Bearings Influence on the Dynamic Behavior of HSM Spindle

The aeronautic industry requires high speed and high power spindles to obtain high material removal rates during long rough milling operations. The weakness of HSM spindle is the bearings, although high precision hybrid ball bearings have been developed to achieve this critical application. Inadequate use of spindles inevitably leads to shortened lifetimes. Choosing the operating conditions is a required step before machining applications. It can be achieved through either experimental tests or numerical modeling that leads to stability lobe diagrams. Stability of cuts relies on the dynamic behavior of the spindle, which is particularly due to the eigenfrequencies of the tool-shaft assembly. The frequencies depend on bearing stiffness that can change under operating conditions. That is why the impact of cutting conditions and bearing parameters on its stiffness are studied in the paper. A five degrees of freedom model of angular ball bearing is briefly presented. A complete bearing model is introduced. The originality of the approach is the complete technological modeling, notably of the radial expansions of inner and outer rings of bearing. A non-linear expression is established from continuum mechanics model. The influence of geometry of bearing, operating conditions and design parameters of spindle on the bearing stiffness are established and analysed. Then, modal analyses of the tool-spindle assembly are carried out in relation to the varying bearing stiffness. Finally, significance of the approach is demonstrated through the analyses of Frequency Response Function.