Study on variable pressure/position preload spindle-bearing system by using piezoelectric actuators under close-loop control.

Angular contact ball bearings have been widely utilized in machine tool spindles and bearing preload has a great influence on the performance of the spindle. The variable preload control technology, including variable pressure preload and variable position preload, is the key technology for intelligent spindle. In order to implement variable pressure/position preload control, the control method and control performance of the variable pressure/position preload spindle-bearing system by using piezoelectric actuators under close-loop control are systematically studied in this paper. A test rig of variable pressure/position spindle-bearing system is developed, and the piezoelectric actuators are adopted to realized preload or axial clearance close-loop control automatically. Both variable pressure preload and variable position preload can be realized on the test rig. The mechanical model of the variable pressure/position preload spindle-bearing system by using piezoelectric actuators is established. Then stiffness model considering the external axial load in static state, and axial displacement as well as operational preload model in rotational state of the spindle-bearing system with piezoelectric actuators in variable pressure preload and variable position preload are proposed and simulated. The design method of the preload mechanism by using piezoelectric actuators is presented. PI controller is employed to regulate the preload or axial clearance of the spindle-bearing system in real-time. A series of experiments are implemented to verify the validity of the variable preload control method and the superiority of the variable pressure/position preload control performance by using piezoelectric actuators. The results show that the variable pressure/position preload spindle-bearing system by using piezoelectric actuators shows excellent performance in controlling preload or axial clearance. The static and dynamic characteristics as well as the operational behaviors of the spindle-bearing system under variable position preload and variable pressure preload are verified by experiments. It is illustrated that the stiffness and the first order natural frequency will be changed with the change of preload methods and preload values. The operational behaviors vary greatly with the preload method, initial preload (negative axial clearance) and rotational speed. The variable preload control method plays a great important role on the performance of spindle-bearing system. Furthermore, this paper provides a foundation for the future research of preloading intelligent control technology as well as investigating the thermal-mechanical-dynamic characteristic of high speed spindle-bearing system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]