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With 40 years of experience in developing nesting and CAD/CAM software, Alma supplies industry, machine manufacturers and software developers with 2D and 3D nesting solutions suitable for all the cutting technologies and types of use.
A pioneer in developing nesting software
In 1979, Alma was created: Researchers in Applied mathematics design the first software for automatic nesting of parts with complex shapes to economize raw materials. Our software was initially used to cut cloth. In 1983 it was acquired by the Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard at Saint-Nazaire (France) who introduced Alma to sheet metal cutting.
Alma grew rapidly in the market for software to operate cutting and sheet metal machines, and in 1996 it broadened its activities to cover off-line programming of robots for arc welding and 3D cutting.
Today Alma is a leading developer of CAD/CAM software for sheet metal working, cutting and robotics. From Shanghai to Porto Alegre, from Santiago to Christchurch, our software products are being used right around the world, and are recognized for the quality of optimization and their innovative functionalities.
Alma’s automatic nesting enabled us to improve material productivity by 23%. Daher-Socata (France)
Nesting saves material and money
If careful attention is not paid to nesting the parts to cut, consumption of raw materials can double. This increases costs, produces more waste and consumes more energy. This is true for all types of materials, but particularly for industries where the raw materials represent a substantial proportion of the manufacturing cost, e.g. half the cost of a piece of apparel. The quality of nesting then becomes a major productivity issue. We have been working in this area for nearly 40 years with our automatic nesting optimization software products.
It is possible to spend time optimizing the nesting of parts on the material “manually”, but then you will realize that this is a complicated task; the number of possible combinations of parts quickly explodes! Since you cannot be certain to find the best possible solution, you must find a good solution, in a reasonable period of time. This is what our algorithms do, and they are ranked among the best in the world.
We have devised many different methods to enable them to intelligently find a good solution. We are constantly fine-tuning these methods, while also adding new possibilities to meet the requirements of the different materials and cutting technologies that are being developed. Our algorithms are used everywhere on the planet, both by large industrial groups and by the smallest companies, to cut metal, wood, paper, stone, and even pastry!
Rationalization of sheet metal formats combined with the performance of the nesting software enabled us to reduce off-cuts by almost 10 per cent. Trane (France)
A 100% proprietary nesting technology
A bit like an automobile manufacturer who designs and produces its engines at the same time as the vehicles built around them, Alma is the only market player that develops and sells not only nesting algorithms (for other CAM or ERP software developers), but also the CAD/CAM software into which they are integrated (for the industrial end users). Since we develop all of our software components in-house, we can be certain that we have complete control of our products. In addition, these two activities mutually enrich each other with invaluable technical expertise to achieve optimum satisfaction of our customers’ needs.
Almacam Cut, a nesting and programming software for end users
Almacam Cut is designed based on our 40 years of experience in developing nesting and CAD/CAM software for cutting. It supports all cutting machines that follow profiles (laser, plasma, oxy-cutting, water jet, routing of metal sheets and wood panels), punching-nibbling machines and combined machines. Almacam Cut supports each technology to the maximum at every stage of programming, from preparation of parts to nesting, from generation of NC code to tool paths.
At the heart of Almacam is a powerful module for nesting parts with complex shapes and adapted to meet all the technological requirements: multi-head cutting, common cut between parts, cutting with bevels, nesting in sheets already cut, etc. Almacam’s unique nesting algorithms significantly reduce off-cut rates.
Almacam is distributed worldwide via our network of subsidiaries and resellers who provide our customers with the expertise and software support they need.
Thanks to Alma’s automatic nesting we have been able to reduce our off-cut rate by 17%. TMSA (Brazil)
A nesting software for cutting machine manufacturers
We offer tailor-made partnerships to manufacturers or resellers of cutting machines who want to provide their customers with a high performance nesting software. Customization of our software products goes far beyond the post-processor, to adapt to specific technologies and types of use. Combined with the technical performance of our software, this advantage gives the manufacturer’s solution decisive added value.
We offer different levels of cooperation depending on the amount of software customization and the degree to which the manufacturer wants to be involved. Thanks to our international presence, the manufacturer benefits from support provided by our network, starting with local support.
Powernest, automatic nesting library for software developers
Powernest is a powerful library for automatic nesting, to be used to develop CAD/CAM or ERP applications that integrate cutting optimization functions.
Powernest allows automatic nesting of 2D parts with complex shapes and is easy to integrate into an interactive nesting software. Powernest is capable of applying a number of automatic nesting strategies, guaranteeing the most effective nesting possible. The Powernest library is available in DLL format (Powernest Lib) or as a web service in the Cloud (Powernest WS).
The Powernest library is also designed for 3D nesting of parallepipedic blocks (foam, metal or stone, etc.), and for edge to edge rectangular cutting (sheet metal shearing, wood-panel cutting, etc.) as well as optimization of linear cutting (bars, profiles, tubes, etc.).
Are you developing CAD/CAM or ERP cutting software? Do you want to integrate an automatic nesting library into your solution? Test the performance of our automatic nesting algorithms with your own parts and judge the result for yourself!
We recommend the Alma nesting software without hesitation, but not for our competitors! Powernest is an extremely reliable and stable nesting optimization solution. BCSI Systems (Netherlands)
Nest&Cut, a new automatic nesting web application
The Nest&Cut web application enables any company involved in cutting flat materials, no matter where they are in the world, to access the best automatic nesting algorithms for 2D parts with complex shapes. Thanks to Nest&Cut you reduce your raw material costs without investing in a costly solution, regardless of the flat materials you are cutting: sheet metal, wood, textiles, composite, stone, foam, etc.
It’s very simple: in just a few clicks you send the geometries in DXF format, prepare its data (part quantities, material formats) then start automatic nesting in the Cloud. A few seconds later, Nest&Cut produces the optimized cutting drawings in DXF format with the cutting order of the parts, ready for the cutting software or the machine’s numeric control.
On the strength of our unique expertise in nesting and cutting optimization, our ambition is to make Nest&Cut the leading web nesting product.