Chatter prediction of end milling in a vertical machining center

The development of a high-speed and high-precision vertical machining center had been executed as a national project in Korea. In the machining center, the phenomenon of chatter vibration was an important factor, and should be examined for developing it by a relevant way. In a high-speed and high-precision vertical machining center, in order to observe and predict the chatter vibration, firstly, modal testing was performed to obtain modal parameters of the system. Secondly, in order to predict the cutting forces for end-milling process under various cutting conditions, a simplified model was presented. Finally, the chatter prediction for the vertical machining center was formulated as linear differential-difference equations, and verified by the cutting tests. The method in this work will provide an engineer who designs a machining center with a tool to predict the chatter phenomenon. (C) 2001 Academic Press.