Cold forming is widely used in manufacturing processing, and the layout of
rectangular parts in the strip is manually accomplished, which is a time-co
nsuming task and may be a major bottleneck in effectively improving the uti
lization ratio of material and the productivity. The mathematical model for
optimal layout of cold forming is first developed, and then the constraine
d optimal layout problem is transformed to an unconstrained optimal one wit
h penalty function strategy. A simple genetic algorithms for this optimal l
ayout is proposed, and an example is examined to show the validity of this
proposed genetic methodology. Although the simple genetic algorithms is emp
loyed, a higher material utilization ratio and productivity is achieved. (C
) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.