Hardware-in-the-loop simulator for stability study in orthogonal cutting

•A complete development of a hardware-in-the-loop mechatronic simulator is presented for reproducing the equivalent behaviour of real turning processes.•A novel structure based on a flexure with eddy currents damper is presented. The flexure offers very high linearity, which is very interesting for posterior simulations.•Dimensionless approximation is employed in order to get the equivalence with real processes.•The delay presented of the system is compensated and the required relative damping is implemented by means of a novel method.•The successful simulation results of HIL for a particular turning case extracted from literature are presented.

The self-excited vibrations due to the regenerative effect, commonly known as chatter, are one of the major problems in machining processes. They cause a reduction in the surface quality and in the lifetime of mechanical elements including cutting tools. Furthermore, the experimental investigations of chatter suppression techniques are difficult in a real machining environment, due to repeatability problems of hard to control parameters like tool wear or position dependent dynamic flexibility. In this work, a mechatronic hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulator based on a flexible structure is proposed for dimensionless study of chatter in orthogonal cutting. Such system reproduces experimentally, on a simple linear mechanical structure in the laboratory, any stability situation which can be used to test and optimise active control devices. For this purpose, a dimensionless formulation is adopted and the delay related to the phase lag of the actuator and the controller employed on the HIL is compensated.