Continental to Divest Finnish Stud-Specialist Tikka Spikes Oy Through Management Buy-Out - Continental AG. Read more
The production of tyre studs requires state-of-the-art technology and specialised know-how from all employees. For Tikka Spikes, tyre studs are not a side business; instead, our entire organisation is focused on designing and manufacturing the best studs in the world.
Tyre studs consist of an aluminium or steel slightly mushroom-shaped body and a carbide core that is attached to the body. Studs are produced in large series 24/7, but precise quality control is maintained throughout. We take care of all the work steps ourselves, from tool manufacturing to dispatching the finished products, which guarantees production flexibility and an unbroken quality chain.
Our quality work focuses not only on the technical quality of the studs themselves, but to all our processes. We understand how important it is for a tyre manufacturer to have just the right number and right kind of studs in the right place and at the right time so that tyre production can run smoothly. In this work, we utilise monitoring and operational control systems that provide us with a constant flow of information about future needs regarding, for example, the procurement of raw materials, production and logistics.
The production of stud bodies begins with cold working, i.e. punching. Stud bodies are made from aluminium or steel wire approximately 5 millimetres thick. The cold working is done in oil, after which the finished stud bodies are washed. The washing water is cleaned by our plant’s own wastewater treatment system.
The hard metal (carbide) core is made by pressing carbide powder in a core matrix. This creates a fragile core that already has the right shape and is held together with the help of paraffin. The pressed cores are mixed with sintering sand with the help of a robot and transferred to the sintering furnace, where they are heat treated at up to 1600 degrees Celsius for a day. In the sintering furnace, the paraffin melts away and is collected. Carbide is one of the hardest materials in the world, and together with the wear resistance of the material, it is an ideal way of improving a winter tyre’s grip on ice. In the coating department, a chemical coating can be sprayed on the surface of the stud, enabling the studs to stick to the tyres better.
All production stages are completed with a quality check. Once the bodies and cores have been tested, they are connected on automatic assembly lines in large series. Production machines also constantly monitor the quality of their own work and measure, for example, external dimensions.
The finished studs are transferred to the logistics department, which packs them into the lots and boxes requested by the customer arranges transport. The smallest studs are delivered in sets of a few thousand pieces, for example to tyre shops for heavy equipment, or in batches weighing several dozen tonnes and delivered in sea containers to tyre factories.
Punching machine tools are crucial for the quality of the studs – and ultimately traffic safety. We make the tools used in R&D and production ourselves. In tool manufacturing, work is done in two shifts using modern CNC machines. Thanks to our own tool manufacturing, we can react quickly to various needs and be sure of the quality of the tools. Our own maintenance department takes care of the production machines, as well as the plant itself, making sure that production runs continuously without interruption and with the highest quality.
