WILA USA Lives Press Brake Productivity

The team at WILA USA (Louisville, KY) builds its relationships with customers by prioritizing their satisfaction with its products and services when responding to bending challenges in sheet metal. The company isn’t looking to sell fabricators on every press brake tool that exists — WILA wants to prevent tooling just sitting unused at a shop.

Case in point, for one customer, WILA saved them $30,000 worth of tooling purchases regarding a project. After conducting an analysis of 50 different bending drawings, WILA was able to solve the company’s challenges with $5,000 worth of tooling for the project, whereas another supplier had quoted $35,000 worth of tooling to support the project. “When you are air bending, you can do a lot of different bends with a lot less press brake tools and tool changes,” said Jeff Sloan, president for North America, WILA.

“So, that was a huge savings for that customer in being able to do that and that’s the type of relationship we look at achieving,” Sloan added. “We’re not looking to sell you every tool that is out there because you can always come back later if you need it.”

Air bending is a preferred bending method and enables fabricators to bend sheet metal on a press brake in a variety of angles using a limited set of tools. Additionally, less tonnage is required compared to other bending methods such as bottom bending. Advantages of air bending using WILA tooling include a slim tool design, which provides fabricators with more bending freedom. What’s more, it’s easier to compensate for spring back.

WILA has been a driving force behind press brake productivity in the metalworking industry since 1932, specializing in clamping, crowning and tooling for press brakes. The company develops, manufactures and sells the systems — all the components needed between the ram and the bed of a press brake. “That would be the tool holders, the crowing units that attach to the ram and the bed, respectively,” Sloan said. “And also, the tooling that would assemble into those.” Clamping and crowning systems offer solutions for efficiently changing tools, whether hydraulic, mechanical or pneumatic.

The high-precision bending achieved with WILA’s tools addresses the demands regarding product tolerance. The products are produced to tight tolerances of up to ± 0.01 mm and undergo strict quality assurance checks at every step in the production process.

Sloan pointed out that WILA continues as a leader in the industry and has developed innovations such as the Safety-Click in New Standard Tooling for quick tooling changes, as opposed to sliding the tooling in and out,” he said.

The Safety-Click mechanism makes it possible to change the tools vertically by clicking them in and out of the clamping system. It ramps up the speed of tool changes and reconfiguration of press brake tools. It is suitable for tools up to 12.5 kg.

Many productivity improving innovations that have been developed by WILA are used as standard industrial components in the industry, such as mechanical crowning, hydraulic or pneumatic clamps, robot-based tool changes, and “smart” tool data management. The Crowning Systems, for example, compensate for deflection in press brakes. The New Standard Crowning Systems use a series of Wave Wedges, a series of adjustable wedges. The crowning is tailored to each press brake, resulting in a highly accurate compensation along the entire length of the press brake, which creates a consistent bend.

With WILA’s New Standard tools, end users can make a variety of bends with different angles and inside radii, in various materials, with just a limited number of tools. In addition to New Standard Tools, for use in WILA New Standard Tool Holders, WILA offers American Style Tooling for use in WILA American Style Top Tool Holders; and tailor-made New Standard and American Style tools, hemming tables or adjustable bottom tools.

WILA offers tooling for all types of sheet metal bending on all types of press brakes. Its three product ranges are: New Standard Premium, New Standard Pro, and American Style Tooling.

Focus on Communication and Speed of Service

Solving the toughest of challenges for the end users of WILA’s press brake tooling, and being a true partner, is essential to WILA’s success. “We’re really built around a partnership with our distributors and end users,” Sloan noted. “Our goal is to sell as little amount of tooling as possible for the end user to be able to solve a particular problem or complete a particular project. Our goal is to take a look at drawings and understand what they’re bending and give them the least amount of tooling that would solve that problem.”

Sloan added that “Typically, when we get somebody working with us, they will become a customer for life because of the way that we service. And the biggest thing that we focus on over here really is speed  and communication to make sure that our customer base is getting answers in a very timely manner.”  As an example, the company will receive six digit orders and ship them to fabricators the same day.

To that end, WILA’s customer support is available 7 a.m.-to-7 p.m. Eastern time, Monday-Friday. Service representatives are located in multiple time zones that can reach customers quickly. “We’re not an 8-to-5 type of organization that you can’t find us,” Sloan said. “We are there and quite frankly; our quote turnaround time is about two hours.”

What’s more, WILA’s website, www.wilatooling.com, focuses on “smart industry” and features a web shop, a tool design function, and knowledge sharing, among many other functionalities. Through the web shop users can research and order tools, check delivery times, and create and manage quotes, orders and invoices, among a variety of functions.

The website, reintroduced in 2022, also includes a Tool Advisor where users can draw a part profile, receive tool advice and modify standard tool designs. This engineering application enables online selection of which press brake tools are best suited to a specific bending problem based on data entered such as the type of press brake, the type of press brake tool, and the thickness of the material to be bent.

