Baaijens HoLLANd. He is the modern-day blacksmith : Geert Baaijens is the third generation to run Baaijens Constructie BV.

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1 Baaijens HoLLANd He is the modern-day blacksmith : Geert Baaijens is the third generation to run Baaijens Constructie BV. 28 BystronicWorld 2/2013

Baaijens HoLLANd Art With a Waterjet With its ByJet Smart, the Dutch company BAAIJens Constructie BV not only MANuFACtures series, but is ALSo exploring unfamiliar territory.

2 Baaijens HoLLANd Art With a Waterjet With its ByJet Smart, the Dutch company BAAIJens Constructie BV not only MANuFACtures series, but is ALSo exploring unfamiliar territory. ThANKS to its WAterjet cutting MAChine FRom BystroNIC, the company has succeeded IN stepping INto the multifaceted world of custom MANufactuRINg and even into the demanding art MARKet. Text: Onno Gross, Photos: Miquel Gonzalez Two pointed horns reflect the radiant sun and welcome visitors entering the southern Dutch town of Oss. The horns belong to a 9-meter-high steel sculpture by the artist Sjef Hoogstede, and with their sweeping shape they represent a stylized ox: the creature that gives the town its name. The municipality of Oss embedded between rivers and major highways has a long tradition of textile manufacture and entrepreneurial creativity in general. This economic agility is also reflected in the ox and the dynamic town logo, Geert Baaijens, Managing Director of Baaijens Constructie BV, says. He should know, for it was his company that manufactured the steel artwork. It began with a simple, DIN A4-sized drawing by the artist. Then our creativity and experience in steel construction were called into play. A wonderful job, precisely to our taste, Geert Baaijens recalls. It was not the first order his company has received from European steel sculpture artists. De smid von nu! Geert Baaijens represents the third generation in a family of successful entrepreneurs. His grandfather was one of the town s last blacksmiths. After studying tool design and construction, Geert Baaijens took over the company from his father. Since 1999, it has been located on a modern industrial park in the northeast of the town. There, in two large production halls, a wide range of metalwork is created and innovations are refined. The company s motto of De Smid von nu! The modernday blacksmith should be taken literally: The range of products that the workshops produce is extra ordinarily diverse. It extends from custom-made products for the automobile, shipbuilding, offshore and food industries, through to die plates for the machine-building industry. We like to take on the more creative tasks, Geert Baaijens says, because this is where our expertise lies and the customers trust us. The machinery in the halls consists of all the welding, bending and Baaijens premises, in the southern Dutch town of Oss. BystronicWorld 2/

3 Ad Pennings at the control panel of the ByJet Smart (above). After the cutting process, the steel plates are cleaned (below).

Baaijens HOLLAND Machine Operator Bas Janssen positions the steel plate for the next cutting process. metal processing machines that are necessary for meeting such a variety of customer needs.

4 Baaijens HOLLAND Machine Operator Bas Janssen positions the steel plate for the next cutting process. metal processing machines that are necessary for meeting such a variety of customer needs. With its 36 employees, the company focuses primarily on the Dutch market. It maintains a stock of various steel and aluminum sheets, allowing it to deliver replacement parts within 24 hours one of the company s service pledges. For Geert Baaijens, the diverse and complex design of the metal parts that the company produces was precisely the reason for his decision to buy the ByJet Smart waterjet cutting machine, back in May 2012: There were two other competitors, but we chose the machine from Bystronic. Why? Because the company has a good reputation and the name stands for trust and good quality. And we wanted to open up the possibility of series production thereby extending the range of what we could offer, he says. We like to take on the more creative tasks because this is where our expertise lies and the customers trust us. Geert Baaijens, Managing Director, Baaijens Constructive BV From the CUstom-made product through to serial production Since then, the ByJet Smart has been in continuous operation and performing reliably for a year. Nestled between storage racks, it takes up a small area and blends in seamlessly with the machinery hall. Metalworkers use it, for example, to cut hundreds of identical individual parts from 3-by-1.5- meter steel sheets: parts that will later be welded to oil pipeline brackets. The company is currently manufacturing 300 such brackets for sacrificial anodes. On the Bystronic machine, the water abrasive suspension shoots through two jets at a pressure of 3,600 bar, and guided by a precise computer-controlled cutting plan, it slices through the tough material as if it were butter. Once the abrasive sand has been used, it is filtered and professionally disposed of. So far, the machine has operated flawlessly in part thanks to its highly efficient pump. The long service intervals have resulted in low operating costs, Geert Baaijens adds. Every week, machine operators meticulously clean the ByJet Smart and its water basin, keeping it looking spic-and-span. For good cutting results, BystronicWorld 2/

