Van de Wiele Group, a Belgian world leader in weaving and tufting machines, has always been an innovator. And it has been highlighting its pioneering vision more than ever at the recent ITMA exhibition in Milan. At its ITMA booth, Van de Wiele showed how its textile machines are all connected, production planning can be largely automated and production processes can be monitored in control rooms. The booth included Barco’s operational collaboration system, including displays and a video wall and our networked visualization solutions.

Integrated packages
Van de Wiele strongly believes in the Digital Factory of the future, where networked, self-organizing manufacturing processes help create more value. Its machines therefore increasingly incorporate electronic drives for higher automation, flexibility and productivity. More than that, the group is also working on integrated packages which combine cutting-edge machines with product-related services like automated planning, remote maintenance and monitoring, etc.

All the processes in one overview
At ITMA 2015, Van de Wiele demonstrated how all its machines are interconnected and how the manufacturing process can be monitored/managed in a central control room. Using secure IP technology, Barco’s networked visualization system, comprising the CMS control room management suite and Transform N controller, captured streaming video from the different looming machines. The images were then visualizes on three Barco display solutions – a 3x2 OL LED video wall, two OBLX free-standing LCD walls and an 84” LDX display.