Numerical controller of laser beam machine

A numerical controller of a laser beam machine, comprising:

• a storage unit that stores a machining program, wherein
• blocks constituting the machining program are sequentially read from the machining program stored in the storage unit, an operation of a nozzle of the laser beam machine is controlled based on a command specified by the read block, and retreat control of the nozzle from a workpiece surface or return control thereof to the workpiece surface is automatically carried out by a positioning command specified by the block during gap control of the nozzle, the numerical controller further comprising:
• a look-ahead unit that looks ahead to a next block of the block currently being executed from the machining program during positioning operation control of the nozzle;
• and
• a positioning movement controlling unit that controls the movement of the nozzle based on a type of the command specified by the next block looked ahead to by the look-ahead unit, wherein
• the positioning movement controlling unit continues movement control of a contouring control axis while retaining the nozzle in retreat when the next block is the positioning command, and carries out the return control of the nozzle to the workpiece surface when the next block is other than the positioning command, and
• the positioning movement controlling unit continues the movement control of the contouring control axis while retaining the nozzle in retreat when the next block is not the positioning command and the next block is not accompanied by laser beam machining.