One of the best ways to reduce the cost of laser cut parts is to maximize a sheet of material, and that’s possible with a technique known in the metal fabrication world as “nesting.”
Nesting consists of combining a group of parts of similar material and thickness on a sheet of metal to utilize as much of the sheet’s surface area as possible.
Don’t worry—you don’t actually have to plan out any of the nesting yourself. Simply let your metal fabrication partner know that you’d like the nested price for a specific quantity of parts that you’re ordering at the same time, and they’ll take care of the rest.
How Does Nesting Reduce the Cost of Laser Cutting Services?
When customers submit a quote request for laser cutting services with multiple line items, metal fabrication shops default to pricing out each part individually, not knowing if they’re going to win every part in the RFQ. This approach results in a separate setup and material charge for each part.
But if you plan to purchase the full group of parts at the same time from the same shop, there’s an opportunity to share costs across parts and save money.
By asking for the nested price, you’re letting your metal fabrication partner know that you’ll guarantee them all the parts in the RFQ when you decide to send the order. They can then nest the parts strategically to reduce material usage and setup costs which provide a much more competitive quote.
At Ameritex, we may advise you to slightly increase or decrease your quantities to better utilize material. We’ll also look for creative ways to fit your parts together on one sheet of material, such as nesting small parts inside the cutouts of large parts to transform what would have been scrap into free material for you.
Requirements for Receiving a Nested Price at Ameritex
Interested in taking advantage of this option? There are specific requirements for receiving a nested price when you request laser cutting services from Ameritex:
- We must receive a specific quantity of each part you would order together so we can see the complete material yield.
- We must have manufacturable CAD files (preferably 3D models, but DXF or DWG files work well for laser cutting flat parts). If the CAD files are modeled incorrectly, your team must be willing to make adjustments per our recommendations.
- All parts must be the same material type and thickness—consider consolidating thickness on low-volume runs.
- If you receive a quote with nested pricing, you must purchase all the parts in the nest for us to honor that pricing.
Note: All principles and requirements also apply to structural and tube laser cutting projects.
When we quote you a nested price for laser cutting services, most quotes will have a single line for the parts “kit” with a detailed description of everything included. We can quote you any number of these kits so that you can order multiple nested quantities online. If, for any reason, you need to see individual part pricing for your nested quote, let us know early on, and we’ll be happy to give you that information.
Providing parts kits to our customers is our absolute favorite type of work. Not only is it fast-paced and efficient, but it’s also genuinely fun to use our machines and processes to their fullest potential.
Let’s work together to identify the ideal solutions for your parts. Request a quote today and add “please quote as nested parts” in the notes section.
