A Mathematical Model for the Cutting Path Problem Aimed at the Layout with Holes

Cutting is a common method in industrial production and a predefined and reasonable cutting path plays a pivotal role in the blanking process. This paper researches the cutting path problem aimed at the layout with holes (CPPLH) which requires a cutting path to separate each part one by one and requires priority cutting of its holes if there exist holes in a part. Besides, a novel mathematical model for the CPPLH is formulated in this paper and the results show that the proposed model can be solved by CPLEX quickly for small-scale instances and obtain the lower bound for medium-scale as well as large-scale cases.