International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 38 (1998) 10171030

Thermal characteristics of the spindle bearing system with a

gear located on the bearing span
Jin Kyung Choi, Dai Gil Lee
*
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, ME3221, Gusong-
dong, Yusong-gu, Taejon-shi, South Korea 305-701
Received 19 December 1996; in nal form 9 October 1997
Abstract
High cutting speeds and feeds are essential requirements of a machine tool structure to accomplish its
basic function which is to produce a workpiece of the required geometric form with an acceptable surface
nish at as high a rate of production as is economically possible. Since bearings in high speed spindle
units are the main heat source of total cutting system, in this work, the thermal characteristics of the spindle
bearing system with a tilting axis were investigated using nite element method to improve the performance
of the spindle bearing system. Based on the numerical results, a specially designed prototype spindle bearing
system was manufactured. Using the manufactured spindle bearing system, the thermal characteristics were
measured and compared to the numerical results. From the comparison of the numerical results with the
experimental results, it was found that the nite element method predicted well the thermal characteristics
of the spindle bearing system. 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Machine tools; Spindle system; Thermal characteristics; Angular contact ball bearing
1. Introduction
Recently in manufacturing elds, high-precision products as well as diversied small-quantity
production have been demanded, and the production technologies involved have constantly been
redeveloped to lower production costs. Hence there is a growing interest in shorter machining
times with increasing cutting speeds [1]. However, the spindle speed increase of machine tools
* Corresponding author.
0890-6955/98/$19.00 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S0890- 6955( 97) 00075- 8
1018 J.-K. Choi, D.G. Lee/ International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 38 (1998) 10171030
for productivity improvement also incurs adverse effects such as chattering, noise and heat gener-
ation of spindle bearing systems [2].
During high speed machining, the excessive temperature increase in the spindle induces dissimi-
lar thermal expansions between different machine elements, which causes friction and wear. Gen-
erally, the performance of machine tools is determined by the highest machining speed which is
limited by the temperature increase in the spindle bearing system. Therefore, the structural optim-
ization incorporating cooling and lubrication apparatuses to reduce heat generation of the spindle
is required.
Many studies on the thermal characteristics of spindle bearing systems have been performed
through experiments and analyses, some of which are listed here. Clarke et al. investigated theor-
etically thermal characteristics of the oat ring bearing by solving the Reynolds equation and the
energy equation for the lubricant lm thickness between the inner and outer surfaces [3]. Bergling
and Gunnar developed a program for the thermal and lubricant statuses of bearings operated under
adverse environments such as dry cleaning cylinders and paper manufacturing rollers [4]. Witig
et al. investigated the effect of high rotational speed on the characteristics of the heat transfer
and lubricant lm thickness of airplane engine bearings [5]. Dunnuck et al. used FEM model to
analyse the temperature distribution of train wheel roller bearings in steady state and investigated
the frictional heat loss of the bearings under various loads and speeds [6]. Lee et al. formed the
dynamic simulation model for a spindle bearing system and investigated the thermal behavior of
the spindle bearing system with the thermal closed-loop system in which the thermal deformation
and boundary condition of the spindle system were related [7].
For the temperature distribution of machine tools which employ special type bearings or cooling
jackets, the transient state as well as the steady state of the temperature distribution should be
investigated in order to obtain efcient cooling effects. Since the measurement of noise level of
machine tools to check the proper mounting of bearings or normal operation is complex because
of the noise superposition from different machine elements, the measurement of the temperature
increase of spindle bearings is more effective for the diagnosis of spindle bearing systems.
Recently, as complicated parts such as airplane frames, propellers and turbine blades have been
widely used, the ve-axis machining center equipped with a spindle tilting axis is increasingly
employed and consequently its design and performance prediction have become important.
In this paper, the thermal characteristics of the spindle bearing system with a gear located on
the bearing span for a tilting axis were investigated experimentally and numerically, using nite
element method (FEM).
2. Experimental set-up for the spindle bearing system
For the development of the spindle bearing system, the type of bearings and material for the
spindle should be selected rst. The bearing arrangement and the spindle shape are then determ-
