Kang 2019

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For personal use only. This Just-IN manuscript is the accepted manuscript prior to copy editing and page composition. It may differ from the final official version of record.
Thermal behavior analysis and experimental study on the
vertical machining center spindle

Transactions of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by James Cook University on 09/07/19
ChengMing Kang1, ChunYu Zhao 1, JunQian Zhang1
1School of Mechanical & Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China.
Corresponding author: ChengMing Kang
E-mail: 578501944@qq.com
Tel:86-13897939228
Address: NO. 3-11, Wenhua Road, Heping District, Shenyang, P. R. China

For personal use only. This Just-IN manuscript is the accepted manuscript prior to copy editing and page composition. It may differ from the final official version of record. Page 2 of 25
Abstract
Thermal errors caused by spindle rotation is a major factor that influences the precision
stability of CNC machine tools. In order to find the effective method for reducing the
thermal errors, the thermal experiment is carried out on the spindle of a vertical drilling
center. The thermal deformation mechanism and thermal error variations of the spindle
is expounded. Based on the generation, convection, conduction theory of heat, the
thermal field model of a spindle system is derived. The relationship between the thermal
filed and the radial thermal error is established using a physically-based method. Finally,
the effect of the thermal error model proposed is verified by both the simulation and
experiment. The results recorded on the two CNC machining centers indicate that the
average fitting accuracy of the theoretical model is up to 94.1%, which validates the
high accuracy and strong robustness of the presented model.
Keywords: Thermal errors; Spindle; Physically-based method; Robustness

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1 Introduction
With the development oriented to high speed and high precision of a CNC machine
tool, thermally induced error is one of the principal cause of the imprecision, which
accounts for 70% of the total errors arising from various error sources of machine tools
(Ramesh et al. 2000; Liu et al.2017). The spindle is a core component and also
maximum heat source of machine tools, and its thermal deformation has a significant
adverse effect on machining accuracy (Zhao et al.2007).Thus, the studies on thermal
deformations of the spindle are indispensable parts for reducing the thermal errors. The
thermal deformations are a time-dependent nonlinear process. The mechanism causing
the machine tool deformations is so complex that the thermal error is difficult to predict.
As a result, accurate and robust modeling of errors becomes a critical step for the
implementation of error compensation.
There are two common methods for the compensation of the thermal errors, one is
empirical method and the other is principle method (Li et al.2009; Li et al.2018). The
former one utilizes empirical modeling to obtain the relationship between the thermal
errors and the temperature data. Much effort has been made by many scholars to
establish the thermal error model, such as, regression theory (Lin and Chang 2007),
artificial neural networks (Yang and Ni 2005), gray theory (Yan and Yang 2009),
support vector machine (Ramesh et al.2002), time series (Li et al.2006), and Bayesian
theory (Yao et al.2008). Yang et al. (2015a) established a thermal error model based on
the least squares support vector machine (LS-SVM), and the prediction accuracy of the
model reached up to 90%; Ma et al. ( 2017) utilized particle swarm optimization (PSO)
and genetic algorithm (GA) to optimize the parameters of ANNs with back propagation
(BP) algorithm, and compensated the thermal drifts, pitch angles, and thermal yaw of
the spindle; Yang et al. (2015b) presented three models of thermal errors for the spindle
pitch angle, thermal yaw, and thermal elongation, and executed error compensation
based on the cutting tool length and the thermal tilt angles. Although the empirical
method can derive an explicit model for compensation, it doesn’t consider the real
physical structure of the machine tool, which leads to less theoretical and low
robustness of the model (Li et al.2009; Liu et al.2016), causing that the model derived
from experiment at one working condition is hard to be applied for another one.
The later method mainly relies on heat transfer theory, with the help of finite element
analysis (FEA) or other numerical methods, to derive the thermal error of the spindle.
Ma et al. (2015) proposed a three-dimensional FEA model of a motorized spindle and
derived its thermally induced error based on heat flow; Zhang et al. (2013) established
a thermal-structural FEA model to simulate thermal performance of a whole-machine;
Babu et al. (2014) developed a finite element model to evaluate the transient
temperature distribution and deformation characteristics of the headstock assembly.
However, in principle modeling, it is difficult to determine the accurate boundary
conditions of finite element model and the real thermal-deformation characteristics are
greatly simplified. Therefore, it is hard to accurately reflect the whole complex non-
linear thermal deformation process.

