Can mode coupling chatter happen in milling?

In milling, two different self-excited vibrations have been reported; regenerative and mode coupling chatter. The regenerative chatter mechanism has been extensively studied and validated with tests whereas mode coupling chatter mechanism was reported a long time ago for threading operations. The presented mode coupling chatter models were based only on current vibrations of the system but not on the delayed vibrations. With the increase in the research carried out on robotic milling operations, the low frequency severe self-excited vibrations at high spindle speeds were claimed to be mode coupling chatter by many researchers. However, the justification of mode coupling chatter mechanism is absent from predicted stability boundaries and a strong evidence distinguishing it from regenerative chatter mechanism is not present. Additionally, mode coupling chatter models applied to milling was based on threading operations and hence they were not capturing the characteristics of intermittent milling process. Therefore, this paper focuses on the diagnosis of mode coupling chatter in robotic milling. Mode coupling chatter principles are applied to milling process considering its intermittent characteristics. The zeroth order approximation for mode coupling chatter mechanism is adapted for milling and extended to multi frequency approximation. Mode coupling chatter stability boundaries are calculated, explored with tests and compared with regenerative chatter stability boundaries. Results show that mode coupling chatter stability boundaries are very low and vaguely dependent on the spindle speed. This contradicts the stability observed in the experimental tests. Hence, it is concluded that mode coupling chatter in milling is not possible, because the assumption of the chip thickness depending only on current vibrations does not apply to milling operations. The novelty of the presented paper is the theoretical and experimental justification that mode coupling chatter is not possible in milling operations.