ined for the optimum performance of the spindle bearing system.
In this work, the spindle bearing system for the ve-axis, 22 kW machining center was
designed. For the rst stage of development, the experimental set-up for the prototype spindle
bearing system as shown in Fig. 1 was designed and manufactured. The bearing mounting area
of the spindle was ground and then plated with chrome. The front bearings were mounted on the
1019 J.-K. Choi, D.G. Lee/ International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 38 (1998) 10171030
Fig. 1. Experimental set-up for the prototype spindle bearing system.
spindle with interference tolerance, while the rear bearings were mounted with clearance tolerance
to avoid the preload variation of the bearings due to temperature variation. Table 1 shows the
assembly tolerances and arithmetic average surface roughnesses for the spindle bearing system.
The angular contact ball bearings B70 series manufactured by FAG in Germany whose speci-
cations are shown in Table 2 were selected for spindle bearings.
For the high spindle stiffness, the front three bearings were mounted in TO arrangement
(complex arrangement) and the rear two bearings were arranged in O arrangement (back to back
arrangement). Since the rotational accuracy and bearing stiffness of angular contact ball bearings
are enhanced by preloading, the spindle bearings were preloaded by tightening the knuckle nuts.
The lower friction grease, Arcanol 174 for high speed machine tools manufactured by FAG in
Germany was used for bearing lubrication.
After assembling, the eccentric force of the spindle bearing systems was removed for the
Table 1
Fit tolerance and the arithmetical average roughnesses of the spindle
Spindle diameter (mm) 80 100
Tolerance (m) +3 +3
Circularity (m) 1.2 1.5
Arithmetical averageroughness; Ra (m) 2 2.5
Housing diamter (mm) 120 150
Tolerance (m) Clearance t +8 Interference t 3
1020 J.-K. Choi, D.G. Lee/ International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 38 (1998) 10171030
Table 2
Specications of the angular contact ball bearings (FAG, Germany)
Bearing type Inner diameter Dynamic load Static load rating Limit speed (rpm)
(mm) rating (kN) (kN)
Grease lubrication Oil-air lubrication
B7020C 100 75 68 7000 9500
B7016C 80 58.5 48 9000 13 000
rotational balance of the spindle shaft. Figure 2 shows the eccentric force of the spindle bearing
system after balancing with respect to the spindle rotational speed.
Figure 3 shows the photograph of the experimental set-up before assembling the power trans-
mission gears. This set-up was used to measure the thermal characteristics of the spindle bear-
ing system.
3. Measurement of the temperature increase of the spindle bearing system
Although angular contact ball bearings for spindles should be pre-loaded to increase the
rotational accuracy and stiffness of spindle bearing systems, excessive pre-loads often reduce the
machining accuracy and bearing life of the spindle bearing system due to frictional heat [8].
In this work, the J-type thermocouples, which can be used in 0 277C and composed of iron
() and constantan(+), were used to measure the heat generation of the spindle bearing system.
Fig. 2. Eccentric centrifugal force of the spindle with respect to rotational speed.
1021 J.-K. Choi, D.G. Lee/ International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 38 (1998) 10171030
Fig. 3. Experimental set-up for measuring thermal characteristics of the spindle bearing system.
The electromotive force of the thermocouples was amplied by the temperature sensing chip
(AQ594AQ, Analog Device) and the signal noises were removed by a low-pass lter. The ana-
logue data from the low-pass lter was converted into digital form by the A/D converter (PC-
Labcard) and was saved in a personal computer. Figure 4 shows the experimental set-up for
measuring the temperature of the spindle bearing system. Figure 5 shows the thermocouple
locations inserted in the holes drilled in the housing to measure the temperature increases at the
nearest point of bearings.
Figure 6 shows the temperature rise of the front bearing with respect to time at the spindle
rotational speed of 3500 rpm. In Fig. 6, the temperature of the front bearing increased at the early
stage and gradually saturated to the nal temperature when the amount of heat generation balanced
with the heat dissipation into the atmosphere. The rising time (t
s
) and the temperature increase
(T
s
) up to the saturation temperature are two important factors for the cooling conditions of
1022 J.-K. Choi, D.G. Lee/ International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 38 (1998) 10171030
Fig. 4. Experimental set-up for measuring the temperature of the spindle bearing system.
Fig. 5. Locations of the thermocouples for measuring the thermal increases of the spindle bearing system.
machine tools. It is benecial if the rising time (t
s
) is short and the temperature increase (T
s
) is
low. Figure 7 shows the temperature increases of the bearings with respect to the rotational speed.
The polynomial ttings of the experimental temperature increases of Fig. 7 at the saturation
state were expressed in terms of rotating speed as follow:
T
1
= 1.03 10
9

