Amplified Piezo Actuator APA® with viscoelastic material for machine tool semi-active damping system

Modern machine tools must achieve a high precision for a better surface texture and higher flexibility for wide range of machining requirements. To fulfill these requirements, a semi-active damping system for a new generation of machine tools is proposed. The new concept is partially based on the Amplified Piezo Actuators APA® from CEDRAT Technologies. With these actuators, the dynamic behavior (stiffness and damping) of structural body components of machine tools can be controlled and adjusted to the optimum parameters. To reduce the transfer of vibrations through the active elements, a viscoelastic material was used. This article presents test results performed on the APA® with viscoelastic material. A significant reduction of the vibrational amplitude at resonance frequency was observed with additional material. The optimized quantity of viscoelastic material reduces the full stroke of the actuator only by 10 percent. At the same time, the viscoelastic material has red the tests performed on the machine tool showed significant surface texture improvement with use of the amplified piezoelectric actuator.