Loom and method for guiding a woven fabric in a loom

A method for guiding a woven fabric in a weaving machine, comprising:

• as the fabric is being woven, guiding the woven fabric on one or both of a top surface of the woven fabric and a bottom surface of the woven fabric with at least one guide device, the guide device including one or both of an upper guide unit with a guide section that contacts the upper surface of the woven fabric and a lower guide unit with a guide section that contacts a bottom surface of the woven fabric, the upper and lower guide units extending at least partially over a width of the woven fabric, one or both of the upper and lower guide units movable in alternate directions along a direction of thickness of the woven fabric to contact and guide the woven fabric in an area of a beat up plane where a weaving reed beats up weft threads at against an edge of the woven fabric;
• and
• with a control unit, controlling a respective drive configured with one or both of the guide units as the fabric is being woven to move the respective guide section in alternate directions along the thickness of the woven fabric in synch with continuous alternating vertical movement of a weaving location along an edge of the fabric where the warp threads are woven into the fabric such that the weft insertion device is positioned in the open loom shed prior to weft insertion so as to be guided through the open loom shed in a collision free manner relative to the warp threads, wherein the control unit controls the movement of the guide unit in the alternate directions based on information provided to the control unit related to one or both of a structure of the woven fabric in the area of the beat up plane or a position of warp threads in an open loom shed formed by a plurality of warp threads of the fabric being woven by the weaving machine.