Design of machine tool spindles using finite element methods

ABSTRACT DESIGN OF MACHINE TOOL SPINDLES USING FINITE ELEMENT METHOD DEMİRHAN Necdet Ph. D. in Mechanical Eng. Supervisor: Prof Dr. İ. Hüseyin FİLİZ June 2003, 123 Pages In this thesis, spindle units of machine tools are analysed and designed using finite element method. A program which produces ANSYS pre-processor codes needed for building finite element model of the spindle unit is developed. A spindle unit is considered to consist of a multi-stepped shaft, a spur gear and bearings. Spindles, bearings and gears are analysed separately in ANSYS. A suitable approach has been suggested for simplifying the finite element analyses of the cylindrical roller bearings. Using the developed program, the total deflection of any spindle unit as a whole where all the components are in direct interaction with each other is found. Three-dimensional static analysis of the spindle units is presented by an illustrative example. Key Words: Machine tools, Spindle units, Finite element method, ANSYS. in