Cutting position adjustment for cutting head

An apparatus for identifying cut path locations for a laser cutting machine, the apparatus comprising:

• a display providing a user interface for displaying a pattern of a plurality of objects to be cut by the laser cutting machine from a web of material;
• and
• a processor executing instructions to perform steps, the steps comprising:
• offsetting each object in the pattern to form start locations for each cut path of each object wherein all of the start locations of each object are in a field of view of a galvo of the laser cutting machine;
• determining a final maximum speed for the web of material by determining a maximum speed for each object, each object's maximum speed being determined by iteratively attempting to increase an iterative maximum speed for each object, such that for each attempted increase in the iterative maximum speed, the processor determines whether to alter the start location of a cut of an initial object to ensure that the galvo has enough time to cut a preceding object that precedes the initial object and enough time to retract to the start location of the initial object, such iteration and determination being repeated for each subsequent object to be cut to determine maximum speed and start location for each subsequent object, the iterations being used to determine the final maximum speed for the web of material and final start locations for the cut paths for each object;
• and storing in memory the final maximum speed and the final start locations for each object.

A laser cutting machine comprising:

• at least one galvo having a galvo field of view in which the galvo can cut a material moving with a speed past the galvo;
• a display providing an image of at least one pattern to be cut from a material, the pattern comprising of a plurality of objects with each object having a position on the material and each object comprising at least one cut;
• and an optimizer, receiving the position on the material of each object of the pattern and assigning a start locations for each cut of each object and a trigger distance for each object, each start location representing a location of a cut path in the galvo field of view when cutting of the each object is to begin and the trigger distance of a current object representing a distance the material moves between when cutting begins for a preceding object and cutting begins for the current object, wherein the optimizer assigns the start locations and the trigger distances to maximize the speed at which the material moves past the galvo while ensuring that each object is cut by the galvo at each object's respective position on the material at a maximum speed by determining a total cut time and retract time for cutting all of the objects and retracting between the objects;
• determining a total cut distance and retract distance by multiplying the speed by the total cut time and retract time;
• and determining if the total cut distance and retract distance is greater than a repeat distance for a pattern.