One of the major limitations on productivity in metal cutting is chatter. Chatter is a form of unstable self-excited vibration which causes poor surface finish, as well as cutter and machine tool damage. The investigation of chatter suppression in milling using continuously variable spindle speed is presented in this thesis.

The fundamental mechanism in regenerative chatter is due to favorable phasing between the inner and outer modulations on the chip thickness. In this thesis, the spindle speed is sinusoidally varied to prevent the dynamic cutting process from locking on to a constant phase shift and causing unstable cutting, or chatter. Because of the non-linearities and complexities of the process, time domain simulation of the dynamic cutting process has been modelled. The influence of various parameters, such as axial depth of cut, process damping from flank interference, and amplitude and frequency of speed variation have been investigated using the simulation model. The trends predicted by simulation results have been experimentally verified using cutting tests on a milling machine.

It has been concluded from simulation and milling tests that a variable spindle speed can partially increase the chatter limit, but can never totally prevent chatter. The variable spindle speed strategy is incorporated into a proposed in-process chatter detection and avoidance algorithm. The milling process is monitored using the sound pressure signal measured by a microphone. When the amplitude of the sound spectrum near the natural frequency exceeds a threshold value, chatter has been detected and the spindle speed is oscillated until stabihty is regained. The proposed algorithm is implemented on line and experimental results are presented.