Jan van Wees founded machinefabriek van Wees in 1945 as a workshop for the overhaul and repair of textile machines for the local wool fabrics industry. In the years following he developed machines for wool finishing and started exporting these machines. After succession of Jan van Wees in the seventies of last century, the company evolved to more general services for the industry but kept its roots in the textile industry.
After the acquisition of the company by Rien van den Aker in 1994, the focus was moved towards the technical textiles and composite industry. The first UD and Crossply line for the ballistics industry was designed and made in 1994. The Van Wees machines are bench mark in this industry and a lot of people’s lives are saved by materials coming from Van Wees machines. In 2000 the construction of the first machines for the Research and Technology Center started. In 2006 the first machine for the prepreg industry was developed and made and in 2010 the Multi-axial UD Crossply machine for the R&TC. 2012 was the year for intense focus on the thermoplastic impregnation technology development.
In 2013, the founders of Eltra engineering, Henk Klijn, Rob Pals and Erik Schalk, joint forces with Van Wees resulting in even more know-how in the field of machine- and process automation. Henk Klijn and Rien van den Aker form the management team of Van Wees. This has led to the present know how of van Wees and its position of Technology leader for UD and Crossply technology.