Virtual Prototyping of a Compliant Spindle for Robotic Deburring

At the current state-of-the-art, Robotic Deburring (RD) has been successfully adopted in many industrial applications, but it still needs improvements in terms of final quality. In fact, the effectiveness of a RD process is highly influenced by the limited accuracyof the robot motions and by the unpredictable variety of burr size/shape. Tool compliance partially solves the problem, although dedicated engineering design tools are strictly needed, in order to identify those optimized parameters and RD strategies that allow achieving the best quality and cost-effectiveness. In this context, the present paper proposes a CAD-based Virtual Prototype (VP) of a pneumatic compliant spindle, suitable to assess the process efficiency in different case scenarios. The proposed VP is created by integrating a 3D multi-body model of the spindle mechanical structure with the behavioural model of the process forces, as adapted from previous literature. Numerical simulations are provided, concerning the prediction of both cutting forces and surface finishing accuracy.