COMPUTER AIDED STOCK LAYOUT OF SHEET METAL• PARTS OF DIFFERENT SHAPES

Abstract

Efficient utilization of raw material is very important in every industry. Stock layout dealing with location of two dimensional patterns on to stock sheet is an important problem in this regard. Proper layout leads to decrease' in amount of scrap, thereby reducing the consumption of raw material. Stock layout of sheet metal parts is mostly carried out manually, in industries till now. It is a tedious process, particularly when the parts are in a large variety of shapes and sizes. The computer can help in this task by identifying the various possible layouts using suitable nesting algorithm, carry out their evaluation on the basis of appropriate criterion viz-scrap percentage with due consideration of factors affecting stock layout such as bridge width, stock width and length and direction of fiber.• The present work is devoted to the development of an algorithm and computer software for computer aided stock layout for rectangular parts and irregular parts separately. The stock layout of both rectangular and irregular parts of different shaped' consists of nesting module with due consideration to bridge width and direction of fiber. Four heuristics are proposed in the present work to identify the sequence, in which parts are arranged on the stock sheet. Finally the heuristic which gives minimum scrap percentage is selected.