Metal additive manufacturing: Nesting vs. Scheduling

Abstract

As a new and emerging technology, additive manufacturing (AM) is considered to be the future of manufacturing. In comparison to traditional machining techniques, parts are produced through a layer-by-layer production process in AM. It provides both design flexibility and strength as well as lightness and low prototyping costs. Selective laser melting (SLM) is a popular AM technology used in fabricating metal components. Although the SLM technology is a high-cost process at first glance, it can be compensated with efficient planning and scheduling systems. This chapter aims to investigate the relationship between nesting and scheduling when planning and scheduling SLM machines. Numerical examples are conducted to show that optimal nesting does not guarantee optimal scheduling. It is concluded that the nesting and scheduling problems must be considered simultaneously to ensure feasibility. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.