In the case that there is not a suitable standard tool, it is even possible to directly design a custom tool and order it online. In that case, the starting point is a tool from the existing WILA range of tools that comes close to the ideal solution for the bending problem at hand. Users can adjust the tool’s parameters to design a custom solution to the bending problem.

And with everything located at one website, users can browse all product information using filter options to narrow searches, and view and compare features. The website’s Knowledge & Innovation section includes technical articles and WILA Academy pages, all of which support the expansion of sheet metal bending shops. The WILA Academy provides training in sales, service and customized training.

WILA also offers a Smart Tooling app, which provides bend advice, including overviews of suitable tools, the formed inside radius, required bending force and minimum flange length. The app also lets users scan their WILA tool and instantly download its contour for use in their press brake control. This saves them valuable time, especially when using new and custom style tooling.

FABTECH and Product Developments

Moving beyond digital services, to better support the current and future needs of customers, WILA USA relocated its North American headquarters to a new 52,500-square-foot manufacturing and warehousing facility in Louisville, Ky., in September 2023. “We are excited to relocate our corporate headquarters to Louisville and establish our North American manufacturing operations,” said Hans Willemsen, CEO of WILA, at the time of the announcement. “This strategic move will allow us to strengthen our market presence, improve customer service, and further collaborate with our valued partners in North America. We are confident that our investment in Louisville will accelerate our growth and enable us to better serve the evolving needs of our customers.”

The Louisville facility accommodates WILA’s engineering, sales and warehousing needs. Sloan also noted that the new facility also supports repair services for damaged clamps.

The geographic location supports the ability to make custom tooling deliveries in the U.S. much faster, cutting down on the lead times it would take for custom tooling to arrive from the company’s overseas locations — the vast majority of the company’s customer base is now reachable within two-day ground delivery services.  (WILA has two manufacturing facilities in the Netherlands, and subsidiaries in the U.S. and China.)

“It really comes down to service and speed of the products they [customers] need,” Sloan said.

Speed, communication and product improvements and developments are high on the radar for WILA’s team members. Sloan shared that at this year’s FABTECH Expo, taking place in October in Orlando, Fla., WILA will highlight its quick turnaround time for custom tooling, as well as the introduction of an exciting innovation that provides precision and control in every press brake operation.

The innovation features an advanced sensor system integrated into WILA Tool Holders. It provides critical information to control software, such as ensuring the correct tool is being used through tool identification, monitoring the exact positioning of the tool, identifying any unwanted objects inside the tool holder, and providing detailed data on the tool’s shape and dimensions. This also eliminates the need to teach Automatic Tool Change robots.

The benefits of this new technology are numerous. WILA’s advanced sensor system enhances accuracy by providing real-time data, ensuring precise bends. It increases efficiency by streamlining the bending process with accurate tool information. Safety is improved through the detection of foreign objects, preventing accidents. Seamless connectivity is achieved by easily integrating with existing systems via a connection hub. Downtime is reduced as maintenance needs can be proactively addressed with accurate tool information. The system offers flexibility and adaptability, allowing it to adjust to different tools and setups for various bending tasks. Additionally, data-driven insights help optimize operations with detailed performance metrics.

Looking to the future, WILA continues to expand on these functionalities, but press brake manufacturers, control software suppliers, and system integrators can develop their own solutions using WILA’s technology as well.

Sloan pointed out that the future holds great potential for WILA, its partners, and most importantly, its customers. “My goal for WILA USA, and what we are doing here, is to supply everything a customer wants within three weeks,” Sloan said. “I don’t care what it is, where it is, if it is a special, if it is an odd clamp — that is our driving vision for the organization.”

WILA will continue to prioritize its customers’ satisfaction with its products and services. For example, when one end user encountered issues with its press brake and WILA’s gripper, the company didn’t hesitate to step in. “Understanding the critical nature of these components in their operations, we dispatched dedicated teams to their facility,” Sloan noted. “Our experts collaborated closely with the press brake manufacturer to diagnose and resolve the issues, demonstrating our commitment to providing exceptional support beyond just delivering products.”

WILA’s customer service provides solutions and enjoys tackling new challenges that other organizations shy away from. This is exemplified in a recent situation with a new end user, who needed to tackle 101 complex prints. Other companies — as well as the original machine supplier — refused to take on the project. “We embraced the challenge, developing a comprehensive tooling package that met their needs,” Sloan noted. “This level of dedication has earned us a trusted reputation as a partner for challenging and specialized projects.”

www.wilatooling.com/en-us

“Typically, when we get somebody working with us, they will become a customer for life because of the way that we service. And the biggest thing that we focus on over here really is speed  and communication to make sure that our customer base is getting answers in a very timely manner.” — Jeff Sloan, president for North America, WILA

We’re not looking to sell you every tool that you can dream up that is out there because you can always come back later if you need it.” — Jeff Sloan, president for North America, WILA