Chatter prevention and improved finish of workpiece for a milling process

Abstract

This paper presents how real-time chatter prevention can be realized by feedback of an acoustic cutting signal. The efficacy of the proposed adaptive spindle speed tuning algorithm is verified by intensive experimental simulations. A pair of microphones, perpendicular to each other, is used to acquire the acoustic cutting signal resulting from milling chatter. A real-time feedback control loop is constructed for spindle speed compensation in such a way to ensure that the milling process is within the stability zone of the stability lobe diagram. The acoustic chatter signal index (ACSI) and the spindle speed compensation strategy (SSCS) are proposed to quantify the acoustic signal and actively to tune the spindle speed respectively. By converting the acoustic feedback signal into the ACSI, an appropriate spindle speed compensation rate (SSCR) can be determined by the SSCS based on a real-time chatter level or the ACSI. Accordingly, the compensation command, referred to as added-on voltage (AOV), is applied to increase/decrease the spindle motor speed. By employing the commercial software MATLAB/Simulink and the dSpace DS1104 interface module to implement the controller, the proposed chatter prevention algorithm is practically verified by intensive experiments. By inspection on the precision and quality of the workpiece surface after milling, the efficacy of the real-time chatter prevention strategy via acoustic signal feedback is further assured.