3
+ 9.25 10
6

2
6.84 10
3
1.24 10
1
(1)
T
2
= 1.01 10
9

3
+ 6.01 10
6

2
4.59 10
3
5.37 10
2
Where is the rotational speed of the spindle expressed in rpm, and T
1
and T
2
are the
temperature increases of the front and rear spindle bearings expressed in Celsius, respectively.
The rising time t up to the maximum temperature was expressed as follows:
t = 8000 + [ 6 + (1/432 ( 2600)/9)( 1700)]( 1400) (2)
Where is the rotational speed of the spindle expressed in rpm, t is the rising time up to the
saturation temperature expressed in seconds. Stone reported that the temperature increase of the
1023 J.-K. Choi, D.G. Lee/ International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 38 (1998) 10171030
Fig. 6. Temperature rise of the front bearing with respect to time when the spindle rotational speed was 3500 rpm.
Fig. 7. Temperature increases of the bearings with respect to rotational speed.
1024 J.-K. Choi, D.G. Lee/ International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 38 (1998) 10171030
B7211 bearing whose DN value was 110 000 was 7C after 30 min operation [9]. In this work,
the temperature increase was 3C when the similar bearings of B7020 whose DN value was
110 000 were rotated at 1100 rpm. It is well known that the temperature increase of the spindle
bearing system should be less than 10C when the spindle is operated at the 2/3 speed of the
maximum rotational speed for 1 h. Therefore, it was concluded that the maximum rotational speed
of the spindle bearing spindle in this work was 2700 rpm because the temperature increase of the
spindle front bearing was about 10C from Fig. 7 when the rotational speed was 1800 rpm.
4. Thermal characteristics of the spindle bearing system
Although the thermal analysis of rotating spindles is not easy because the heat transfer coef-
cient of the air cannot be obtained precisely due to the geometric complexity of spindles, the
quantitative analysis of the temperature distribution in spindle bearing systems and the amount
of heat dissipation of bearings are frequently required in the design stage of a cooling unit for
spindle bearing systems.
The major heat generation of the spindle bearing system is caused by the friction between the
ball and race of the bearing. Since the heat generation due to friction is much dependent on
bearing surroundings and drive conditions, it is difcult to express the characteristics of the heat
generation in a general equation.
The heat generation of bearings is usually assessed by assuming three modes of generation [8].
The following equations depict the three modes of heat generation:
H
tot
= H
s
+ H
1
+ H
v
H
s
= 1.05 10
4
n M
s
(3)
H
I
= 1.05 10
4
n M
I
H
v
= 1.05 10
4
n M
v
Where H
s
is the heat generation due to the moment M
s
from the spinning motion of the bearing
balls, H
I
the heat generation due to the moment M
I
from the applied load on the bearing and H
v
the heat generation due to the moment M
v
from the lubricant in the bearing cage. H
tot
is the total
heat generation and n is the rotational speed (rpm). For B70 type bearings with grease lubrication,
the total heat generations of the front three bearings (B7020) and the two rear bearings (B7016)
were 216 W and 71 W, respectively when the rotational speed was 3500 rpm without applied
bearing load.
Kreith suggested the heat transfer coefcient for the rotational spindle with the assumption of
uniform diameter and little temperature differences along the axial direction by the following
equation under the forced convection condition [10]:
Nu
D
= 0.133 Re
D
2/3
Pr
1/3
(Re
D
4.3 10
5
, 0.7 Pr 670) (4)
h = Nu
D
/D
1025 J.-K. Choi, D.G. Lee/ International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 38 (1998) 10171030
Where Nu
D
is the Nusselt number based on diameter, Re
D
and Pr are the Reynolds and the
Prandtl numbers, respectively. In these assumptions, when the spindle was rotated at 3500 rpm,
Nu
D
and the heat transfer coefcient (h) were 423 and 115 W m
2
K
1
, respectively. However,
as this spindle bearing system had a gear located on the bearing span, the convection of heat
from the spindle was more activated. Since the exact value of the heat transfer coefcient was
not known, the temperature distributions of the spindle as well as the temperature rises of the
bearings were calculated with respect to time when the range of the heat transfer coefcient was
from 115 W m
2
K
1
to 400 W m
2
K
1
to compare the numerical results with the experimental
results. The heat transfer coefcient of the xed housing was assumed to be 80 W m
2
K
1
for
the forced convection condition [11].
In order to assess the temperature rise with respect to time as well as the temperature distri-
bution at the steady state, the thermal characteristics of the spindle bearing system was analysed
using ANSYS, which is a commercial nite element analysis software package. Figure 8 shows
the three dimensional model in which the cooling apparatus was optimally positioned for the
above boundary conditions.
Figure 9 shows the temperature rise with respect time when the heat transfer coefcients of
the rotational spindle were 115 W m
2
K
1
and 400 W m
2
K
1
. In Fig. 9, when the heat transfer
coefcient of the rotating spindle was 115 W m
2
K
1
the rising time (t
s
) and the temperature
increase (T
s
) up to the saturation temperature were 1590 s and 60C, respectively. However,
these numerical results were different from the experimental results because too low value of the
heat transfer coefcient was chosen. Therefore, the temperature distributions were calculated by
varying the heat transfer coefcient of the spindle. Table 3 shows the rising times (t
s
) and the
Fig. 8. Three dimensional FEM modeling for the thermal analysis of the spindle bearing system.
1026 J.-K. Choi, D.G. Lee/ International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 38 (1998) 10171030
Fig. 9. Temperature rise of the bearings with respect to time when the heat transfer coefcients of the rotational
spindle were 115 W m
2
K
1
and 400 W m
2
K
1
, respectively.
Table 3
Rising times and temperature increases of the front bearings with respect to the heat transfer coefcients of the rotational
spindle at 3500 rpm
Heat transfer coefcients of the rotational spindle (W m
2
K
1
)
115 200 300 400 Experimental
result
Rising time t
s
1590 1480 1330 1200 1180
Temperature 60 56 51 46 46
increase T
s