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Besides, many other methods are also used to model the thermal errors of the spindle.
Kang et al. (2018) put forward a spindle thermal error model based on the heat-transfer
mechanism and experimental analysis; Du et al. (2015) proposed a natural exponential
model of the thermal error of a high-speed motorized spindle (HSMS) at any arbitrary
speed. Xiang et al. (2015) built a vector-angle-cosine hybrid model to predict the
spindle thermal error.
Most of the present literature focuses on the thermal expansion of the spindle, ignoring
thermal tilt angle. However, the thermal drift error of the vertical drilling center spindle
have seriously influence on the radial precision of the work-pieces. Therefore, in this
article, a novel modeling method for the thermal drift error of the vertical drilling center
spindle is proposed. In Section 2, the thermal test is carried out on a vertical drilling
center spindle to obtain the modeling temperature data and thermal error data. And then,
the thermal deformation rule of the spindle is analyzed. In the next section, the thermal
field of a spindle system is predicted, and modeling process for the radial thermal drift
error (RTDE) is presented. Finally, the validity of the PBM is verified by simulation
and experiment in Section 4.
2 Investigation and analysis of thermal behavior
In order to investigate the thermal characteristics of spindle, thermal error experiment
is executed on a vertical drilling center Tc500R that is developed by Shenyang Machine
Tool Co. The mechanical spindle is driven though the belt, and its maximum rotation
speed is obtained to 20000 rpm herein. The control system of the machining tool uses
FANUC 0i-MD. The spindle housing is guided along with the Z axis column.
Ltd. PT100 temperature sensor (IST, Switzerland) is used to measure the temperature
change, while the spindle error analyzer (Lion Precision, USA) is adopted to test the
thermal deformation of the spindle.
2.1 Thermal behavior investigation of spindle
The temperature sensors layout is presented in Fig.1, and five temperature sensors are
arranged on the different locations of the machine tool to collect temperature data as
possible. As specified in Table 1, T1 is placed on the outer surface of the spindle sleeve,
and is used to represent the spindle temperature variation caused by the heating from
the bearings and the motor. T2 and T3 are fixed on the upper and lower surface of the
spindle box to represent the thermal bending deformation of the spindle. T4 and T5 are
mounted on the left and right side of the column to represent the thermal tilt of the
column.
The thermal error sensors layout is shown in Fig.2. As we can see, five displacement
sensors are installed around the two precision balls and are fixed on the worktable via
the fixture, aimed at the balls. Sensor 1 is placed at the end the test bar to measure the
axial thermal growth of the spindle. Sensor 2 and 3 are installed along the test bar to
test the thermal error in X-axis. Sensor 4 and 5 are utilized to detect the variations of
the displacement of the testing bar along Y-axis.
The thermal drifts and temperature of the spindle are measured at the rotation speed
of 6000 rpm. In the experiment, the spindle rotates at a preset speed for 4.5 hours and
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then stops next 1.5 hours. The data of the error and temperature are all recorded in time
with a sampling cycle of 10 s simultaneously. The tested results are plotted in Fig.3.
As we can observe from the temperature curves from Fig.3, different components of
the spindle system have different temperature rising trends. The parts near the heat
source have larger temperature rising extent and faster temperature rising rate. It could
be observed from Fig.3 that while the temperature increases, the error becomes negative,
which is interpreted that the test bar moves towards the negative Y-direction. Since the
machining center is symmetric with respect to the Y-Z plane, the X-directional thermal
displacement can be neglected.
2.2 Analysis of spindle deformation
