A thermal model for high speed motorized spindles

Lack of a more complete understanding of the system characteristics, particularly thermal effects, severely limits the reliability of high speed spindles to support manufacturing. High speed spindles are notorious for their sudden catastrophic failures without alarming signs at high speeds due to thermal problems. In this paper, a finite difference thermal model is developed to characterize the power distribution of a high speed motorized spindle, in particular the characterization of heat transfer and heat sinks. Without loss of generality, this model is built upon and verified by a custom-built high performance motorized milling spindle of 32 KW and maximum speed of 25 000 rpm (1.5 million DN).