Vibration Control for Precision Manufacturing Using Piezoelectric Actuators

Piezoelectric actuators provide high frequency, force and stiffness capabilities along with reasonable stroke limits, all of which can be used to increase performance levels in precision manufacturing systems. This paper describes two examples of embedding piezoelectric actuators in structural components for vibration control. One example involves suppressing the self-excited chatter phenomenon in the metal cutting process of a milling machine and the other involves damping vibrations induced by rigid body stepping of a photolithography platen. Finite element modeling and analyses are essential for locating and sizing the actuators and permit further simulation studies of the response of the dynamic system. Experimental results are given for embedding piezoelectric actuators in a cantilevered bar configuration, which was used as a surrogate machine tool structure. These results are incorporated into a previously developed milling process simulation and the effect of the control on the cutting process stability diagram is quantified. Experimental results are also given for embedding three piezoelectric actuators in a surrogate photolithography platen to suppress vibrations. These results demonstrate the potential benefit that can be realized by applying advances from the field of adaptive structures to problems in precision manufacturing.