Nesting
From Free net encyclopedia
Nesting refers to the process of efficiently manufacturing parts from flat raw material.
Companies manufacturing parts from flat raw material such as sheet metal use a variety of technologies to perform this task. Material may be cut using lasers, plasma, punches, shear blades, ultrasonic knives and even water jets.
In order to minimize the amount of scrap raw material produced by this process, companies use Nesting software. The software analyses the parts (shapes) to be produced at a particular time.
Using proprietary algorithms, it then determines how to lay these parts out in such a way as to produce the required quantities of parts, while minimizing the amount of raw material wasted.
Nesting software must take into account the limitations and features of the machining technology in use.
- Machining cannot take place where the raw material is clamped into place;
- Some machines can access only half of the material at a particular time; the machine automatically flips the sheet over to allow the remaining half to be accessed;
- When punching, the width of the punch tool must be considered;
- Shearing may be permitted only in certain areas of the sheet due to limitations of the machinery;
- A laser can cut parts at any rotation; a punch can only do so at right angles;
- etc.
Many machine manufacturers offer their own custom nesting software designed to offer ease of use and take full advantage of the features of their specific machines.
If a fabricator operates machines from more than one vendor, they may prefer to use an off the shelf nesting package from a third-party vendor. They then have the potential to run jobs on any available machine, and their staff should not have to learn several different software packages.