Actuator design for vibration assisted machining of high performance materials with ultrasonically modulated cutting speed

In vibration assisted machining, an additional high-frequency oscillation is superimposed on the kinematics of the conventional machining process. This generates oscillations on the cutting edge in the range of a few micrometers, thereby causing a high-frequency change in the cutting speed or the feed. Consequently, a reduction of cutting forces, an increase of the tool life as well as an improvement of the workpiece quality can be achieved. In milling and grinding it has been shown that these effects are already partially present in the case of a vibration excitation in axial direction relative to the workpiece, which is perpendicular to the cutting direction. Further improvements of the process results can be achieved by superimposing a vibration in cutting direction and thus modifying the cutting speed at high frequency. The presented work shows the design of an ultrasonic actuator that enables vibration-assisted milling and grinding with ultrasonically modulated cutting speed. The actuator system superimposes a longitudinal torsional ultrasonic oscillation to the milling or grinding tool. It uses a bolt clamped Langevin transducer and a helically slotted horn, which degenerates the longitudinal vibration into a combined longitudinal torsional (L-T) vibration at the output surface. A finite element analysis is used to determine the vibration resonance frequency and mode shapes to maximize the torsional output. Afterwards, the simulation has been experimentally validated.