— Payback

What a nest is worth to your shop.

An estimate in your own units: plates, plate cost, yield, hours. Every assumption is listed next to the result and every input is yours to change. The page link carries your numbers, so you can send it to whoever signs the PO.

Your shop

plates
USD

What you pay the mill or service center per plate

%

Parts area over plate area as you nest now. The 40% default is a starting point, not a measured hand-nesting baseline.

%

The 58% default is what the 3.14.1 packer reached on 163 real plate groups (up from 37.7% under 3.14.0). A Forge-to-Forge measurement; your cut list will differ.

hours
USD / hour

Estimated annual savings

$61,737

Estimated payback

1 days

at $49.99 per year, first year

Sheets saved / year

323

Steel saved / year

263,586 lb

nominal 1/2 in x 4 x 10 plate

Sheets purchased per year

Today1,040With Forge717

Material: $58,097 / yr. Labor: 104 h ($3,640) / yr at a 50% time-saved assumption.

The page link already holds your inputs. This just keeps a copy for you.

Assumptions behind this estimate

  • Yield defaults (40% to 58%) round a Forge-to-Forge measurement from the Indolent 3.14.1 changelog: on the same 163 real plate groups, the 3.14.1 packer reached 58.5% plate utilization where the 3.14.0 packer reached 37.7%. That is a packer improvement between two Forge versions, not a comparison against hand nesting or another tool. Enter your own before and after yields; your cut list will differ.
  • Nesting labor saved is assumed at 50% of the hours you enter.
  • Sheets saved = plates per week x 52 x (1 - before yield / after yield). Material saved = sheets saved x average plate cost.
  • Weight uses a nominal 0.5 in x 4 ft x 10 ft plate at 490 lb/ft3 (817 lb each).
  • Payback = first-year license price ($49.99 per year, one machine) / (annual savings / 365), rounded up to whole days. Taxes, scrap credit and remnant reuse are not modelled.

— Where the sheets go

Same parts. Fewer sticks.

Drag the divider. Left is the cut list as it arrived, one part per stick. Right is the first-fit-decreasing nest Forge computes, drops in cream. Computed in your browser from a demo list, not a screenshot.

As ordered14 sticks · 22.7% yield
Forge nest4 sticks · 79.5% yield
S1B-101 14'-6 1/2"DROP 25'-5"S2B-102 14'-6 1/2"DROP 25'-5"S3B-103 10'-8 1/4"DROP 29'-3"S4B-104 10'-8 1/4"DROP 29'-3"S5B-105 8'-0"DROP 31'-11"S6B-106 8'-0"DROP 31'-11"S7B-107 7'-6 1/2"DROP 32'-5"S8C-201 11'-9"DROP 28'-2"S9C-202 11'-9"DROP 28'-2"S10C-203 10'-1 1/2"DROP 29'-10"S11X-301 5'-8 1/4"DROP 34'-3"S12X-302 5'-8 1/4"DROP 34'-3"S13X-303 4'-6"DROP 35'-5"S14X-304 3'-8 3/4"DROP 36'-3"S1B-101 14'-6 1/2"B-102 14'-6 1/2"B-103 10'-8 1/4"S2C-201 11'-9"C-202 11'-9"B-104 10'-8 1/4"X-301 5'-8 1/4"S3C-203 10'-1 1/2"B-105 8'-0"B-106 8'-0"B-107 7'-6 1/2"X-302 5'-8 1/4"S4X-303 4'-6"X-304 3'-8 3/4"DROP 31'-8"10 sticks not purchased

Same 14 W12X26 parts. Same 40 ft sticks. Illustrative demo set; your yield depends on your cut list.

$49.99 per year, one machine. Trial first if you want to see it on your own takeoff.

30-day money-back on your first year. Cancel any time. License verifies offline.

Buy Forge — $49.99Start 14-day trial