About Gear Spindle & Spindle Technology

Posted on Mar 2, 2019

Gear Spindle & Spindle Technology

Unlike other spindle types, the gear spindle does not contain additional transmission mechanisms but directly drives the load from the gear itself. Therefore, when using a heavy cutting or durable grinding, the performance of the gear spindle is even better.

Gear Spindle

Unlike other spindle types, the gear spindles do not contain additional transmission mechanisms but directly drives the load from the gear itself. Therefore, when the spindle and its gear mechanism used at heavy-duty cutting or durable grinding, the performance of the gear spindle is even better.


Classifications

The development of spindle technology has been around 120 years from the beginning of textile machinery to the modern practical machine tools. There are various types of spindle can be used for milling machine and lathe, such as gear spindles, belt driven spindles, motorized spindle and direct driven spindles.


Direct driven and gear-driven spindles are designed with greater torque, faster and more accurate activation, and allow a larger processing area. Therefore, in centerless grinding, direct-driven spindles are most like to be the option, and gear-driven spindles are more like reinforcement.

:: Read More: A Comparison of Direct Drive Spindle and Belt-Driven Spindle

 

Multi-spindle Design

The machine tool can contain multiple spindles, such as the headstock and tailstock spindles on a bench lathe. On a lathe, the primary spindle is usually the largest and longest spindle. Therefore, if the spindle is referenced without further limitation, it means the primary spindle.

Turning centers dedicated to mass production often have a set of 5, 7, or more spindles. These turning centers are called multi-spindle machines, including row drills and screw machines.


The driving mechanism

The gear spindle can be driven by a variety of powers and is usually designed for medium-sized machine tools. The gear spindle can be adapted to a variety of machine bodies, providing higher mechanical strength. One of the most critical components in gear spindles is the gear spindle couplings. Gear spindle couplings are used to connect the spindle and gear set. Gear spindle couplings are mainly used in cases that need to transmit large torque with smaller outer diameter, and at the same time require high eccentricity compensation capabilities.

 

Specific and purpose-oriented

Some spindles are specifically designed for certain machine types, such as turning spindles, milling spindles, drilling spindles, etc. The most important thing is that the machine can only perform its function if the spindle is installed correctly.

In addition to direct-drive motors, the spindle also includes a variety of designs. On the grinding machine, the spindle is the heart of the spindle housing. In rotary grinding woodworking machinery, the spindle is a component, which can be assembled with a shaped milling cutter to perform cutting tasks.
 

The differences between direct drive and gear spindles

Although the two models are similar in many respects, there are some differences between the two. In machines such as machining centers, tapping centers, and drilling machines, the spindle is the shaft that attaches the tool to the machine via a chuck.

Various spindles, including grinding spindles, electric spindles, machine tool spindles, low-speed spindles, and high-speed spindles, are designed to enhance specific functions. For example, if the grinder is equipped with a belt-driven spindle, the torque will be greatly reduced. The belt-driven spindle is powered by an external motor. Under this design, the belt pulley used as a transmission system is not as simple and stable as the directly driven mechanism, and the belt material becomes one of the variables involved in the mechanical operation.

The difference between the gear drive and the direct drive is significant. In gear spindles, there is no more transmission medium between spindle and its gear sets, so can directly transmit power. But at the same time, the buffer space for torsion is small. Grinding machine spindles are usually directly driven, while milling and tapping machines may use gear-driven spindles because grinding requires more torque than other machine tools.

 

Summary

The development and research of spindle technology are the two primary supports of the machine tool industry. Only with the improvement of the spindle capacity of the machine tool can the quality of processing be further improved. It is foreseeable that in the near future, the design of the machine tool spindle will be more profound and cover a wider range of industrial uses.


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