Effect of Bearing Surroundings on the High-Speed Spindle-Bearing Compliance

This paper investigates the effect of bearing assembly tolerance on spindle-bearing compliance. In a high-speed spindle system, the bearing characteristics are influenced significantly by the initial assembly tolerances and the thermal deformation of the bearing surroundings. In the very early stage of spindle operation, spindle bearings could be under hazardous conditions owing to the rapid change of the internal pressure resulting from thermal deformation or centrifugal force-oriented deformation. The bearing’s internal clearance also may be changed by the operating conditions such as external load, rotational speed, and operating cycle time. To determine the initial tolerance and the optimal cooling regimen, a comprehensive dynamic modelling and analysis of a high-speed spindle system in terms of bearing pressure, bearing compliance, and heat generation is required with consideration of those effects. Moreover, in order to predict spindle characteristics in operation, all of these parameters should be monitored and recalculated in real-time. For this purpose, very simple and effective equations are suggested, representing the bearing stiffness in accordance with the thermal deformation. Most former bearing analyses were based on the Hertzian contact model, without considering the radial elastic defor-mation of the races. In this paper, analytical and experimental investigations of the bearing compliance are conducted with consideration of both the elastic deformation of the race and the thermal deformation of the housing in terms of the bearing stiffness. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed equations, which are simple and useful for fast calculation of the bearing stiffness by dynamic simulation.