A nesting and shear cutting preprocessing method for a defective plate, comprising the following steps: acquiring plate information of a plate, wherein the plate information includes defect information and plate dimension information; making an electronic defect map according to the defect information and the plate dimension information, and partitioning out a region available for nesting and shear cutting; and partitioning the plate to obtain small plates according to the region available for nesting and shear cutting. A nesting and shear cutting layout method for a defective plate, a nesting and shear cutting production optimization method for a defective plate, and a system, a computing device, a storage medium therefor. The preprocessing method and the system can reduce the scrap rate of plate processing.

A system and method for forming a structure with steep walls (walls having an angle greater than 60° with respect to a level plane) through one or more incremental sheet forming operations is provided. The method includes a workpiece with an inner region and an outer region that are separated by a boundary region. The boundary region includes a plurality of openings and a plurality of connecting elements. The openings are cut into the workpiece using a boundary region cutting tool. A forming tool is configured to operate on the inner region after the boundary region cutting operation has been completed. At least one control unit is in communication with the forming tool. The at least one control unit operates the forming tool to form the structure from the inner region.

A position sensing tool for enabling topographical measurements of a working surface is provided. The tool includes sensors for mapping the tool environment and for positioning of the tool within the environment. The tool enables tracking of tool activity within the environment. The tool enables design and fabrication collaboration with other computer systems. The tool enables user and tool environment safety using tool positional, user position and tool environment awareness. Certain embodiments of the tool permit automated guidance of tasks in the tool environment.

A method controls sheet metal processing of a sheet metal component to be manufactured with a plurality of processing steps. The method includes: A) reading in machine tool data and data of the sheet metal component to be manufactured, which includes (in any order): a) reading in the processing steps of the sheet metal component to be manufactured; b) reading in property parameters of the sheet metal component to be manufactured; c) reading in at least one basic processing capability of the machine tools; and d) reading in capability parameters of the machine tools. The method also includes B) creating a machine tool matrix made from machine tools suitable for manufacturing the sheet metal component; C) determining an optimized processing sequence in a form of a sequence of machine tools from the machine tool matrix; and D) outputting the optimized processing sequence.

An apparatus and methods of inspecting, analyzing, classifying, and/or grading quality of a transparent sheet using a data set of photoelasticity measurements, thickness measurements, segmentation specifications, measurement specifications and quality control specifications of the transparent sheet. A results measurement is calculated on a computing system, quality control specifications are applied to the results measurement allowing writing to the database and creating reports, sending results to an operator interface and machine control.

Apparatus and method for controlling and/or monitoring a technical installation for producing and/or processing metal, having an assistant program with at least one interface for connection to application programs, wherein the assistant program receives a request for an item of information relating to the installation from at least one requesting application program via the interface, wherein the assistant program can access a data model that provides a suggestion of which information can be provided by at least one further application program. The assistant program determining, based on the request and on the data model, which application program can provide the requested information, wherein the assistant program transmits the request to the at least one determined application program which can provide the requested information, wherein the assistant program receives a response from the determined application program, and wherein the assistant program outputs the received response to the requesting application program.

A position sensing tool for enabling topographical measurements of a working surface is provided. The tool includes sensors for mapping the tool environment and for positioning of the tool within the environment. The tool enables tracking of tool activity within the environment. The tool enables design and fabrication collaboration with other computer systems. The tool enables user and tool environment safety using tool positional, user position and tool environment awareness. Certain embodiments of the tool permit automated guidance of tasks in the tool environment.

A machine for machining sheet metal parts has a plurality of machining stations along a continuous conveyor belt, including a first sanding belt unit with an endlessly rotating sanding belt, a brush unit with horizontally rotating abrasive brushes and a second sanding belt unit with a fine-grained sanding belt. The three machining stations can be adjusted independently, and the machining tools are interchangeable. The technical data of the machining tools is stored in a tool memory. The machine includes a device for providing a suggestion for an optimal adjustment as well as an operator terminal with a touch screen, via which the user can make inputs and/or receive information from or about the machine. Based on the data entered by the user and the data stored in the machine, the user receives a suggestion for the optimal adjustment of the machine and is prompted to change the tool if necessary.

A method for assigning a workpiece to be processed to a mobile unit of an indoor location system used in a manufacturing hall in industrial processing of workpieces is provided. The method includes: providing a manufacturing control system for the industrial processing of workpieces with a machine tool in accordance with workpiece-specific processing plans, providing an assistance system for collecting measurement assistance workpiece data sets for the workpieces, detecting a workpiece to be assigned with the assistance system and generating a measurement-assistance-workpiece data set for the workpiece, comparing the measurement-assistance-workpiece data set with a processing plan-assistance-workpiece data set corresponding to the workpiece to identify a processing plan, providing a mobile unit assigned to the identified processing plan, the indoor location system configured to determine a position of the mobile unit, and spatially assigning the workpiece to the mobile unit assigned to the identified processing plan.

Sheetmaking cross-directional (CD) control requires a sophisticated model-based controller whose operation requires an accurate model of process behavior, but due to the complexity of the process, identifying these process models is challenging. Current techniques rely on open-loop process experimentation. Using non-causal scalar transfer functions for the steady-state CD process model and controller model avoid the problem of large dimensions associated with the CD process. These non-causal transfer functions can be represented by causal transfer functions that are equivalent to the non-causal ones in the sense of the output spectrum. A closed-loop optimal input design framework is proposed based on these causal equivalent models. CD actuators have responses in both sides along the cross direction which can be viewed as a non-causal behavior. Techniques to perform the non-causal modeling are demonstrated and developed in a closed-loop optimal input design framework based on non-causal modeling of the closed-loop CD process.