Page 33 - MetalForming February 2017

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including ‘hot’ parts.
“With traditional batch nesting,
when the orders for a particular shift change,” Lundy says, “and now include ‘hot’ parts that weren’t originally included on the nests, some of the nests that have yet to be produced must get called back and the ‘hot’ parts added. These nests must be reproduced with a new set of requirements, and that’s where dynamic nesting—and in par- ticular automated just-in-time (JIT) nesting—comes into play.”
JIT nesting differs from traditional dynamic batch nesting in that it allows a fabricator to make adjustments to nests from one cycle to the next, by not ever building a batch nest. Instead, the nesting software allows the fabri- cator to automatically generate and deliver the next nest to the machine (a laser or turret press, for example) just before it finishes its current nest. So, with every machine cycle the fab- ricator can adapt to changing require- ments on the shop floor.
“With JIT, a nest doesn’t get built until the machine is ready to run it,” Lundy says. “The nesting software draws from the active orders—including up- to-the minute changes and with ERP input as well—and creates the next nest. For example, consider a shop nesting in batch mode and running three lasers. If one of the machines goes down, there would be a series of nests backlogged; some might even include hot parts. With JIT nesting, the most important parts run through the remaining two machines automatically, avoiding production delays.
“We’re seeing shops generate com- plex nests in less than 5 min.,” he adds. “This proves very challenging to the nesting software, which has to account for schedules, machine requirements and material efficiency. And, we see that JIT nesting improves material effi- ciency compared to batch nesting, because with batch nesting, fabricators will experience ‘tail-off ’ where the last sheet in the run won’t be completely
In
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Nesting software with built-in collision avoidance creates nests and cutting pro- cedures that avoid part tip-up and sheet buckling. The trick to collision avoidance: sequencing the tool path to minimize the number of times the cutting head must raise up to safely pass over previously cut paths and parts, which delivers the added benefit of eliminating slow z-axis motion that adds to processing time.
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