5 Eager to experiment: Geert Baaijens (right) and Factory Manager Ad van der Leest talk over the next idea for waterjet cutting. Compared to milling, we have been able to reduce waste material by up to 60 percent. Ad van der Leest, Factory Manager one needs a well-maintained machine, Geert Baaijens explains. To learn how to operate the machine correctly, operators from Baaijens Constructie BV took part in two training courses at Bystronic one at the Bystronic headquarters in Switzerland and another at Bystronic Benelux. Dynamic and FLexible There is hardly anything that has not already found its way onto the cutting table: from a tombstone through to an expensive sheet of titanium. One of the ByJet Smart s benefits is its flexibility. The machine can flawlessly handle sheets of material up to a thickness of 200 millimeters. And because each cutting plan makes the maximum use of raw materials, the Bystronic machine saves a lot of resources: Compared to milling, we have been able to reduce waste material by up to 60 percent, Ad van der Leest, Baaijens Factory Manager, says. This is because, when cutting with the waterjet system, we get the maximum use out of each steel sheet saving a lot of material, as well as time in later production processing. The flexibility that the waterjet as Baaijens employees call the ByJet Smart provides in shaping parts is a tremendous advantage. The company now reaches a much larger customer base, Hans van de Meerakker, Bystronic salesman for the Benelux countries says. The machine cuts almost anything and works economically. This results in significant leeway when it comes to calculating prices. So far, Geert Baaijens has no regrets at all about his decision to buy the Bystronic machine. Customers were only familiar with our coarser workpieces, but when they saw how cleanly the ByJet Smart cut, we received new orders, he says. Such a dynamic approach is of great importance to succeeding in the market. Geert Baaijens is still experimenting with the waterjet, and every day, his machine operators are learning something new. Baaijens Constructie BV has just developed the world s first waste-cement recycling machine for a customer, and many of the machine s components were cut by waterjet. The prototype has already been approved and serial production is expected to start soon: It makes sense for us to approach the construction machine market, Geert Baaijens explains. In doing so, we expand our production opportunities. Thanks to the waterjet cutting machine, we can now manufacture nearly all the parts for our customers ourselves. This strengthens confidence in our company. According to the Dutch Managing Director, customers whether they are machine builders or shipbuilders have very exacting demands when it comes to quality and precision. And it is here that waterjet cutting 32 BystronicWorld 2/2013

Baaijens HoLLANd comes into its own: During the cutting process, the workpieces are not exposed to any form of stress and are of high quality, he says.

And here, one can feel the staff s eagerness to experiment: A zinc dinosaur and a frame for a Harley davidson motorcycle are just two of the many things that have been cut here.

Countless projects are in the planning phase at Baaijens Constructie BV, including print machine drums for the newspaper industry and die plates for Mercedes-Benz.

6 Baaijens HoLLANd comes into its own: During the cutting process, the workpieces are not exposed to any form of stress and are of high quality, he says. In the service of art The center of activity at Baaijens is its control room. Cutting patterns from past orders for objects made from zinc, aluminum and steel hang from the walls. And here, one can feel the staff s eagerness to experiment: A zinc dinosaur and a frame for a Harley davidson motorcycle are just two of the many things that have been cut here. It is little wonder that the product range on display in the company s showroom is so enormous. Countless projects are in the planning phase at Baaijens Constructie BV, including print machine drums for the newspaper industry and die plates for Mercedes-Benz. Geert Baaijens is also committed to providing artists with components for steel sculptures. For example, he manufactured the symbol for the Dutch province of Nordbrabant to which the town of Oss also belongs a large O: We have also realized works of art for the Documenta art exhibition in Kassel, he says. And only a short time ago, we cut the lettering for the sign on a large department store, using the ByJet Smart. These were quite special orders. And just a small selection of the completely new avenues that waterjet cutting has opened for Geert Baaijens and his team. Dr. Onno Gross is an experienced freelance journalist, specializing in scientific and business media. He lives in Hamburg, Germany. The ByJet Smart at Baaijens processes material up to a thickness of 200 millimeters (above). This is how components such as special hinges for ships hatches are manufactured (below). BystronicWorld 2/

The Discussion Group. Text: Martin Engel, Photos: Mauro Bottaro

The Discussion Group. Text: Martin Engel, Photos: Mauro Bottaro they build machines that can sustain such forces Worldwide, there are very few companies that apply waterjet cutting as professionally as the Belgian company L&D Jet Techniek. In an expert discussion group,