Investigations into Machine Tool Chatter

Abhijit Ganguli *

Active Structures Lab, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics,

Université Libre De Bruxelles, Av. F.D. Roosevelt 50,
C.P 165/42,1050 Bruxelles, Belgium.

Chatter is the result of self-excited vibrations in machine tools and leads to precision errors,
poor quality of surface finish in the work piece and possible damage to the machine tool
system. The presentation deals with the phenomenon of regenerative chatter. It is known, that
chatter sets in if the width of cut (also known as the width of chip) becomes too large in
comparison to the dynamic stiffness of the machine. The present study tries to modelise
chatter dynamics using the following parameters- κ , which is the ratio of the cutting stiffness
of the machine and its static stiffness and the spindle speed N. The cutting stiffness is directly
proportional to the width of cut. The stability lobes diagram provides a plot of the limiting
value of κ as function of the spindle speed of the machine.

The most important observation made is that the limiting value of κ increases with the
increase in the damping of the system. It is further found mathematically that the minimum
value of κ is the same irrespective of the spindle speed and directly proportional to the
damping ratio ξ. This observation is the motivation behind the development of active
control methods to increase the damping of the system and thus enhance the overall
performance of the machine. This is the basic objective of the SMARTOOL project with
which the presented work is associated. A new solution technique, called the Root Locus
Method is applied for solving the eigenvalue problem for chatter. The examples deal with
turning machines (lathes), which are single input and single output systems. The stability
lobes match quite well with the results obtained by the well-established Altintas Method. The
idea is to apply this technique to more complicated systems involving multiple inputs and
outputs, such as milling machines.

Spindle

*
E-mail address: aganguli@ulb.ac.be