On the basis of the experimental result of Section 2.1, the detailed deformation process
of the spindle is presented below:
(1) When the spindle starts to rotate, the spindle housing warms up and the temperature
of the upper surface of the headstock increases more rapidly than the bottom
surface (Fig3). Subsequently, the spindle heat is transmitted to the column though
the headstock, which leads to the temperature rise of near heat source side of the
column. In contrast, the temperature on the other side of the column has not yet
increased. The headstock and the column expand freely to cause the spindle tilt.
The test bar leans to the left and moves far away the displacement sensors.
(2) After the spindle has been rotated for a period of time, the temperature rise of the
top surface of the spindle box is much higher than that of the bottom surface. The
temperature difference of both sides of the column still increases gradually. As a
result, the spindle box expands leftwards along with the spindle, and the spindle
axis deflects counter clockwise in Y-Z plane; the test bar goes further away from
the displacement sensors.
(3) The spindle system begins cooling when spindle stops rotating. The temperature of
upper surface of the headstock decreases more rapidly than that of the lower surface
(Fig.3). The temperature of the column still increases due to the heat conduction
effect. As a result, the column continues to freely expand, whereas the spindle
housing thermally shrinks rightward along with a spindle; the spindle axis deflects
clockwise in Y-Z plane. Consequently, the test bar moves closer to the displacement
sensors.
The vertical drilling center and spindle error analyzer are simplified, and the diagrams
of probable thermal distortions of the spindle system is illustrated in Fig. 4. In Figure
4, the (1) represents the initial thermal equilibrium, the (2) represents the state after
warmup, and the (3) represents the state after cooldown.
3 Thermal error modeling using PBM
In Sect.2.2, the mechanism and cause of the thermal behavior of the spindle in a vertical
drilling center are analyzed, and the complete thermal deformation process of a spindle
is expounded. Based on analysis in Sect.2.2, this section will study the modeling for the
spindle RTDEs. The physical-based method (PBM) is utilized for modeling and
prediction the thermal error of the spindle. The advantage of this method is that the
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temperature field of the spindle system is solved based on the heat-transfer mechanism
and the thermal error model is derived based on the constitutive model; thus, the
prediction accuracy of the model is high and the model robustness is strong.
3.1 Thermal field of a spindle system
The structure of the spindle system is shown in Fig.1, which consists of the spindle, the
headstock, the column. The temperature field of the spindle system is dependent upon
the heat generation, the heat convection, and the heat conduction. Figure 5 shows the
heat transfer principle diagram of the spindle system.
In the machine tool operations, the main heat sources include the heat generated by
cutting process, rotating friction of the bearings, and the motor heating. The majority
of cutting heat is carried away by the coolant, and therefore, the heat produced by the
bearings and the motor is the dominant heat causing the spindle thermal distortions.
The heat from its source increases the temperature of the spindle. At the same time,
the generated heat is conducted to the headstock and the column, and dissipated into
the atmosphere. To establish the temperature model of thermal transfer, the spindle
system is divided into five regions, as shown in Fig.5.
When the spindle is running, the temperature field of the spindle system will
dynamically change with time. According to thermal transfer theory, model to describe
the temperature distribution of every region at any time can be obtained through Eq. (1)
TI (t )  TI (t  1)  Tg (t )  Td (t )  Tc (t ) (1)
The thermal characteristics of the spindle are speed-dependent. The temperature

