A new vibration mechanism of balancing machine for satellite-borne spinning rotors

Abstract The centrifugal force and overturning moment generated by satellite-borne rotating payload have a significant impact on the stability of on-orbit satellite attitude, which must be controlled to the qualified range. For the satellite-borne rotors’ low working revs and large centroidal deviation and height, and that the horizontal vibration produced by centrifugal force is not of the same magnitude as the torsional vibration by overturning moment, the balancing machine’s measurement accuracy is low. Analysis shows that the mixture of horizontal vibration and torsional vibration of the vibrational mechanism contribute mainly to the machine’s performance, as well as the instability of vibration center position. A vibrational mechanism was put forward, in which the horizontal and torsional vibration get separated effectively by way of fixing the vibration center. From experimental results, the separation between the weak centrifugal force signal and the strong moment signal was realized, errors caused by unstable vibration center are avoided, and the balancing machine based on this vibration structure is able to meet the requirements of dynamic balancing for the satellite’s rotating payloads in terms of accuracy and stability.