A Corrected Adaptive Balancing Approach of Motorized Spindle Considering Air Gap Unbalance

Motorized spindles widely used for high-speed precision machine tools are very sensitive to the mass unbalance of rotors; thus, their balancing problem is always a research hotspot. Although many significant studies were done regarding the theory and application of various rotor balancing technologies for motorized spindles, the particularity of motorized spindles is not carefully considered in the existing balancing approaches. When the rotor unbalance of a motorized spindle occurs in operation, it is subject to both the mass unbalance-induced inertia force and air gap unbalance-induced electromagnetic force, which is an important feature that distinguishes the motorized spindle from a mechanical spindle. This paper describes an investigation into the corrected adaptive balancing approach of a motorized spindle by newly introducing a coefficient representing the removing effect of the air gap unbalance of the motor on the balancing capacity into the balancing formula. The determination of the newly defined coefficient refers to the calculation of electromagnetic force caused by the dynamic air gap eccentricity of motor; thus, much attention is paid to the analytical derivation of the unbalanced magnetic pull (UMP). Finally, a motorized spindle with an electromagnetic ring balancer was developed; then, the balancing tests and vibration signal analysis were done to validate the effectiveness of the newly proposed balancing approach in residual vibration reduction. It can be seen from the test results under different cases that the proposed balancing approach is effective.