variation Tg due to spindle rotation can be obtained by considering the spindle speed
as the input variable

Tg (t )  As w  Bs wTI (t  1) (2)
The temperature variation Td due to heat convection can be given as follows
Td (t )  CsTI (t  1) (3)
Heat conduction occurs between two adjacent parts, which is caused by temperature
gradient. The temperature variation Tc due to heat conduction to the adjacent region i
can be determined by
Tc (t )   k I i  (TI (t  1)  Ti (t  1)) (4)
where k I i is the heat conductivity coefficient (i.e., I-i:1-2,1-3).
3.2 Calculation of thermal error
The real-time temperature rise of every region in spindle unit can be obtained by above
formula. The expansion and contraction of the regions can be estimated based on the
temperature field of spindle system, whereby the radial error of the spindle is calculated.
With the thermal deformation (2) of Figure 4 consideration as an example, the
relationship between the temperature and the radial thermal error is established. When
machining, the spindle box will elongate due to a rise in internal temperature. Assuming
that thermal fields of both the upper and bottom surface of the spindle housing are
nearly even. This indicates that thermal elongation of the upper and bottom surface of
the spindle housing and the temperatures of T2 and T3 are linearly related. The thermal
elongation  su and  sl of the spindle box at time t can be calculated by Eqs. (5) and (6):
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 u (t )   u  T2 (t ) L1  u
(5)
 l (t )   l  T3 (t ) L1  l (6)
where  u ,  l , u and l are the coefficients to be identified.
Similarly, the column deforms because of a thermal effect on the machine tool.
Although the temperature of the column’s left side is deferent from that of the right
side, the temperature field is continuous and linear. That is to say, the thermal expansion
of the column has a linear relationship of the temperature. At time t , the thermal
expansion  cl of the column at a point near the spindle housing and the thermal
expansion  cr of the column at a point away from the spindle housing can be calculated
by Eqs. (7) and (8):
 cl (t )   cl  T4 (t ) L3   cl (7)
 cr (t )   cr  T5 (t ) L3   cr (8)
where  cl ,  cr ,  cl and  cr are the parameters to be identified. From Eqs. (5)- (8), TI
represents the incremental value of the predicted temperature TI .
The slope  s of the spindle housing can be obtained from the triangular proportional
relationship
 u (t )   l (t )
 s (t )  arctan (9)
L3
The slope  c of the column can be obtained by the triangular proportional relationship
 cl (t )   cr (t )
 c (t )  arctan (10)
L2
The radial drift thermal errors of the spindle ey1 and ey 2 at time t can be expressed as
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ey1   u  ( L3  L4 )  tan 
(11)
ey 2   u  ( L3  L4  L5 )  tan  (12)
where the  is the tilt angle of the spindle, which is the sum of values for inclination of
the spindle box  s and the column  c .
3.3 Identification of parameters
For the model presented here, some unknown parameters should be determined. Test
to identify these coefficients is described in Section 2.1 using the data illustrated in Fig.
3. The predicted values of the thermal field model could be obtained through fitting of
the tested curves. The thermal expansion errors  su ,  sl ,  cl , and  cr could be obtained by
a backward deduction though the tested values of ey1 and ey 2 .Hence, regarding Eqs.(5)-
(8),the corresponding independent variable TI (I=2,3,4,and 5) and dependent variables
 su ,  sl ,  cl , and  cr are all acquired. The least squares method is employed to identify
the model’s parameters, and optimum objective function is expressed as
n
   ( Et (m)  Ec (m)) 2 (13)
m 1
4 Experimental verification
4.1 Simulation
The prediction effect of the proposed Y-directional thermal error model is simulated in
1stOpt software with parameters in Table 2. The simulation results for rotation speed
of 6000 rpm are shown in Figs. 6 and 7.
As can be seen from Figure 6, the temperature rise of the theoretical model can match
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quite well with that of experiment.
As can be seen from Figure 7, the fitted error curve can also match quite well with
the experimental value, and the fitting residual is as small as 4.1%, which indicates that
thermal error model has good estimation accuracy.
4.2 Experiments
To further verify the feasibility of the presented model, thermal tests are performed on
another kind of the vertical machining center. Using the same experimental setup as in
Sect.2, the temperature variations and the radial thermal errors of the spindle at two
different working conditions are tested. In Experiment 1, the spindle speed is set at
10000 rpm whereas in Experiment 2, the spindle speed is changed according to the
speed spectrum of Fig.9. With the speed spectrum, we can simulate the variations of
spindle speed in the actual cutting. The prediction result of the model is shown in Fig.10.
As can be seen from Fig.8, the residual error is fluctuating in the range of -2.56 μm to
2.95 μm, and the coefficient of the determination R of the proposed model is 0.981.
From the fitting effect of Fig.8, the fitting residual is 7.2%, which shows that this model
is of good accuracy.
As can be seen from Fig.10, the residual error is varying in the range of -3.47 μm to
6.57 μm, and the coefficient of the determination R of the thermal error model is 0.987.
Also, the fitting residual is 6.5%, which confirms the good robustness of the thermal
error model.
So, the proposed PBM in this article is suitable for rapidly predicting the spindle
radial thermal drift error with high accuracy.
5 Conclusions
This paper proposes a physically-based method for predicting the radial thermal error
in spindle. This method is built based on heat-transfer theory and thermal deformation
mechanism. The prediction effect is verified using both simulation and experiment. The
salient points of this paper are as follows: (1) this method can record the dynamic
process of thermal field and describe the thermal error at probable radial-deformations;
(2) the results collected by two vertical machining center show the proposed model has
well-fitting accuracy ability and strong robustness; and (3) the proposed model has high
test efficiency, and only one thermal test is needed for a spindle. Therefore, as a solution
for the radial error of the spindle, this method can satisfy real applications in industry
and provide suggestions for thermal-structure optimization design.
Acknowledgements
This project was supported by the National Natural Foundation of China (Grant No.
51775094). Moreover, the authors would gratefully thank the anonymous referees and
reviewer for their helpful comments and suggestions.
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Nomenclature
Symbol Description
TI (t  1) Temperature of section I at the time of t  1 .
w Spindle rotation speed
As Heat production coefficient caused by spindle rotation

