Developments in Machine Tool Spindle Technology

Machine tool spindles have a great importance in machine tools. As the machining processes have developed over the years, there has been a continuous need of development of machine spindles with them. This paper gives a review of some of the developments and researches that had taken place in the machine tool spindles such as use of air-assisted bearings, development of a new cooling strategy for reducing thermal errors and a new concept for Parallel High Speed Machining (PHSC). The paper also discusses the Hybrid Spindles which are used for high-performance cuttings and a new ultrasonic spindle which uses fluctuating electromagnetic force for inducing the ultrasonic vibrations. Along with them, this paper also reviews a spindle which uses a centrifugal component for automatically adjusting the preload changes on spindle caused by the centrifugal forces and concept of a spindle which is driven by water flow and uses a hydrostatic bearing for supporting the spindl