Abstract
A water drive spindle for diamond turning machines is proposed. The spindle uses water flow for driving the rotor by a water drive motor, for supporting the rotor by water hydrostatic pressure bearings, as well as for coolant. As water is not only incompressible and clean but also low viscosity fluid, it is considered that a high-speed and precise rotational motion will be possible in the clean environments for the precision machining. The present paper reports a structure of the spindle as well as the operational principle of the spindle. In the present paper, theoretical equations used for designing the spindle is derived. The characteristics of the spindle are studied theoretically and experimentally. A result of the diamond turning test using the developed water drive spindle is also presented.
