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| The Coke machine in the Brussels airport sports one of Belgium's national icons, the statue of a little boy known as Manneken Pis. |
The purpose of the trip was to tour the various facilities of our host, LVD, and a number of its customers, as well as to sample the Belgian culture. So it was disappointing to know I would have to spend a lot of time cooped up in a hotel room writing, rather than wandering about the town of Kortrijk (pronounced COT-rick). But I did manage to experience some wonderful things, including the good company of our hosts and my fellow travelers.
Hospitality continuously bubbled up from our LVD hosts, as well as their customers we visited. Belgian people seem to be very civilized, sophisticated and delightful. I think that may be related to the fact that they all study three languages in public school - French, English and Flemish. There are probably many other contributing factors, of course.
Some of the most interesting things in Belgium we seemed to just stumble across. I know some of them were planned, like our visit to the Atomium, but even there we had an unexpected treat.
Brussels was host to the 1958 World's Fair, the first to be held after Word War II. The Atomium is a gigantic molecule-like structure built for the Fair that celebrates the country's iron, steel and nonferrous metals industry. It is every bit as impressive today as it was when it was constructed more than half a century ago. The treat? The day we were there, guys on ropes were giving it a good polish.
Although that excursion was planned, other interesting encounters were really more by chance. For example, there was this really wide roadway - maybe a plaza - in front of the presidential palace. It was paved in Belgian block - no surprise - but what a racket the passing cars and buses made!
We couldn't see any action at the palace, but at one end we came across an interesting, free museum. It featured a permanent exhibition of artifacts from Dr. David Livingstone's exploration of Africa, as well as the London journalist H.M. Stanley's journey to find him. From that endeavor, of course, came the famous line, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"
Learning about the background of these two explorers in search of the Nile's source was great, and seeing some of the original journals and equipment was an unexpected pleasure. It took me a while to figure out why this display was at home in the middle of Brussels. But then I remembered that when we were learning world geography there was a far-off African nation called the Belgian Congo, which became independent in 1960 and now is the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Of course, the primary reason for our trip was to learn about LVD products and technology, visit several of its nearby customers, and experience the company culture. I had not previously been aware of how technically advanced LVD is, nor that it was the first company to introduce Windows-based operation for press brakes (now a number of years ago, of course).
Walking the factory floor and visiting its Center for Technology and Education gave us a thorough introduction to the very impressive LVD product line. However, the most memorable individual image from that exposure is the pink wall. The explanation: the designer knew that making it so starkly different from the machinery in the hall, which frequently changes, would actually make it less of a visual distraction for visitors. It's true.
Satisfied customers
Tuesday, on a whirlwind tour, we visited four companies in the countryside surrounding Brussels. My article about one, the metal service center Metalen Verhoestraete in Roeselare, Belgium, appeared in the March 2014 issue of Modern Metals. |
| Dirk Debruyne, technical director, Metalen Verhoestrate, Roeselare, Belgium. (www.verhoestraete.be) |
Our second stop was at Waak, a state-affiliated manufacturing facility for metal assembly that provides meaningful employment for a large number of disabled workers. As Waak considered how to use LVD equipment, not displacing those workers was a primary concern. The company installed a new laser cutter with a material handling tower that cuts parts overnight so they are ready for unloading in the morning. Automating the supply of parts in this way removed what previously had been a bottleneck in the operation, but without adversely affecting the workforce.
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| Reloading the LVD tower with steel sheet at Waak (www.waak.be). The laser cutter is to the left. |
After lunch we visited Venduro, a small family-owned shop manufacturing high-end stainless steel kitchen fixtures such as range hoods, fans, lighting and so on. Their customers are the companies who build residential kitchens, as well as some commercial work.
The facility was new - perhaps a year old? - as was much of the machinery. They use an LVD Orion laser cutter to facilitate custom cutting, which makes up a lot of their business. But it was also interesting to see some of the really old pieces of equipment the company had brought along to the new facility. Obviously purpose-built and just right for their operation.
The fabrication areas were staffed almost entirely by men, and shipping by women. But even if no one had been working at the time, one could have guessed that by the calendars on the walls.
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| Edge treatment at Venduro (www.venduro.be). |
Similar to the Waak approach, Venduro runs an LVD Orion laser cutter overnight to produce repeatable parts.
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| Bend by bend, starting from a flat sheet. |
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| A range hood, ready to pack and ship. |
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| Venduro's shipping area. |
The final customer visit of the day began about 4:30 when we arrived at Alinco. The workforce had all departed for the day, but the owner walked us through the facility which, unlike the other three, was not set up for high production. Rather, the company specializes in one-off products, often very challenging to construct, and short runs of fairly specialized items.
As the owner described it, about 25 to 30 percent of the company's work is done "at no price." In other words, the client wants something very specific which Alinco produces on a time-and-materials basis. That kind of arrangement relies on a high level of trust, of course, but it also means the company doesn't have to cover all the possible contingencies in its bid. It made me think of Sesame Street, where they may have called this type of arrangement cooperation.
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| Alinco's owner explains that they stock a huge variety of materials to quickly accommodate special orders, a capability for which they are well known. (www.alinco.be/en/) |
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| Alinco specializes in producing one-of-a-kind items like this piece of specialty lab equipment. Pricey, but perfect. |
An evening in Gent
One of the big reasons for a trip such as this is simply to get together in person. Photos and commentary convey a lot of the information we gathered reasonably well, but there's something very special about real face time. But of course, you have to have something to do, so one evening we went to Gent for dinner. There we had a guided walking tour punctuated by stops at five or so restaurants. A lovely town, a lovely evening, and a journey not to be forgotten.
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| Gathering for a liquid appetizer. |
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| Our guide for the walking tour and dinner in Gent. |
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| The canal, before dark and after. |
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| A portion of the gang. |
And with that, I'll just say I hope I get back to Belgium some day. Five days is the briefest of introductions to a wonderful destination filled with charm, culture and surprises.
P.S. - A few more photos of the trip are available on my Flikr album.
