Robust chatter stability in micro-milling operations

Micro-milling utilizes miniature end mills to fabricate complex shapes at high rotational speeds. One of the challenges in micro-machining is regenerative chatter, which results in severe tool wear and reduced part quality. The high rotational speeds of micro-milling cause changes in dynamics; and, the elasto-plastic nature of micro-machining operations results in changes to the cutting coefficients. Variations in dynamics and cutting coefficients affect the stability lobes. The tool tip dynamics can be indirectly obtained through mathematical coupling of substructures using the receptance coupling method. The effect of process damping is also considered. The robust chatter stability theorem, which is based on the edge theorem, is employed to provide the robust stability within the minimum and maximum boundaries of changing parameters.