For metal processing companies, the cutting shop often has a major influence on the overall production cost.
Many manufacturers focus on labor costs, machine productivity, and cutting speed, but often overlook a more direct question:
How much of the raw material is actually turned into usable products?
For steel tubes, round bars, profiles, aluminum materials, and other metal products, material costs can account for more than 60% of the total cost of a cutting shop.
When material utilization remains around 85%, the difference may look small. However, in high-volume production, the remaining 15% can represent a significant amount of material that ends up as kerf loss, unused remnants, defective ends, or scrap.
Improving material utilization from 85% to 90% or even 95% can therefore create substantial savings over time.
So, what causes low material utilization, and how can manufacturers improve it?
Every cutting operation removes a certain amount of material.
This is known as kerf loss.
The material lost in a single cut may seem insignificant, but when a production line performs thousands of cuts per day, the total loss can become substantial.
For example, when a 6-meter steel tube is cut into multiple fixed-length pieces, every additional cut creates another kerf loss.
Using an unnecessarily wide cutting tool or failing to optimize cutting parameters can further increase material consumption.
Therefore, reducing kerf loss per cut is one of the most direct ways to improve material utilization.
Material remnants are almost unavoidable during metal cutting.
The real problem is not whether remnants are generated, but whether they are properly managed and reused.
For example, after cutting a 6-meter material, 420 mm may remain.
Without a proper remnant management system, the operator may simply treat it as scrap.
However, if a future order requires a 400 mm component, that 420 mm remnant still has considerable value.
An effective remnant management system should include:
The better the remnant management, the higher the actual material utilization.
The ends of steel tubes, bars, and profiles are not always suitable for direct processing.
Common problems include:
When the material ends are defective, operators may need to remove additional material before production.
That removed portion becomes material loss.
Even more importantly, poor cutting quality can require additional end-face processing after the initial cut, creating further material and labor costs.
Cutting layout has a major impact on material utilization.
For example, a 6-meter raw material may need to be cut into several different product lengths.
If every order is planned separately, significant remnants may be generated.
However, if different product lengths are combined strategically, the same raw material can often be utilized much more efficiently.
Therefore, cutting optimization should not focus only on one order. It should consider the overall production schedule.
The first step toward higher material utilization is better cutting planning.
Orders with the same material, specification, and similar cutting lengths can be combined to reduce unnecessary remnants.
For example, one order may require 1,000 mm pieces, while another requires 980 mm and another requires 1,020 mm.
If these orders are planned separately, each may generate its own leftover material.
Combining them allows the manufacturer to make better use of the full raw material length.
Instead of planning each order independently, manufacturers can combine different cutting lengths.
For example:
1,200 mm + 1,200 mm + 800 mm + 800 mm + 1,000 mm + 1,000 mm
By combining different part lengths, the remaining material at the end of the cutting sequence can be reduced.
This approach is particularly effective for manufacturers handling many different orders and product specifications.
When a factory needs to process large numbers of orders with different materials, lengths, and quantities, manual cutting planning becomes increasingly difficult.
An automatic cutting optimization system can consider:
and automatically calculate more efficient cutting combinations.
This is one of the key ways automation can help reduce material waste.
Material utilization is not only about how you plan the cuts.
It is also about how you perform the cuts.
Different cutting machines and cutting tools have different cutting characteristics and kerf widths.
For high-volume metal cutting, high-speed circular saw machines can provide efficient and stable cutting performance while using circular saw blades designed for continuous production.
With proper spindle accuracy, feed control, machine rigidity, and blade selection, manufacturers can maintain cutting quality while minimizing unnecessary material loss.
On a production line performing thousands of cuts every day, even a small reduction in material loss per cut can result in significant savings over time.
A remnant is not necessarily scrap.
Manufacturers can create a simple remnant database based on their production requirements.
For example:
| Remnant Length | Material Size | Material | Condition | Potential Application |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 450 mm | Ø30 mm | Carbon Steel | Good | Short Parts |
| 680 mm | 40 * 40 mm | Stainless Steel | Good | Small Frames |
| 820 mm | Ø50 mm | Alloy Steel | Good | Short Components |
When a new order enters production, the system can first check whether suitable remnants are available.
This creates a more efficient material cycle:
Raw Material → Cutting → Remnant → Remnant Inventory → New Cutting Plan → Remnant Reuse
instead of:
Raw Material → Cutting → Leftover Material → Scrap
The difference between these two approaches can have a significant impact on material costs.
Many manufacturers focus heavily on cutting speed while paying less attention to the quality of the cut surface.
If the cut end has excessive burrs, poor squareness, or deformation, additional operations may be required, such as:
These operations increase labor and processing costs and may also result in additional material loss.
Therefore, a high-quality cutting solution should focus on:
Cutting Accuracy + End-Face Quality + Process Stability
For components that will be welded, assembled, or used directly after cutting, a clean and accurate cut end can reduce downstream processing and improve overall production efficiency.
Consider a metal furniture manufacturer producing tables, chairs, racks, and metal frames using steel tubes and round bars.
Before improvement:
The company implemented four improvements.
Orders using the same material specifications were combined, while long and short parts were strategically arranged together.
More suitable high-speed circular saw machines and blades were selected according to the material specifications and production requirements, helping reduce unnecessary kerf loss.
Reusable remnants were classified by length, specification, and material grade and prioritized for short-length orders.
A more stable cutting process was introduced to improve cutting accuracy and end-face quality, reducing secondary processing.
After continuous optimization, material utilization increased from approximately 86% to 94%.
An 8-percentage-point improvement may not look dramatic at first glance, but for a high-volume manufacturer, it can translate into a substantial reduction in material waste over the course of a year.
Improving material utilization is not simply a matter of replacing one machine.
The most effective results usually come from the combination of:
Cutting Optimization + Equipment Optimization + Remnant Management + Quality Control
A weakness in any one of these areas can limit the overall result.
For example:
Excellent cutting optimization cannot fully compensate for excessive kerf loss.
Highly accurate equipment cannot prevent material waste if usable remnants are simply discarded.
Good remnant management cannot eliminate unnecessary waste if poor end-face quality creates excessive secondary processing.
For modern metal cutting shops, material utilization should therefore be treated as a system-level production indicator, rather than simply a machine parameter.
Improving material utilization requires both equipment and management.
From cutting layout and remnant management to kerf loss and end-face quality, every small improvement can become significant when multiplied across thousands of cuts and tons of material.
Our high-speed circular saw machines are designed for high-precision, high-efficiency, and stable metal cutting. Depending on material type and production requirements, suitable machine and blade configurations can be selected, with automatic cutting optimization and automated feeding solutions available for higher levels of production automation.
For manufacturers processing large volumes of steel tubes, round bars, profiles, and other metal materials every day, improving material utilization may be more valuable than simply increasing cutting speed.
ผู้ติดต่อ: Mr. Henry
โทร: +86-18101486180
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