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Today, like many classic industries in Western Europe, the Belgian weaving industry is not what it was\u2026But even if production has moved elsewhere, Picanol has remained faithful to the Flemish Westhoek: still innovating and producing the world\u2019s weaving machines onsite in Ieper, Belgium.<\/P>
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That is a lot of fabric, to say the least. To stay ahead in this highly competitive industry, Picanol has always believed in innovation. Innovation, technology and ongoing research and development (R&D) efforts remain crucial to the company\u2019s international success. This is a philosophy that Picanol shares with its engineering partner, Siemens PLM Software.<\/P><\/p>\n \u201cWe have worked with LMS software for years,\u201d says Dimitri Coemelck, an R&D engineer in Picanol\u2019s Measurement and Simulation Department. \u201cOriginally, we worked together on various research projects and one-off engineering studies. More recently, we have used LMS Samtech Samcef<\/U><\/FONT><\/A> software to tackle some rather tricky nonlinear simulation modeling for the OptiMax series.\u201d <\/P><\/p>\n![\"Picanol_blog2.png\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/09\/Picanol_blog2-1.png\" "\\"Picanol_blog2.png\\"")
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This story takes a look at how a relatively small company in the northwestern corner of Belgium has managed to put more than 130,000 weaving machines in some 2,600 weaving mills worldwide. If you think about it, there is a very good chance that the jeans you are wearing were woven on a Picanol machine. (According to Picanol, one out of three pairs!)<\/P><\/p>\n