Nesting (process)

In manufacturing industry, nesting refers to the process of laying out cutting patterns to minimize the raw material waste.

Here the advantages sought can include minimizing tool movement that is not producing product, or maximizing how many pieces can be fabricated in one build session.

[1] It automates the calculation of ideal distribution of the cutting patterns to avoid waste.

They then have the potential to run jobs on any available machine, and their staff should not have to learn several different software packages.

Material may be cut using off-line blanking dies, lasers, plasma, punches, shear blades, ultrasonic knives and water jet cutters.

Image 1: Simple rectangular nesting
Image 2: Improved Nesting with rotated parts
Image 3: Minimizing waste by mixing different parts