Chatter Identification of Three-Dimensional Elliptical vibration Cutting Process Based on Empirical Mode Decomposition and Feature Extraction

Three-dimensional elliptical vibration cutting (3D-EVC) is one of the machining methods with the most potential in ultra-precision machining; its unique characteristics of intermittent cutting, friction reversal, and ease of chip removal can improve the machinability of materials in the cutting processes. However, there is still not much research about the chattering phenomenon in the 3D-EVC process. Therefore, based on the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) technique and feature extraction, a chatter identification method for 3D-EVC is proposed. In 3D-EVC operations, the vibration signal is collected by the displacement sensors and converted to frequency domain signal by fast Fourier transform (FFT). To identify tool cutting state using the vibration frequency signal, the vibration signals are decomposed using empirical mode decomposition (EMD), a series of intrinsic mode functions (IMFs), so the instantaneous frequency can be reflected by the vibration signals at any point. Then, selecting the primary IMFs which contain rich chatter information as the object in feature extraction identification, and two identification indexes, that is, the mean square frequency and self-correlation coefficient, are calculated for the primary IMFs by MATLAB software, to judge the chatter phenomenon. The experimental results showed that the mean square frequency and self-correlation coefficient of the three cutting states increase with the increase in the instability of the cutting state. The effectiveness of the improved chatter recognition method in 3D-EVC machining is verified.