Design and development of a novel tunable electrorheological fluid (ERF) damper-foundation to attenuate residual vibrations in machine tools

Residual vibrations in machine tools hamper accuracy and productivity. The attenuation of residual vibrations has been an industrial concern for decades. Meanwhile, the residual vibrations' vibration pattern reveals that the support foundation's damping capabilities predominantly influence them. Therefore, inserting dampers in any other location on a machine tool (such as a machine column) is ineffective. Hence, the scope of inserting the damper into the machine foundation needs to be verified. However, conventional machine mounting systems (concrete foundation and rubber mounts) equally respond to all variable inputs. Both these flocks resulted in inadequate dampening and perhaps poor accuracy. This paper provides a first-generation model of a semiactive-viscous damper (ERF damper-foundation) with tunable damping facilitating machine installation. Controlled experimentation by exposing the developed damper foundation to excitations of medium duty lathe machine confirms its effectiveness and obtains over 48% attenuation compared to a conventional concrete foundation.