Heuristic and genetic approach for nesting of two-dimensional rectangular shaped parts with common cutting edge concept for laser cutting and profile blanking processes

This paper presents a novel two-dimensional nesting strategy suitable for sheet metal industries employing laser cutting and profile blanking processes. The proposed nesting approach is developed by the combination of heuristic and genetic algorithms in order to generate an effective nested pattern, in such a way that, it minimizes the sheet material wastage and also the cutting tool path distance, while arranging a set of rectangular parts in a rectangular sheet. With the proposed bottom-left heuristic method, at first, the parts are considered in a specific sequence and orientation, and each part is translated to the feasible bottom left most position on the previously placed parts and then adjusted to form the common cutting edges with adjacent parts. Further, the heuristic algorithm ensures the formation of clusters, in which a group of parts share the cutting edges, for effective handling of parts while cutting. Finally the optimal and effective nested pattern is generated by the genetic evaluation process which reproduces several sets of nested patterns, before converging to the optimality. The effectiveness of the proposed work, in terms of utilization of sheet material, is demonstrated by comparing the results obtained from the literature. Furthermore the uniqueness of the present approach in enhancing the nested pattern efficiency and minimizing the tool path distance with common cutting edge concept is illustrated. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.