Abstract
Spindle vibration of machine tools causes premature tool wear and deterioration of machining accuracy. The vibration of machine tool spindles changes depending on a used tooling system and rotational speed during various machining operations. Especially, in high speed machining, even small unbalance mass of the spindle makes large whirl. However, a real-time balancing mechanism for a machine tool spindle including a tooling system has never realized successfully. In this study, in order to reduce unbalance response of the spindle to achieve high accuracy and efficiency machining, a smart spindle with a real-time balancing mechanism using magnetic fluid is proposed. The magnetic fluid is enclosed inside the spindle, and the distribution of the circumferential mass is actively controlled. A test spindle with the real-time balancing mechanism was designed and developed in order to evaluate the control method of the magnetic fluid experimentally and to accumulate adequate information for the basic design of a machine tool spindle. The experimental results presented in this paper proved the feasibility of the proposed real-time balancing mechanism for a machine tool spindle.
