Nesting refers to the process of efficiently manufacturing

Manufacturing

Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...

 parts from flat raw material

Raw material

A raw material or feedstock is the basic material from which a product is manufactured or made, frequently used with an extended meaning. For example, the term is used to denote material that came from nature and is in an unprocessed or minimally processed state. Latex, iron ore, logs, and crude...

.

Companies manufacturing parts from flat raw material such as sheet metal

Sheet metal

Sheet metal is simply metal formed into thin and flat pieces. It is one of the fundamental forms used in metalworking, and can be cut and bent into a variety of different shapes. Countless everyday objects are constructed of the material...

 use a variety of technologies to perform this task. The sheet metal nesting for flat sheets and nesting for coils are different algorithms. Material may be cut using off-line blanking dies, lasers

Laser cutting

Laser cutting is a technology that uses a laser to cut materials, and is typically used for industrial manufacturing applications, but is also starting to be used by schools, small businesses and hobbyists. Laser cutting works by directing the output of a high-power laser, by computer, at the...

, plasma

Plasma cutting

Plasma cutting is a process that is used to cut steel and other metals of different thicknesses using a plasma torch...

, punches, shear blades, ultrasonic

Ultrasound

Ultrasound is cyclic sound pressure with a frequency greater than the upper limit of human hearing. Ultrasound is thus not separated from "normal" sound based on differences in physical properties, only the fact that humans cannot hear it. Although this limit varies from person to person, it is...

 knives and even water jet cutter

Water jet cutter

A water jet cutter, also known as a waterjet, is a tool capable of slicing into metal or other materials using a jet of water at high velocity and pressure, or a mixture of water and an abrasive substance. The process is essentially the same as water erosion found in nature but greatly accelerated...

s.

In order to minimize the amount of scrap

Scrap

Scrap is a term used to describe recyclable and other materials left over from every manner of product consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap has significant monetary value...

 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 algorithm

Algorithm

In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm is an effective method expressed as a finite list of well-defined instructions for calculating a function. Algorithms are used for calculation, data processing, and automated reasoning...

s, 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.

A number of off the shelf nesting software address the optimization needs. While some cater to only rectangular nesting others also offer profile or shape nesting where the parts required can be any odd shape and not just rectangles. These irregular parts can be created using popular CAD tools. Most of the profile nesting software can read IGES or DXF profile files automatically, a few of them work with built in converters.

An important consideration in shape nesting is to verify that the software in question actually performs true profile nesting and not just block nesting. In block nesting an imaginary rectangle is drawn around the shape and then the rectangles are laid side-by side which actually is not profile nesting. There still remains a scope for waste reduction

Nesting software must take into account the limitations and features of the machining

Machining

Conventional machining is a form of subtractive manufacturing, in which a collection of material-working processes utilizing power-driven machine tools, such as saws, lathes, milling machines, and drill presses, are used with a sharp cutting tool to physical remove material to achieve a desired...

 technology in use, such as:

• 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 angle
  Right angle
  In geometry and trigonometry, a right angle is an angle that bisects the angle formed by two halves of a straight line. More precisely, if a ray is placed so that its endpoint is on a line and the adjacent angles are equal, then they are right angles...
  
  s;

Nesting software may also have to take into account material characteristics, such as:

• Defects on material that must be discarded;
• Different quality areas that must match corresponding quality levels required for different parts;
• Direction constraints, that may come from a printed pattern or from fiber direction;

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

Commercial off-the-shelf

In the United States, Commercially available Off-The-Shelf is a Federal Acquisition Regulation term defining a nondevelopmental item of supply that is both commercial and sold in substantial quantities in the commercial marketplace, and that can be procured or utilized under government contract...

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.