Page 22 - MetalForming August 2016

Smart Part Nesting
system from nesting technology of the past, the old paradigm, and from human-managed nesting. If we assume that a brilliant human could achieve the same solution, it would take our human hours, days or even months to sort through all of the possible solu- tions to find the best. This is why, tra- ditionally, the human creates repeated nests. By repeating, the length of time to build the nest is spread out over the
multiple times that nest runs, thus real- izing acceptable programming time.
But as requirements constantly change, especially in job shops with many part numbers, repeated nests become inefficient. A part may be dam- aged and must be remade. Or, the schedule changes because a purchased part is not delivered on time, machines break down... In short, the shop floor is a constantly changing environment,
and any series of nests that extend more than one machine cycle into the future can produce the wrong parts.
An intelligent nesting system con- siders all of the current conditions to produce optimal nests for the next machine cycle, then stops and waits for the next available machine to request a nest. During that wait time, unplanned events, such as those noted above, occur. So when the next
Big Benefits for Knapheide from Automated Nesting
Since 1848, the Knapheide Manufacturing Co. has helped move America—first as a wagon builder, then as a supplier of truck bodies. Today, the company’s main manufacturing oper- ation in Quincy, IL, occupies 480,000 sq. ft., with 124 of the plant’s 754 employees performing fabrication-related duties across three shifts. Shop-floor equipment includes CNC shears, plasma and laser cutters, CNC turret punch presses, and press brakes and rollformers, in addition to automated steel-processing cells. Since 1999, Knapheide has used nest- ing software from Optimation, Blue Springs, MO, building up to where, these days, most of the cutting and punching machines employ the software for customized nesting.
“We are a big job shop and process several low-volume orders all day, so we have a constant flow of orders dropped into our equipment,” explains Greg Schutte, director of fabri- cation and material handling at Knapheide. “As a result we don’t nest very far ahead, not more than an hour on any of the machines. And we constantly are building nests.”
Knapheide has gone through several updates and new versions of the Optimation nesting software, including the newest product, Axiom VE. The software pipelines with the fabricator’s MRP system to constantly address new orders or changes, and makes nesting decisions on the fly, according to Knapheide officials.
Optimation has custom-designed the software in tandem with the fabricator, using Knapheide employees’ expertise and experience to make automated nesting as efficient and accurate as possible.
“The nests here are built on the shop floor, at the machines,” says Noah Caldwell, Knapheide NC programmer, “as opposed to traditional nesting that occurs in an office setting. We customize our software to stay within a number of decision ranges, such as material gauge, quantity, length, width, etc. The software is highly customizable, allowing us to set up nesting to run automatically and set up the equip- ment to immediately run those nests. Doing so helps us maintain short lead times and operate just in time (JIT).”
Order quantities at Knapheide average less than 10 pieces with a “huge amount” of job numbers, so the ability to auto- matically nest is critical to maintaining JIT status.
“We don’t static-nest anything because we make so many custom, low-volume parts,” Schutte says. “We perform dynam- ic nests where a 60 by 120-in. sheet might have 50 different
This new fiber-laser cutting machine is one of many machines at Knapheide that employ automated nesting software to more efficiently produce truck parts.
components with various quantities within that nest. We use parts in assembly operations either the same or the next day, so automated nesting (working in tandem with highly auto- mated loading and unloading) has removed a lot of the queue time between operations.”
“We have seen continuous improvement in our materials utilization,” adds Caldwell, “which is a big driver for using the nesting software.” Now spending about 20 percent of his time on programming, Caldwell is able to take the time to leverage his CNC expertise in other areas, such as to coach various manufacturing teams at Knapheide through entire job setups and runs. The company, with savings on the nest- ing end, can tap the expertise of employees throughout all of its operations. The result is a solidified bond with customers.
“Using this nesting software has allowed Knapheide Manufacturing to focus more on our customers and their needs,” says Schutte. The time normally spent on nesting, material utilization and programming is used instead on col- laboration and continuously improving within the company. Our focus is to never settle, and the software has proven to be a key component in our fabrication success.”
20 MetalForming/August 2016
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