Who is behind BKS? Let’s meet Frédéric, CNC sharpener for 23 years

With four production sites all over the world, BKS is your blade producer for various industries like Plastics, Recycling, Steel, Packaging and much more!
We have been established in 1983 and have continuously invested in our people and state of the art technology since then.
We are proud to own the most advanced software and production equipment and are keen to help you out with all your slitting and cutting challenges.
With this series of 10 interviews, we invite you to meet the people behind our blade manufacturing company. All of them play a key role in making our company unique.

Hello! Wow! 23 years at BKS?

Yes! I started working when I was 16. At the beginning I was working on conventional grinding machines. With the expansion of BKS, I got the opportunity to start working on fully automated machines that require programming skills. I was the first technician at BKS to be able to use these.

What about your job?

I am a sharpener. When the blades arrive at BKS, I identify them and discuss with the commercial team what needs to be done. Once all is clear, I mount the knives on our grinding machine and start the sharpening.

Tell us about the production.

I need to keep my fingers safe, so I wear gloves. To protect my lungs from chemical vapors, I wear a mask. And since we work with oil that makes the floor slippery, I have special safety shoes.

When I receive an order, I have to follow the planning that I elaborate with the commercial team. I place an order for the unmachined part with Cindelle, our storekeeper and I set up the grinding machine for the fabrication of the part. Mounting, programming and launching takes me approximately 45 minutes but the production can take more than 40 hours! Once the grinding is done on the machine, I do the finishing with another machine during roughly 5 hours.

When all is done and the blade is considered “finished”, someone else oversees the quality with a special camera to control all the main dimensions and tolerances. To ensure a perfect quality, we always make sure to have an independent control of the blades before shipment. If the part is perfect, I give it back to Cindelle and she carefully ship it to the customer.