Design and Optimization of a Cross-Beam Force Transducer for a Stationary Dynamometer for Measuring Milling Cutting Force

This paper’s objective is to design and optimize a force transducer to build a stationary dynamometer that can measure three axes of milling cutting force. To reduce interference error and increase sensitivity, the force transducer's Maltese cross-beam design was optimized. The force transducer's performance depends on three design parameters: the cross-rectangular beam's through-hole length and width, the compliant plate thickness, and the strain, stress, and stiffness of force transducer constructions calculated by ANSYS. The response surface method (RSM) estimates a desired second-order polynomial function for three geometric parameters based on sensitivity, interference error, safety factor, and stiffness. A stationary dynamometer prototype was made with four optimized force transducers and several piezoresistive strain sensors. The developed dynamometer has good linearity, repeatability, and hysteresis, as well as high sensitivities and low cross-sensitivity errors. The reference dynamometer's cutting force measurements were very close to those of the designed dynamometer in the validation test.