Bs Heat dissipation coefficient caused by spindle rotation
Cs
Heat dissipation coefficient
r Index coefficient
 su Thermal expansion coefficient of the upper portion of spindle box
 sl Thermal expansion coefficient of the lower portion of spindle box
L1 Length of the headstock
L2 Width of the column.
L3 Vertical distance between the headstock higher and lower surface
L4 Vertical distance between the headstock lower surface and upper sensor
L5 Vertical distance between two displacement sensors.
a Thermal expansion coefficient
Et Tested radial thermal error
Ec Calculated radial thermal error
m The number of experimental sample points
Table 1 Temperature sensors attachment locations
Temperature sensors Measurement locations
T1 Spindle sleeve
T2 Top of the spindle housing
T3 Low of the spindle housing
T4 Left side of the column

Page 19 of 25
T5 Right side of the column

Table 2 Geometric parameters of vertical drilling center
Parameters L1 L2 L3 L4 L5
Value (mm) 263 310 275 160 76
List of Table
Table 1 Temperature sensors attachment locations
Table 2 Geometric parameters of vertical drilling center
List of Figures
Fig.1 The location diagram of temperature sensors
Fig.2 (a) Experimental set-up, and (b) setting up for displacement sensors
Fig.3 Temperature and thermal error of the spindle at 6000rpm
Fig.4 Schematic of the spindle thermal posture
Fig.5 Heat transfer of the spindle system
Fig.6 Temperature prediction results at 6000 rpm
Fig.7 Fitting effect of the RTDE model at 6000 rpm
Fig.8 Temperatures and error prediction result for 10000 rpm
Fig.9 Spindle speed spectrum
Fig.10 Temperature and Prediction result with speed spectrum of Fig.9

(a)
Fig.1 The location diagram of temperature sensors
(b)
Fig.2 (a) Experimental set-up, and (b) setting up for displacement sensors
Fig.4 Schematic of the spindle thermal posture

