Chatter can destroy a cutting tool or spoil a surface.
If the work piece is a precision-machined part such as an aircraft engine, the damage can be unacceptably costly. More often though, operators of today's high capacity milling machines avoid chatter altogether by running their machines at conservatively slow tool speeds and shallow cuts. Its developers say the SSU could enable machinists to operate their machines closer to their design capacities, possibly shaving minutes or hours off the milling of each metal part and dollars off production costs. It might drive down the cost of metal removal significantly. The work was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and led by Lockheed Martin.