The Damping Effect of Particle-Filled Hollow Sphere Structures and their Application in Machine Tool Components

High speed feed axes are a key for increasing the productivity of machine tools. It requires high acceleration and causes jerk, which excites the machine structure and negatively affects the process quality. One approach to reduce those machine vibrations are passive dampers such as particle-filled hollow spheres (PHS). PHSs dissipate vibration energy through relative motion and friction between particles among themselves and the sphere. Compounds of PHS as core of sandwich materials allow structure-integrated damping of machine tool components and for maintaining a high specific stiffness at the same time. The complex interactions within each sphere lead to nonlinear damping. As of today, precise predictions on how PHSs influence the overall machine behavior are not possible. This prognosis is essential for establishing the material in any machine structure. The paper investigates the damping properties of PHSs in a spindle box of a machine tool. The experimental and numeric analysis demonstrates the nonlinear behavior and shows the reaction of the spindle box under external excitation. The result shows that the damping of the spindle box with PHSs is frequency and amplitude dependent. The damping of PHSs is domain with increased parts of them deformed during vibration.