Fig.3 Temperature and thermal error of the spindle at 6000rpm
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Fig.5 Heat transfer of the spindle system
Fig.6 Temperature prediction results at 6000 rpm

Fig.7 Fitting effect of the RTDE model at 6000 rpm
Fig.8 Temperatures and error prediction result for 10000 rpm

Page 24 of 25
Fig.9 Spindle speed spectrum
Fig.10 Temperature and Prediction result with speed spectrum of Fig.9

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Page 1 of 25

Thermal behavior analysis and experimental study on the

vertical machining center spindle

ChengMing Kang1, ChunYu Zhao 1, JunQian Zhang1

1School of Mechanical & Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China.

Corresponding author: ChengMing Kang

Address: NO. 3-11, Wenhua Road, Heping District, Shenyang, P. R. China

is expounded. Based on the generation, convection, conduction theory of heat, the

high accuracy and strong robustness of the presented model.

Keywords: Thermal errors; Spindle; Physically-based method; Robustness

adverse effect on machining accuracy (Zhao et al.2007).Thus, the studies on thermal

thermal deformations are a time-dependent nonlinear process. The mechanism causing

implementation of error compensation.

Ma et al. (2015) proposed a three-dimensional FEA model of a motorized spindle and

a thermal-structural FEA model to simulate thermal performance of a whole-machine;

temperature distribution and deformation characteristics of the headstock assembly.

However, in principle modeling, it is difficult to determine the accurate boundary

linear thermal deformation process.

mechanism and experimental analysis; Du et al. (2015) proposed a natural exponential

spindle thermal error.

and experiment in Section 4.

2 Investigation and analysis of thermal behavior

In order to investigate the thermal characteristics of spindle, thermal error experiment

is executed on a vertical drilling center Tc500R that is developed by Shenyang Machine

thermal deformation of the spindle.

2.1 Thermal behavior investigation of spindle

the displacement of the testing bar along Y-axis.

displacement can be neglected.

2.2 Analysis of spindle deformation

of the spindle is presented below:

temperature difference of both sides of the column still increases gradually. As a

the displacement sensors.

of probable thermal distortions of the spindle system is illustrated in Fig. 4. In Figure

warmup, and the (3) represents the state after cooldown.

3 Thermal error modeling using PBM

3.1 Thermal field of a spindle system

heat transfer principle diagram of the spindle system.

system is divided into five regions, as shown in Fig.5.

TI (t )  TI (t  1)  Tg (t )  Td (t )  Tc (t ) (1)

The thermal characteristics of the spindle are speed-dependent. The temperature

as the input variable

Tg (t )  As w  Bs wTI (t  1) (2)

Td (t )  CsTI (t  1) (3)

Tc (t )   k I i  (TI (t  1)  Ti (t  1)) (4)

where k I i is the heat conductivity coefficient (i.e., I-i:1-2,1-3).

3.2 Calculation of thermal error

With the thermal deformation (2) of Figure 4 consideration as an example, the

where  u ,  l , u and l are the coefficients to be identified.

by Eqs. (7) and (8):

represents the incremental value of the predicted temperature TI .

the spindle box  s and the column  c .

3.3 Identification of parameters

(8),the corresponding independent variable TI (I=2,3,4,and 5) and dependent variables

the model’s parameters, and optimum objective function is expressed as

of 6000 rpm are shown in Figs. 6 and 7.

quite well with that of experiment.

thermal error model has good estimation accuracy.

radial thermal drift error with high accuracy.

and provide suggestions for thermal-structure optimization design.

reviewer for their helpful comments and suggestions.

Manuf .Technol. 74:17-24. doi: 10.1007/s00170-014-5916-2.

1581. doi: 10.1007/s12541-015-0207-x.

92-101. doi: org/10.1139/tcsme-2018-0079.