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29 ALS 4.0 XE P R O D U C T M A N U A L EN 3.7.2 How it Works For a given length of stock, the Optimizer looks through a cutting file for a combination of pieces that can be cut from that stock with minimum waste. The computer will analyze thousands of combinations and return the best solution in a fraction of a second. Shown in Figure 39 are examples of cuts made using Optimizer: Figure 39 If the pieces shown above were to cut these pieces on a component saw, an 8' stock would be required for the 7-4-5 piece and a 10' stock would be required for the 8-4-12 piece. The resulting waste would be 2-2-15. By placing both these pieces on a 16-0-0 stock a waste is reduced to 0-5-4. A savings of 1-7-9, or 9.1%. The pieces in the examples above are "nested". They overlap on the stock. Nesting allows the computer generated length to be larger than the actual stock length. After pieces have been nested on the stock, the computer recalculates the extra material made available by the nesting process and searches the file again for additional pieces that can be added to that stock. Many times the pieces that can be added are fairly short. That is one reason why the Optimizer yields better lumber savings if the job contains a mix of short and long pieces. Figure 40 Figure 41 Figure 40 shows 2 pieces 5-0-0 + 6 pieces 1-0-0 + 1 piece 1-6-0 = 17-6-0 total piece length. The ALS Optimizer automatically combined all these pieces and cut them from a single piece of lumber. The saw was able to cut 17-6-0 worth of pieces from a 12-0-0 stock (as shown in Figure 41). 3.7 Optimizer 3.7.1 Introduction The ALS Optimizer is an innovative software feature designed to maximize cutting and reduce waste. Using this feature can result in an 8-10% savings in material required by the saw to complete the cutting job. As each plant is run differently, the optimizer is flexible and can be setup to maximize lumber usage, resulting in a reduction in waste. This section will outline all the options available to setup the Optimizer. Before setting up the Optimizer it is important to evaluate how lumber is purchased. Linear saws differ greatly from component saws in the way jobs are cut. A series of cuts are setup on a board within the software prior to the stock advancing into the saw. The Optimizer function will nest cuts together to maximize lumber usage. Longer lumber stock will accommodate a greater amount of nesting on each board. This being the case, Alpine recommends feeding the ALS 4.0 the longest length of lumber available (see section 1.2). This will allow the Optimizer to nest more pieces on each board.