MINLP formulations for solving strip packing problems in LCD mother glass production

Mother glass production for liquid crystal displays involves the cutting of small rectangles from a large rectangle (strip) to minimize the length of the strip used. This is called the strip packing problem. The main concept for formulating this problem is to generate cutting patterns that can be used to produce items from the strip. This problem is a non-convex mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problem due to the bilinear terms in the demand and objective function. To obtain global optimal solutions, this problem should be transformed into several linear forms. Numerical examples based on the strip packing problem in LCD mother glass production are provided. Different objective functions for two problems are presented and compared.

► We formulate the original model which is a non-convex MINLP. ► We transform the non-convex MINLP into MILP and convex MINLP. ► The two-step formulation can solve the 2SP in given computational time.