Smart Nesting, when the tool and the engineer go hand in hand

Nesting

Material waste and a lack of agility in nesting or the nesting of parts are two of the most common problems faced by metal processing companies which slow down the company’s response time for its clients and make the process more expensive. This is due to them not using the appropriate technology in order to fully exploit each piece of sheet metal during the cutting process and/or the fact that this process is completed manually or using slower solutions. Equally, the work of the production engineer mustn’t be knocked as they are experts in the optimization of nesting and machining; the maximization of the margin for each production order received depends on their intervention.

In order to reverse this situation, investment must be made in specific CAD/CAM software to efficiently perform, in terms of time and cost, the organization of the parts that are to be cut or punched on one or several pieces of sheet metal or other materials, optimizing the panel as much as possible. At the same time, the more experience that the professional expert has using it, the better the results will be.

Subsequently, with a suitable nesting program the costs are reduced and the production times are shortened, efficiently complying with the delivery deadlines agreed with the client. Because meeting deadlines is one of the critical factors for any manufacturer. Much is at stake and companies acquire loyal clients if they are able to ship quickly and reliably.

In addition to this, being efficient in order to reduce costs derived from the accumulation of parts or delays with raw materials is also crucial. The truth is, with manual nesting, supply and stock problems may arise. A business software that is able to show orders as they are received and which includes the geometry of the parts will enable programmers to take the required production into account without leaving their desks in search of the papers providing them with such information, including more parts and achieving better performance, meaning that less raw material is required.

Furthermore, cutting can be programmed in machines for any technology (oxycut, water jet, plasma, laser) together with the nesting processes for parts at the optimum time for the manufacturer and the client, avoiding unnecessary costs derived from inefficient programming and material waste. Using algorithms, greater utilization of sheet metal is achieved, with a significant reduction in material loss and production times. There are even nesting solutions for interior contours and scrap sheet metal which may have been left over from a previous job, in order to reuse them in subsequent work.

Another of the solutions for achieving better performance in the cutting process is the optimization of the design, cutting and assembly phases of the parts that form one end product. Usually, the nesting of these parts is carried out separately, however, using specific technology a company can manage their order integrally which is known as kit-based nesting. That is, carrying out nesting for the cutting, in one go, for all of the necessary parts for a product without waiting for the parts to be available in phases. The advantage of this solution is that the user can choose the configuration by kits, not only by products, according to their needs.

And all of this with a logical interface that adapts to the production requirements and that allows the parameters to be verified on one single panel. Also, automatic and manual nesting can be alternated depending on the specific production requirements, making it possible to switch between the two options. Atomization is certainly another of the competitive advantages offered by a good nesting program. Atomization based on artificial intelligence with powerful algorithms that enable work to be completed with greater precision and maximum efficiency.

Therefore, the nesting process relies on two essential elements: the engineer and the software. The more powerful the CAD/CAM, the greater its functions and its algorithms, the better its capacity to achieve savings in terms of time and costs. And, at Lantek, we have both the right program and expert to satisfy each plant’s demands. An expert who, thanks to the new capacities of Industry 4.0, is freed from repetitive tasks and has more time to create more value for the process.