Automated machine tool dynamics identification for predicting milling stability charts in industrial applications

Abstract As the machine tool dynamics at the tooltip is a crucial input for chatter prediction, obtaining these dynamics for industrial applications is neither feasible through experimental impact testing for numerous tool-holder-spindle combinations nor feasible through physics-based modeling of the entire machine tool due to their sophisticated complexities and calibrations. Hence, the often-chosen path is a mathematical coupling of experimentally measured machine tool dynamics to model-predicted tool-holder dynamics. This paper introduces a novel measurement device for the experimental characterization of machine tool dynamics. The device can be simply mounted to the spindle flange to automatically capture the corresponding dynamics at the machine tool side, eliminating the need for expertise and time-consuming setup efforts thus presenting a viable solution for industries. The effectiveness of this method is evaluated against conventional spindle receptance measurement attempts using impact tests. The obtained results are further validated in the prediction of tooltip dynamics and stability boundaries.