A branch&bound algorithm for solving one-dimensional cutting stock problems exactly

Many numerical computations reported in the literature show an only small diierence between the optimal value of the one-dimensional cutting stock problem (1CSP) and that of its corresponding linear programming relaxation. Moreover, theoretical investigations have proven that this difference is smaller than 2 for a wide range of subproblems of the general 1CSP. In this paper we give a branch&bound algorithm to compute optimal solutions for instances of the 1CSP. Numerical results are presented of about 900 randomly generated instances with up to 100 small pieces and all of them are solved to optimality.