Influence of feed drives on the structural dynamics of large-scale machine tools

Milling is one of the most widely used processes in the manufacturing industry and demands machines with high productivity rates. In large machine tool applications, the cutting capability is mainly limited by the appearance of structural chatter vibrations. Chatter arises from the dynamic interaction of the machining system compliance with the cutting process. For the specific case of large-scale machine tools, the low frequency resonances have modal shapes that generate relative displacements in the machine joints. This thesis presents new approaches to minimize the appearance of chatter vibrations by targeting and understanding the machine tool compliance, in particular, from the feed drive of the machine tool. A detailed model of the double pinion and rack feed drive system and the master-slave coupling improves the large machine tools modeling. As the vibrations are measured by the axes feedback sensors, a new strategy for feed drive controller tuning allows increasing the chatter stability using a judicious selection of the servo parameters. Then, in-motion dynamic characterizations demonstrate the important influence of the nonlinear friction on the machine compliance and improve the chatter stability predictions. Finally, an operational method for characterizing both tool and workpiece side dynamics while performing a cutting operation is developed. All the contributions of the thesis have been validated experimentally and tend to consider the influence of the feed drives on the structural dynamics of large-scale machine tools