hyperMILL® has played a key role at BKB Precision for 20 years
BKB Precision | Eindhoven, Netherlands
Located in the Eindhoven Science Park in Son, BKB Precision made a pivotal decision two decades ago that significantly enhanced its operations: it introduced hyperMILL® CAD/CAM software into its production processes. The supplier's early adoption of this software not only improved its operational efficiency but also strengthened its position as the leading plastics machining company in the Netherlands.
As one of the Netherlands leading manufacturers of high-quality plastic parts for the semiconductor, medical, food, and chemical industries, BKB Precision works exclusively with premium plastics such as PEEK (Polyetheretherketone). Redes Hira, CAD/CAM programmer at BKB Precision, says: “We often manufacture components that no one else can make. We specialise in the machining of plastics for high-tech industries, and this typically involves challenging shapes and tolerances. hyperMILL® plays a major role in this. We’ve relied on this CAD/CAM software since our first 5-axis machine was introduced.”
"hyperMILL® has led our manufacturing process for 20 years. We often produce components that no one else can make. hyperMILL® plays a major role in this."
Redes Hira, CAD/CAM programmer at BKB Precision
For BKB Precision, the journey to advanced production began with its investment in its first 5-axis CNC machine in 2004. This necessitated a new CAD/CAM system capable of supporting the programming for 5-axis machining. According to Hira: “We compared various CAM systems, but hyperMILL® was the most appealing in the area of 5-axis machining.” BKB Precision was one of the first companies in the Netherlands to utilize hyperMILL® for five-axis machining.
High process reliability
The integration of CAD/CAM software has delivered multiple benefits to BKB Precision. “hyperMILL has led our production process for 20 years,” says Hira. “Everything is simulated, even after every tool check. It’s necessary because we manufacture valuable materials and components.” This care is particularly important as customers increasingly replace materials like titanium with plastics such as PEEK. Driving this transition is a market that increasingly demands lightweight constructions. “PEEK accounts for 80% of the plastics we machine on the 5-axis machines. This material is lightweight and dimensionally stable, which makes it ideal for the high precision demanded by customers. H7 fitting dimensions are a ‘standard’ option in PEEK.”
The high cost of the material poses one of the main challenges when machining PEEK. BKB Precision manufactures specialised components for wafers for a customer in the semiconductor industry, where material costs alone can sometimes reach €5,000 per block. Hira explains: “Over half of such a block is machined, and a series can run for 80 hours. It’s crucial that nothing goes wrong. That is why we manually check all tools every 24 hours and then rerun another simulation.”
BKB Precision specializes in the machining of high-quality plastics such as PEEK (Polyetheretherketone).
More efficient programming
Over the years, hyperMILL® has added an increasing number of functionalities that help BKB Precision optimise its processes. A few years ago, they used the hyperMILL® Automation Center to standardise and automate NC programs, but it is not used as much nowadays due to the recurring production series.
The company has more recently started integrating Product and Manufacturing Information (PMI), which makes it possible to automatically read dimensions and tolerances. “This functionality quickly became an option with hyperMILL®. It saves a huge amount of time if you don’t have to switch between different programs.”
The six BKB Precision programmers also take advantage of hyperMILL®’s simulation capabilities. They recently launched a project that uses simulation to evaluate all NC programs in order to identify the number of air cuts executed by the machine. The aim of the project was to improve the programs’ efficiency. “Being able to save 10 minutes per product without changing anything in the program is quite an intriguing possibility. The initial results are promising,” says Hira.
Redes Hira has been quite pleased with hyperMILL®’s functionalities over the past twenty years. The CAD/CAM software contributes significantly to BKB Precision's high efficiency.
hyperMILL® is used to operate all 5-axis machining centers at BKB Precision. Stefan van Aalst, director of OPEN MINDNederland (l), and Redes Hira say that the CAD/CAM system plays a major role in modern production processes.
Built-up knowledge database
At BKB Precision, each machine uses its own set of tools, which are not exchanged among the machines. This is all done to keep the process consistent and reliable. hyperMILL® is also set up in such a way that each machine has its own tool database. This prevents errors and ensures that the programmers are always working with the right tool data. “We’ve built up a huge database in hyperMILL® over the years. When processing plastics, all the feeds, speeds, and other specifications are predetermined and accessible to everyone. We have perfected all that ourselves and entered it in hyperMILL®.”
ANKRO Kunststof Verspaning is a sister company of BKB Precision and also uses the hyperMILL® CAD/CAM suite. This enables the easy exchange of data and the outsourcing of plastics manufacturing between the companies.
Synergy between companies
The recorded knowledge and databases in hyperMILL® are incredibly important to BKB Precision. The production knowledge is documented for future iterations, benefiting sister companies. BKB Precision acquired ANKRO Kunststof Verspaning two years ago. While BKB Precision focuses on milling operations, ANKRO primarily concentrates on turning operations in larger batch quantities. “Since the takeover in 2022, we have been entirely focused on plastics processing. Prior to that, we also worked with other materials to support customers, but plastics processing is our true speciality,” says William Groenenberg from ANKRO. BKB Precision’s sister company manufactures for the food, shipping, medical, analytics, aerospace, and automotive industries.
ANKRO has worked with the hyperMILL® CAD/CAM package since 2014. “This solution was the best for our machine park. In addition, OPEN MIND was then one of the few parties that could write the postprocessor for our machines.” BKB Precision and ANKRO are working ever closer, so the plastics manufacturing can be outsourced between them. Because they both already work with hyperMILL®, any acquired data can be easily exchanged and used between the companies. Groenenberg adds: “The interchangeability of knowledge and data between the two companies increases the overall efficiency. Not only is the production capacity better distributed between us, but we can also reinforce each other when it comes to work preparation and programming NC files. hyperMILL® plays an important role in this.”