Forming Technologies Inc. (FTI), Oakville, Ontario, Canada, has released Blanknest 4.0, software designed for nesting sheetmetal blanks on coils. It automatically calculates a nesting layout to optimize material utilization based on coil width and pitch constraints and accurately determines the cost per blank. As much as 75 percent of the total expenditures in a stamping facility is derived from raw-material costs. Not all of this material is used for the final parts, due to the need to trim scrap material from around the blank shapes. The amount of scrap produced its directly related to the efficiency of the stamping strip layout. Blanknest takes the guesswork out of arranging complex blank shapes as it quickly and accurately determines the best material utilization for one-up and two-up layouts, according to company officials.
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