FOCUS ON CAD / CAM
Nesting on the laser-cut sheet.
PROGRAMMED PRODUCTIVITY
By implementing new dynamic nesting and MES software, FETCO ® made 20 % material savings. The brewing equipment manufacturer also gained almost one day per week in extra capacity on its new Bystronic laser cutting machine.
“ JETCAM software dynamically creates all nests, prioritising more urgent parts for earlier nests, delivering NC code back to the DMM MES for the operator to access.”
FETCO ®( Food Equipment Technologies Company, Inc.), based in Illinois, USA, was founded in 1987 and manufactures commercial coffee and tea brewing equipment. The company makes all its equipment in-house, covering a significant product range.
Prior to 2023, FETCO ® used two Bystronic laser cutters, both programmed using OEM-supplied nesting software. To increase throughput and keep up with growing demand, one of the older lasers was replaced with a new Bystronic BySmart Fiber 3015 laser cutting system. However, the company faced various manufacturing challenges. It had been using static nests, requiring the sorting of
FETCO ® headquarters at Lake Zurich, Illinois, USA. parts by material for nesting, and then nesting product body and tank parts in even sets.
Michael Scheve, VP of Manufacturing, FETCO ®, explained the challenge:“ This required us to build top-level assemblies in quantities divisible by the nest quantities, which was inefficient as some would not fill a sheet. The result was either poor nesting with excessive waste, or an increase in part quantities over what was needed, leading to overstocking of parts.”
Another issue was the lack of sheet storage towers, meaning that material
48 | ismr. net | ISMR May 2025