Vibrations characterization in milling of low stiffness parts with a rubber-based vacuum fixture

Fixtures are a critical element in machining operations as they are the interface between the part and the machine. These components are responsible for the precise part location on the machine table and for the proper dynamic stability maintenance during the manufacturing operations. Although these two features are deeply related, they are usually studied separately. On the one hand, diverse adaptable solutions have been developed for the clamping of different variable geometries. Parallelly, the stability of the part has been long studied to reduce the forced vibration and the chatter effects, especially on thin parts machining operations typically performed in the aeronautic field, such as the skin panels milling. The present work proposes a commitment between both features by the presentation of an innovative vacuum fixture based on the use of a vulcanized rubber layer. This solution presents high flexibility as it can be adapted to different geometries while providing a proper damping capacity due to the viscoelastic and elastoplastic behaviour of these compounds. Moreover, the sealing properties of these elastomers provide the perfect combination to transform a rubber layer into a flexible vacuum table. Therefore, in order to validate the suitability of this fixture, a test bench is manufactured and tested under uniaxial compression loads and under real finish milling conditions over AA2024 part samples. Finally, a roughness model is proposed and analysed in order to characterize the part vibration sources.