blog about his tenure in Finland and TT Gaskets. Also be sure to read the first and second parts.

For the next two months I will be working in the purchasing department, learning more about how the company deals with its suppliers around the world.

I finally met Teemu Sillanpää, Matti Alasuvanto and Mirko Vuorinen. Teemu gave me my first assignments, which are quite interesting and insightful for me as it is the exact application of what I have learnt during my studies. I’m looking for new European suppliers, preferably from a French-speaking country, for specific products that are quite complicated to find.

First impression of Finland

My life at Tampere is very interesting, I discover many things every day, whether at TT Gaskets or outside. For example, a few days ago, after having worked all day at TTG, we went for a walk next to the Pyynikki tour, the time was perfect because we were able to see the sunset!

This weekend, the company lent us their car. Thanks to this, we went to Helsinki on Saturday with Lisa. The city is very impressive, the different infrastructure is very pretty!  

We returned to Tampere in the evening. Oh! I forgot, speaking of this evening, at 10.30pm, I received a notification that said “Aurora Borealis”, we ran to the car to try to catch a glimpse of one! We went to the public sauna of Rauhaniemi and were lucky enough to see one. It was amazing and very pretty!

Life in Finland | First days and hockey games

May 30, 2022

This is the second part of Antoine Blanquart’s blog about his tenure in Finland and TT Gaskets. Find the first part here.

On my first day Teemu Piipponen and Matti Järvinen organized a tour of the factory for me. I had the opportunity to see the company’s premises as well as the various warehouses. It was a surprise to see the great working environment with TVs and sport equipment for the employees. The welcome at TTG is just like this picture, incredible!

Settling in TTG

On my second day, I was able to catch up with Aleksi Arpiainen, CEO of the company. We discussed together the different projects we could undertake together. He also elaborated on how he wants to run TT Gaskets and his vision for the company. Ethics, CSR, and employees’ well-being are major priorities for him.

When back to my office after this meeting, I was surprised to find a rose on my desk for my girlfriend Lisa, to celebrate the Women’s Rights Day, on March 8^th. 

First Hockey Game

The following day I was invited by a few colleagues to see a hockey game. It wasn’t a random game as it was Ilves, one of the two Tampere teams, who was playing to keep their first place in the general ranking, knowing that the team behind them in the ranking is the second Tampere team, Tappara.

We went to the Nokia Arena, a brand-new stadium that opened last December. Great first impression for me discovering this very impressive sport that I didn’t really know much about!

At the end Ilves won 5–4 which we celebrated in a pub right next to the stadium where we could watch the Champions League match where the French team PSG got eliminated by real Madrid. Nevertheless, I was grateful as it was my birthday, and I got to spend a great evening with my colleagues to celebrate it!

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: Eternal learner Jukka Sunila loves a good challenge

May 2, 2022

Our valued employee and important colleague Jukka Sunila passed away in June 2022. Our longing is great, and we want to remember and honor Jukka in many ways. His strong customer service spirit lives on as a legacy in the way we serve our customers.
– colleagues in the TT Gaskets’ work community

May 2, 2022

Key account manager Jukka Sunila is one of TT Gaskets’ most senior employees with a career of over 40 years. Over the years he has gathered a wealth of tacit knowledge which he now passes on to younger colleagues. For his clients, Jukka is a valued problem-solver.

– I have the longest career here out of all current TT Gaskets employees. I’ve seen a lot, but one of my mottos is that you can always learn something new every day, Jukka says.

Born in Rauma, Jukka spent his youth in Turku and moved to Tampere for work in 1979. He had completed a degree in mechanical engineering from the Turku Technical School a year earlier.

– I’m an extrovert personality, and I like interacting with people and meeting new clients. I really got to apply myself when I started working as a sales engineer, Jukka says.

Gasket solutions for factory needs

Jukka started his career in domestic sales. In the 1980s TT Gaskets began exporting products to Sweden and expanded into the Middle-European market in the 1990s. The sales department grew, and the sales staff’s work became more solution oriented.

– Our importance to our clients has grown as we are able to do more and more collaboration with designers in the early stages of factory projects. Our gasket solutions need to be competitive, so financial literacy is also important in my line of work.

Jukka travels frequently in Europe and Asia for his work. Before the COVID pandemic he often garnered over a hundred travel days per year. A large portion of his clients are engine factories, and TT Gaskets is often involved when new engine types are in development. Participating in development work is beneficial for the whole company.

– The best part of my job is that it constantly offers new challenges and opportunities to get to know different cultures. A typical customer relationship often starts with me solving a problem such as a leakage. I’m driven by interactions in which we are able to solve our clients’ problems. Luckily, I often also get to see our solutions implemented in their actual working environments.

Investments in machines and personnel

Jukka started his career at TT Gaskets under the leadership of CEO Jussi Arpiainen. Jussi was followed by his son Matti Arpiainen, who in turn was succeeded by his son Aleksi Arpiainen.

– Leadership here at TT Gaskets has always been encouraging and respectful towards the employees. I’ve enjoyed a rather natural career progression. I applaud the company for always striving for innovation. CEOs have been willing to make investments in new machinery, our factory, and personnel.

Jukka is looking to retire in a few years. Before retirement, he intends to pass on his tacit knowledge to younger colleagues in the exports team.

– I have a positive outlook on the future. I love reading and spending time in the outdoors, and I’m looking forward to traveling the world with my wife. I have visited China a lot, but it would be nice to return to the country in my free time, Jukka plans.

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.