Workpiece Nesting Evaluation for Support Web Wear Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Flatbed laser cutting machines face challenges in minimizing material usage, reducing web wear, and preventing tilting of workpieces due to unknown relative positions of part contours to machine support webs, leading to quality issues and process disruptions.
Innovation Solution
A method for evaluating and optimizing the nesting plan of workpieces on a material sheet using contour data, position data, and cutting operation data to calculate a damage rate and determine an evaluation value for each location, which involves determining cumulative contour section lengths and applying weighting factors based on the type of cutting operation and support spaces, thereby improving the positioning of workpieces to minimize damage and tilting.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If nesting workpieces to minimize raw material usage, then material utilization is improved, but the relative position of part contours to support webs becomes unknown leading to web wear and quality losses
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary detection of support web positions and preliminary evaluation of nesting plan positions before the actual cutting process. By calculating damage rates and evaluation values in advance based on detected support web locations, the system can pre-optimize workpiece positions to avoid web wear and quality issues, thus resolving the contradiction between material utilization and process stability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback by detecting the actual positions of support webs and using this information to evaluate and optimize the nesting plan. The damage rate calculation provides feedback on potential web wear and quality issues, allowing the system to adjust workpiece positions to minimize harmful effects while maintaining high material utilization.
2Productivity
If cutting processes are performed over support webs to maximize nesting density, then productivity is improved, but web wear increases and part quality deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary evaluation mechanism that calculates damage rates as a mediator between nesting density requirements and web protection needs. By using evaluation values derived from support web positions and cutting path analysis, the system can identify and avoid cutting paths that would cause excessive web wear or quality issues, thus reducing harmful factors while maintaining productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the parameter of workpiece positioning by optimizing coordinates based on support web locations. By adjusting the position parameters of workpieces in the nesting plan to avoid cutting over support webs or to minimize cutting depth over webs, the system reduces web wear and quality losses while maintaining high nesting density and productivity.
3Reliability
If workpiece positions are optimized to avoid support webs, then web wear is reduced, but material utilization decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies partial avoidance by not completely excluding all areas over support webs from cutting, but rather selectively avoiding only those areas with high damage risk. By calculating damage rates and using evaluation values to guide positioning, the system achieves partial avoidance that protects support webs from excessive wear while minimizing the impact on material utilization, thus resolving the contradiction between web durability and material efficiency.
4Device complexity
If nesting plans are evaluated without considering support web positions, then planning complexity is reduced, but damage rate to workpieces and support webs increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements self-service by automatically detecting support web positions and automatically calculating damage rates and evaluation values for nesting plan evaluation. This automated approach handles the increased complexity of web-aware evaluation without requiring manual intervention, thus resolving the contradiction between evaluation complexity and damage reduction by making the complex evaluation process self-executing.
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3
Figure 4A~4C
AI summary
The invention relates to a method for evaluating the position of a sub-area (9A) assigned to a workpiece (9) in a stacking plan for controlling a cutting process of a flatbed machine tool (1) for cutting workpieces (9) out of a material panel (7). Contour data, which specifies a cutting contour that delimits the sub-area (9A) in the position to be evaluated in the planning area (23), position data, which specifies the position of areas to be taken into consideration during the evaluation process in the planning area (23), said areas comprising a group of support areas (27) and a group of surrounding support areas (Fl, Se, N), and cutting process data, which specifies a cutting process type for at least one section of the cutting contour, is provided. An evaluation value for the sub-area (9A) position to be evaluated is determined on the basis of cumulative contour section lengths and a determined damage rate.