This paper presents the effects of bearing locations on the mechanical characteristics of a multi-stepped spindle system related to bearing fatigue life, natural frequency, and static stiffness. The multi-stepped spindle is supported by a pair of tapered roller bearings (TRBs) and subjected to radial loading. To solve the equilibrium equation of the spindle system which is inherently statically-indeterminate, this study adopts an integrated shaft-bearing model, where the spindle is modelled by the finite shaft elements and the supporting TRBs are modelled by the five degrees-of-freedom TRB model developed by the authors. An iterative computational method is used to estimate the spindle deflection coupled with bearing deflections, and afterwards the bearing stiffness and internal contact loads of rolling elements are computed. The bearing fatigue life based on the ISO standard and the first natural frequency of the spindle system are evaluated with the spindle-bearing model. The influences of bearing locations on the static stiffness and natural frequency of the spindle, and the fatigue life of TRBs are rigorously investigated. The numerical results show the noticeable effects of bearing locations on the spindle system characteristics. The presented results provide a comprehensive assessment to aid for design optimization of spindle-TRB system.

Various types of 5-axis machine tools have been developed. In the case of a machine tool composed from linear motion, the kinematic equation can be obtained easily and intuitively. However, machine tools with more than four axes, including rotating axes, have generally performed kinematic and dynamic performance analyses using mathematical methods. In this paper, the kinematic equations of various types of machine tools are obtained, based on the Homogeneous Transformation Matrix method. The loop stiffness was then calculated as a mathematical model. A mathematical model of loop stiffness was verified by using a method to calculate the loop stiffness of a commercial program. The results of the mathematical model showed less than a 1% error with the commercial program, and this could show the validity of the mathematical model. Then, this model was applied to two types of machine tools. The minimum loop stiffness of both models is compared.

In this paper, a simulation based estimation method of energy consumption of the spindle and feed drives for the NC machine tool during the cutting process is proposed. To predict energy consumption of the feed drive system, position, velocity, acceleration and jerk of the table are analyzed based on NC data and then the power and energy are calculated considering friction force and mass of the stages. Energy consumption of the spindle is estimated based on models from acceleration motion of rotating parts, friction torque and power loss of motors. Moreover, simulation models of cutting power and energy for the material removal along the NC tool paths are proposed.

The error motion of a machine tool spindle directly affects the surface errors of machined parts. Those are usually due to the imperfectness of bearings, stiffness of spindle, assembly errors, external force or unbalance of rotors. The error motions of the spindle have been needed to be decreased to desired goal of spindle"s performance. The level of error motion is needed to be estimated during the design and assembly process of the spindle. In this paper, the estimation method for the five degree of freedom (5 D.O.F) error motions for rotary units such as a spindle and rotary table are suggested. To estimate the error motions of the rotary unit, waviness of bearings and external force model were used as input data. The estimation model considers geometric relationship and force equilibrium of the five degree of the freedom motions.

It is an important thing for a designer to simulate and predict the performance of a spindle and a rotary table. In addition to the general performance such as static stiffness, the error motion performance information is beneficial to the designer in many cases. However for an aerostatic bearing the fluid film physical status should be calculated in order to simulate those performances and the calculation time is another obstacle for a simple performance simulation. In this paper the investigation on experiment and simulation is performed in order to find a more effective simulation method for the rotational error motion.

This paper deals with thermal characteristic analysis of induction motors for machine tool spindle for motion error prediction. Firstly, the inverse design of general induction motors for machine tool spindle has been performed by design principles. Characteristics considering VVVF inverter of induction motors were analyzed. Secondary, power loss and thermal characteristics of induction motors analyzed by equivalent thermal resistance model from Motor-CAD S/W. To develop a second-order fitted power-loss distribution model for the constant-torque operating range of the induction motor, we employed the design of experiment and response surface methodology techniques. Finally, the analysis results were experimentally verified, and the validity of the proposed analysis method was confirmed.

Ball and roller bearings are commonly used machine elements for supporting rotating motion about shafts in simple devices including bicycles, in-line skates, and electric motors, as well as in complex machines. Heat is generated by the friction in the bearings, which causes the temperature inside the bearing to increase. If the heat is not appropriately removed from the bearing, elevated temperatures may give rise to premature failure. It is, therefore, important to be able to calculate the temperature in the bearings due to friction. Here, we describe a method to estimate the frictional torque in bearings using an empirical formula developed using a method based on bearing analysis tool and the measured frictional torque in a spindle system. Thermal analysis of the spindle system including the bearings was achieved using the finite element method (FEM), and the bearing temperature was compared with measured data to verify the empirical formula.

We report an ultra-precision lathe designed to machine micron-scale features on a large-area roll mold. The lathe can machine rolls up to 600 ㎜ in diameter and 2,500 ㎜ in length. All axes use hydrostatic oil bearings to exploit the high-precision, stiffness, and damping characteristics. The headstock spindle and rotary tooling table are driven by frameless direct drive motors, while coreless linear motors are used for the two linear axes. Finite element method modeling reveals that the effects of structural deformation on the machining accuracy are less than 1 ㎛. The results of thermal testing show that the maximum temperature rise at the spindle outer surface is approximately 0.5 °C. Finally, performance evaluations of the error motion, micro-positioning capability, and fine-pitch machining demonstrate that the lathe is capable of producing opticalquality surfaces with micron-scale patterns with feature sizes as small as 20 ㎛ on a large-area roll mold.

