NESTING

Automatic nesting Our cutting systems can take advantage of powerful nesting software, both automatic and interactive in order to maximise operators' productivity and optimise material usage. The software is engineered by String, a software house partner of Atom that has been developing automatic nesting systems for more than 10 years. Besides "traditional" nesting software we propose to our customers "CutWeb", an innovative solution to manage nesting and cutting through the Internet. Different solutions for different situations. Automatic nesting software sold together cutting machines is often a standardised package, optimised to deal with some specific problems but neither able to deliver optimal results in different environments nor customisable. Atom does not believe in the "one size fits all" approach, for this reason we offer several different automatic nesting solutions, optimised for different materials and industries. This is on of the reason for which we usually speak about "cutting systems", since we ship our experience, included in the software, along with the cutting machine. On-line nesting We talk about "on-line nesting" when this operation is performed directly on the cutting table. Usually this system is used when cutting with oscillating knife machines materials with an irregular contour and that can have defects and different quality areas. The main stages of on-line nesting are: Material deployment on the cutting machine; Contour recognition and defects marking (these are optional for interactive nesting); Parts nesting, that can be fully automatic, fully manual (interactive) or mixed; Starting the cutting. Contour recognition and defects marking are needed to use the automatic nesting. When nesting in the interactive mode instead these phases can be skipped since the operator decides where to put each part taking into account material features. The contour recognition is performed automatically using the digital camera and the machine software, while defects marking is done by the operator working directly on the material using a special optical mouse. The machine constantly projects contour and quality areas to make this stage easier and less error prone. As regards nesting, it is possible to select at any time the automatic, interactive or mixed mode. In interactive mode the operator can position the parts directly on the material using the mouse, having them always clearly projected. The software and the interface are carefully designed to ensure fast and accurate positioning. It is possible, to activate at any time, the automatic nesting, to fill up the remaining space on the material (mixed mode). Of course it is possible to let the automatic nesting manage the whole layout without placing any part manually. We propose several different nesting algorithms to suit the needs of several industries and maximise the yield on different materials. Anyway our customers can require custom nesting strategies to support new applications or new production constraints. Being able of choosing freely either manual or automatic nesting you are granted a great flexibility, for example the operator might decide to place manually some especially critical parts or manually optimise some areas of the material, letting the software complete the job. Doing so you can maximise both yield and operator's productivity by leveraging his experience. Off-line nesting Off-line nesting is done in two distinct stages: the defects marking and the deployment of the material on the cutting machine. It is used mostly when cutting using waterjets machines. Defect marking can be done using an "Intelliview", that is a special table equipped with a digital camera, projector and software able to recognise the material contour and help the operator in marking quality areas. The data collected using Intelliview is then used by the automatic nesting software, feeded by the production orders. When materials must be cut they are deployed on the cutting machine, the proper layout is loaded and the cutting is started. It is critical to use an highly optimised nesting algorithm to maximise material yield. Atom proposes several solutions, optimised for several different industries and material kind. Our customers however can ask for custom nesting solutions able to fully support their production needs. Automatic nesting through the Web This is an innovative solution: managing the nesting without having to install new software on your computer, without having to buy licenses for nesting software and without using powerful workstations for the nesting calculation. Everything is done through the Internet. Cutweb allows you to manage cutting orders from any web-connected PC, the nesting is calculated on our protected servers, always using the most updated version of the software. This service is charged in pay-per-use basis with transparent and affordable fees. This is not just a different licensing model, it is a new way to manage this activity which can enable new interesting strategic opportunities. You can read more about Cutweb on his dedicated page.