VAN DE WIELE at ITMA Barcelona

Innovation by Van de Wiele creates new challenges for the carpet and velvet industry



The heart of the new developments is the Rug & Carpet Innovator in two and three rapier execution, respectively RCI02 and RCI03. The Innovator generation is characterised by an increased productivity, especially in 5m width, and a better stability.

The RCI can be equipped with Smart Frames -SF- by which each ground heddle frame is driven by a separate servo-motor. Smart frames allow easy changing of different ground weave structures. The use of servomotors allows timing differences, different dwells and asymmetric motions to weave carpets with a clean back and less incorporated yarns. The new Smart Cutting Motion –SCM- with servo drive guarantees a perfect cutting. The cutting frequency as wells as the sharpening of the knife are programmable. The sefledge yarns of the Smart Edges –SE- are driven by small servomotors, placed under the cumberboard for a good accessibility and adjustment in width.
The Rug & Carpet Innovator RCI03, the three rapier execution, gives 50% more production in 2/3 V.

During the ITMA, a Rug & Carpet Innovator RCI02 will weave carpets in reed 320 d/m, 8 colour frames on a width of 5m.

The carpet industry profits from weaving on a pile width of 5m.

A very important development of Van de Wiele is the engineering of carpet weaving machines of 5 meter width. Weaving area rugs on a 5m machine gives more sellable sizes of carpet. On a 4m machine, numerous small carpets and runners are woven. These carpets are quite expensive and sold under cost price. On a 5m machine, you can better fit commercial sizes in width. Also for wall-to-wall carpet and artificial grass, the width of 5m or 15 feet gives many advantages. Prove is given by the many references of 5m machines in Belgium, UK, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Syria, Iran and China.

Machine made carpets have never been as close to handmade carpets as now.

The Hand Look Carpet Pioneer HCP X2 weaves qualities from reed 240 pile dents/m up to reed 1000 pile dents/m and from 6 up to 10 pile colour frames.

Compared to the first developments in Hand Look and Crystal Point, Van de Wiele has been able to develop a three rapier weave structure which has double production compared to the first generation and 50% more compared to similar qualities woven in a three shot weave structure on a double rapier weaving machine.

The HCP X2 hand look weave structure is a three rapier weave structure in which the three rapiers are always inserting fillings. The back side of the carpet is just like the handknotted carpets. All pile tufts go to the backside, no ground yarns are visible and the pile fixation is perfect. Hand look carpets are easy to fold.

The HCP X2 machine is running successfully in several countries in different widths, densities and number of colours: 10 colours in reed 700 d/m, 3m width ; 8 colours, reed 600 d/m, 5 m width or 10 colours, reed 500 d/m, 5m width. Van de Wiele is developing a new hand look quality with 1000 pile dents/m in 8 colour frames. This quality will be the jewel in the crown.

Long pile carpets, with cut pile and/or loop pile are increasing their market share

The Shaggy Rug Pioneer SRP92 is a two rapier weaving machine, developed for weaving carpets with high cut pile. In the suppershaggy execution, a pile height of 2 x 70mm is possible. Therefore, special patented spoon lancets are used. The Jacquard machine gives the possibility for different V and W weave structures, creating special relief effects and assuring a perfect pile fixation. Especially for this kind of carpets, the use of different types of yarns like polypropylene, wool, acrylic, polyester, etc prove to be very successful.

The same machine can produce artificial grass in different qualities for sports and landscaping in a width up to 5m or 15 feet pile width.

The Universal Shaggy-loop Pioneer USP93 is a three rapier machine for weaving carpet with long cut pile and loop pile. When replacing the dummy yarn on the middle rapier by a thick filling that stays in the carpet, shaggy carpets with cut pile and sisal look effects can be woven. Additional colour effects are created by a filling selector.
Other models of the Van de Wiele machine range are the Universal Cut and Loop Pioneer UCP93 for weaving carpets with cut pile, soft short and long loops and flat weave effects, the Looppile Carpet Innovator LCI01 for carpets with soft loops and the Sisal Look Pioneer SLP93 for weaving carpets with relief effects, used for indoor as well as outdoor.
The best machine for weaving light weight carpets and tapestry carpets, is the Tapesrty Rug Pioneer TRP92. This machine, available in a width up to 2.5m, is producing carpets with design in cut pile and Jacquard ground effects in combination with a weft selector for 2x6 wefts.

Smart weavers use smart creels.

The smart creel is the ultimate system to save raw material, to reduce the cost and to reduce machine down-time. The smart creel calculates the required amount of pile yarn necessary in each position of the creel for a certain order. This amount is filled into the tubes of the smart creel by a fully automated robot, while the machine is running. As the robot is managing the creel, less creelers are required and the saving on raw material is considerable. As the next order is being prepared while the machine is running, the downtime for creel changes is significantly reduced, increasing the overall efficiency of the mill. The Smart Carpet Creel – SCC- is installed on wire wilton weaving machines like the AWI01 and on Axminster machines.

Axminster weaving machine MAX91

The MAX91 Axminster weaving machine weaves one single carpet according to a completely different technique. Grippers take only the pile yarn that is visible and no incorporated pile yarns are used. This results in high quality carpets with up to 16 pile colour frames in pitch 7 DPI. Typical applications of these, mainly woollen/nylon, carpets are wall-to-wall carpets for hotels, cruises, offices, casinos,… However there is an increasing demand for area rugs woven according to the Axminster technique as well, especially with the hand-look weave structure

The Velvet Tronic VTR for producing velvets and technical fabrics

The Velvet Tronic VTR is manufactured in a plain/dobby execution (VTR23) and a Jacquard execution (VTR33). The applications of velvet are numerous: upholstery, automotive, bus and train, curtain, chiffon dress, artificial fur,…
For the interior fabrics, there is a fashion towards the Italian Velvet with pile design combined with Jacquard ground effects. Van de Wiele is giving a new life to this Italian velvet by creating a new quality with 3 pile colours in center draw and 2x4 backing yarns per reed dent. The design possibilities become unlimited, especially when combined with a filling selector. The VTR33 will be shown in this Italian Velvet execution on the ITMA, equipped with a LJV Jacquard of 11.520 solenoids.

The Velvet Tronic VTR42 is a special execution for technical fabrics such as distance fabrics, paintbrushes,…

All above mentioned machines can connected through the Van de Wiele We@velink network for planning, monitoring and intranet interfacing.