In this paper, main mechanism and measurement method of energy consumption for machine tools are investigated by experiment and simulation. To evaluate total energy consumption of the machine tools, standard test workpiece and measuring method and test procedures are suggested. And, improvement of energy consumption evaluation by the motion kinematics theory is used. In addition, to estimate energy consumption of machine tools in design process, mass distribution of the structure and 5 axis motions are investigated and simulated by numerical analysis.

This paper describes a novel method to surface large optics mirror with an extremely high hardness, which could replace the high cost of the repetitive off-line measurement steps and the large ultraprecision grinding machine with ultra-positioning control of 10 nm resolution. A lot of diamond pellet to be attached on the convex aluminum base consists of a grinding tool for the concave large mirror, and the tool was pressured down on the large mirror blank. The tool motion at an interval on the spiral path was controlled with each feed rate as the dwell time in the conventional computer-controlled polishing. The shape to be surfaced was measured directly by a touch probe on the machine without any separation of the mirror blank. Total 40 iterative steps of the surfacing and measurement could demonstrate the form error of RMS 7.8 μm, surface roughness of Ra 0.2 μm for the mirror blank with diameter of 1 m and spherical radius of curvature of 5400 mm.

This paper presents an estimation procedure for axial displacement in spindle equipped with angular contact ball bearings due to rotational speed. High-speed spindle-bearing system experiences axial displacement due to thermal expansion and rotational speed-dependent characteristics of angular contact ball bearings. This paper deals with the axial displacement caused by the rotational speed-dependent effects such as centrifugal force and gyroscopic moments. To this end, a bearing dynamic model is established that includes all the static and dynamic properties of angular contact ball bearing. An analytical formula to calculate the axial displacement based on contact angles between ball and races is derived to discuss the physics regarding the axial displacement in spindle. The proposed dynamic model is compared with a reference and a commercial program. Numerical examples are presented to show the effects of centrifugal force and gyroscopic moment on the axial displacement. The proposed model is also validated with an experimental result.

The volumetric errors of CNC machining centers are determined by 21 errors, including 3 linear errors, 6 straightness errors, 3 perpendicular errors, 9 angular errors and non-rigid body errors of the machine tool. It is very time consuming and hard to measure all of these errors in which laser interferometer and other parts are used directly. Hence, as many as 21 separate setups and measurements are needed for the linear, straightness, angular and perpendicular errors. In case of the 5-axis machining centers, two more rotary tables are used. It can make 35 error sources of the movement. Therefore, the measured errors of multi movements of the 5-axis tables are very complicated, even if the relative measured errors are measured. This paper describes the methods, those analyze the error sources of the machining centers. Those are based on shifted diagonal measurements method (SDM), R-test and Double ball bar. In case, the angular errors of machine are small enough comparing with others, twelve errors including three linear position errors, six straightness errors and three perpendicular errors can be calculated by using SDM. To confirm the proposed method, SDM was applied to measuring 3 axes of machine tools and compared with directly measurement of each errors. In addition, the methods for measuring relative errors of multi-axis analysis methods using R-test and Double Ball Bar are introduced in this paper.

The large surface micro machining system includes the equipments and processes for manufacturing the ultra precision micro patterned products with large surface through the mechanical machining. Recent major issue on the micro machining technology may be the development of optical parts for the back light unit of display which has the largest market. This special issue makes up with three parts; the large surface micro machining system and machine, machining process and forming process. In this paper, the state-of-the-art and core technology of large surface micro machining system is introduced with focus on the manufacturing technology for the back light unit of LCD TV. Then, some research results on the development of a roll die lathe is introduced which involves the concept of machine design, improvement of thermal characteristics in the spindle system, improvement of relative parallelism and straightness between spindle system and long stroke feed table, machining of micro pitch patterns. Finally, the direct forming process is introduced as the future work in the large surface micro machining field.

Authors are carrying out a national project which develops an accuracy simulation technology of mechanical machines to predict the stiffness and accuracy of machine components or entire machine in the design stage. Analysis methods in this technology are generalized to achieve the wide applicability and to be utilized as a web based platform type. In this paper, outline of the project such as concept, aim and configuration is introduced. Contents of the research are also introduced, which are composed of four main research fields; structural dynamics, linear motion analysis, rotary motion analysis and control and vibration analysis. Finally, a future plan is presented which is made up with three stages for the advance toward an ultimate manufacturing tools.

The error motion of a machine tool spindle directly affects the surface errors of machined parts. The error motions of the spindle are not desired errors in the three linear direction motions and two rotating motions. Those are usually due to the imperfect of bearings, stiffness of spindle, assembly errors, external force or unbalance of rotors. The error motions of the spindle have been needed to be decreased to desired goal of spindle’s performance. The level of error motion is needed to be estimated during the design and assembly process of the spindle. In this paper, the estimation method for the five degree of freedom (5 D.O.F) error motions of the spindle is suggested. To estimate the error motions of the spindle, waviness of shaft and bearings, external force model was used as input data. And, the estimation models are considering geometric relationship and force equilibrium of the five degree of the freedom. To calculate error motions of the spindle, not only imperfection of the shaft, bearings, such as rolling element bearing, hydrostatic bearing, and aerostatic bearing, but also driving elements such as worm, pulley, and direct driving motor systems, were considered.