Adaptive Cooling System Using LabVIEW Program to Minimize Thermal Deformation of High Speed Spindle

When power and speed increase, the spindle thermal growth also becomes more important. Cutting-edge technology for a spindle design strongly requires a high rotating speed and a low thermal deformation of the spindle system, because the spindle for a machine tool must be sufficiently stiff to minimize axial and radial displacement according to the external force. This paper describes a adaptive cooling system applied to the spindle of a NC machining centre using LabVIEW software. A large number of tests were carried out with varying sensor location, spindle rotating speed. Measurements were performed in real industrial environment and thermal deformation control of high speed spindle has been proposed. In the proposed method, the flowrate of supply coolant is controlled by varying the speed of coolant supply pump. The speed of pump depends on the temperature of spindle. This closed loop system maintains the spindle temperature to minimize the thermal deformation. The performance of the system developed has been evaluated through a series of actual experiments.