temperature increases (T
s
) up to the saturation temperature with respect to the heat transfer
coefcient. When the heat transfer coefcient was assumed to be 400 W m
2
K
1
, the rising time
(t
s
) 1200 s and the temperature increase (T
s
) were 1200 s and 46C, respectively, which were
similar to the experimental results. Figure 10 shows the temperature distribution in the spindle
bearing system for these boundary conditions. Since the temperature increase of the whole spindle
bearing system is governed by the heat generation of the bearings, the means for the control of
the thermal behavior of the bearings should be considered in the design step.
In order to dissipate the heat generated in the spindle bearing system effectively, the cooling
jacket of the helical coil shape with the square cross-section was provided, as shown in Fig. 11.
To make the analysis simple, it was assumed that the coolant ow through the housing duct had
small temperature difference and the secondary ow by the centrifugal force was negligible.
When the inlet mass ux and temperature of the coolant were 0.02 kg s
1
and 15C, respect-
1027 J.-K. Choi, D.G. Lee/ International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 38 (1998) 10171030
Fig. 10. Temperature distribution of the spindle bearing system at 3500 rpm after 20 minutes.
ively, the coolant ow in the duct was laminar. In this case, the Nusselt number was 2.98 and
the heat transfer coefcient was 220 W m
2
K
1
[11]. Figure 12 shows the temperature increase
in the transient period with the cooling jacket and Fig. 13 shows the temperature distribution in
the steady state with the cooling jacket. The rising time (t
s
) and the temperature increase (T
s
)
were reduced by 70 s and 2C, respectively, compared to those without the cooling jacket. Table
4 shows the rising times (t
s
) and the temperature increases (T
s
) of the bearing with respect to
the heat transfer coefcient.
5. Conclusions
In this work, a prototype spindle bearing system with a tilting gear on the bearing span for a ve
axis machining center, was designed and manufactured to investigate the thermal characteristics of
the spindle bearing system. The prototype spindle was used for the measurement of the tempera-
ture increase. The temperature increase of the spindle bearing system was also analysed by the
nite element method and compared to the experimental results.
The calculated heat generation of the bearings of B70 series of FAG was 216 W at 3500 rpm
and the heat transfer coefcient of 400 W m
2
K
1
of the rotational spindle was used to calculate
the temperature distribution of the spindle bearing system. The calculated rising time (t
s
) and the
temperature increase (T
s
) were 1200 s and 46C, respectively, which were similar to the experi-
1028 J.-K. Choi, D.G. Lee/ International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 38 (1998) 10171030
Fig. 11. FEM modeling of the coolant jacket with square cross-section in the spindle housing.
mental results. Therefore, it was concluded that the nite element analysis was a suitable tool for
the thermal analysis of the spindle bearing system if the suitable value of the heat transfer coef-
cient of the spindle was chosen.
When a cooling jacket was implemented to the spindle bearing system, the rising time (t
s
) and
the temperature increase (T
s
) were reduced by 70 s and 2C compared to the spindle bearing
system without the cooling jacket.
Table 4
Rising times and temperature increases of the front bearings with respect to the heat transfer coefcients of the coolant
ow at 3500 rpm
Heat transfer coefcients of the coolant ow (W m
2
K
1
)
no coolant ow 220 400 600 800
Rising time t
s
1200 1130 1050 960 920
(second)
Temperature 46 44 40 36 33
increase T
s
(C)
1029 J.-K. Choi, D.G. Lee/ International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 38 (1998) 10171030
Fig. 12. Temperature rise of the spindle bearing system with cooling jacket with respect to time.
1030 J.-K. Choi, D.G. Lee/ International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 38 (1998) 10171030
Fig. 13. Temperature distribution of the spindle bearing system with cooling jacket at 3500 rpm after 20 minutes.
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