MISSION
What drives us at Will-Fill
Will-Fill equips metalworking machines with a unique add-on that relieves operator workload and reduces the ecological footprint of production. The fully automatic control unit monitors coolant quality. The optimum fluid level is maintained by automated filling processes linked to electronic measurements set according to each specific need. When the quality of the metalworking fluid changes, Will-Fill can adjust it or send a notification when action is needed.
Industry 4.0
History
Will-Fill is developed, produced and marketed by DIERICKX Tools, a small Belgian mechanical engineering family firm. Since 2020 Will-Fill is a stand-alone business unit of DIERICKX Tools. This shortens the communication lines between R&D, production and the market, and allows us to respond much faster to customer questions.
We developed Will-Fill because we needed it!
In many precision engineering and mechanical workshops like ours, the focus is on the production process and machine output. Emulsion management is not a priority because taking care of the emulsion requires repetitive actions that can be easily forgotten ...read more
JOBS
Will-Fill was developed by a team of engineers-entrepreneurs, with each team member carrying great responsibility within his or her domain. Are you eager to learn, able to persevere and want to make a difference?
Apply on-spec: jobs@will-fill.com
Industry 4.0
Smart factories, some even speak of a fourth industrial revolution. In the factories of the future, routine tasks will be taken over by smart automation, so that the creative (and the most pleasant!) tasks can be fully carried out by people. How is Will-Fill contributing to this? The device was developed to handle four routines: filling, measuring, reporting and conditioning. Thus Will-Fill takes over these repetitive tasks from an organisation’s employees
M2M
At Will-Fill, the story does not stop at the factory gate. Because Will-Fill is equipped with machine-to-machine technology, the service can be brought to a higher level. Information from recurring status checks and necessary interventions make possible the generation of measurement reports that are easily accessible to the customer or other relevant party. This then translates into firmware updates that make the measurements even better and offer the customer more functions.
Frequently asked questions
About us
Close to the market
Will-Fill is developed, produced and marketed by DIERICKX Tools, a small Belgian mechanical engineering family firm. Since 2020 Will-Fill is a stand-alone business unit of DIERICKX Tools. This shortens the communication lines between R&D, production and the market, and allows us to respond much faster to customer questions.
We developed Will-Fill because we needed it!
In many precision engineering and mechanical workshops like ours, the focus is on the production process and machine output. Emulsion management is not a priority. This is not surprising. Taking care of the emulsion requires repetitive actions that are generally performed with limited enthusiasm. However, when the emulsion level drops or is the wrong consistency, then it’s another story! Metalworking tools can stop working efficiently. Production can slow down or stop. If too much cold emulsion is added, product deviations can occur. Flooding due to inattention during filling can lead to unpleasant odors building up over the weekend standstill.
Looking for efficient emulsion management
At DIERICKX Tools we experienced all these problems. And we decided to do something about them. We searched the internet for a solution. But finding nothing, we decided to invent our own solution. We gathered around the drawing board and decided that we were going to solve these problems once and for all. We assigned all the tasks around emulsion management to a single, compact and efficient device. We drew on our considerable expertise and experience, and with the support of the IWT (Agency for Innovation in Science and Technology in Flanders), we began to develop Will-Fill.
IoT ready
This was 2014 – well before Industry 4.0 was a common term. Developing a device is one thing, but ensuring repetitive, perfect and autonomous measurement in a polluted process is quite another. It soon turned out that this can only be done by trial and error. So our production equipment was used as a test facility. Further development took place until results remained stable and correct over a longer period of time. At the end of 2017, the first model was presented, the Will-Fill MKI. But the Will-Fill MKI was never sold because it was unable to communicate about the process. This was something we had put on our list of features for Will-Fill to have.
The Will-Fill MKII was fully IoT-compatible and thus able to communicate about the process. We began to sell it, and was then further modified and improved. The Will-Fill MKIII was born at the end of 2018. This high-performance machine is available in three lengths: the D120, D220 and the D520.
Increased modularity
One feedback from the many Will-Fill installations up and running is the demand for Will-Fill units with limited technology and/or longer substructure lengths. This led to the development of the modular Will-Fill MK4, which is available in the ION and NEO series and with substructure lengths up to 820 mm.
Will-Fill continues to improve!
Driven by our love of technology and our passion for customer satisfaction, the team behind Will-Fill is continuing to work on even better firmware and sensor technology, enabling even more targeted analysis. This in turn will result in even better filling, and faster predictions of when your emulsion threatens to cause problems.