High speed spindle with adjustable tool
AssigneeColonial Tool Operations Div. of Textron Canada Ltd.
InventorGodfrey T. Briggs
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A high speed spindle has a motor and tool adjustment mechanism which aligns spaced bearing means to rigidly support the spindle shaft at high speed operation and to prevent excessive lateral loading of a bearing unit of the tool adjustment mechanism. The unitary motor and tool adjustment mechanism are joined together as a single unitary assembly which is mountable on a machine tool base without requiring alignment and preassembly of the motor and tool adjustment mechanism at field locations.
Claims6
In a machine tool assembly having a spindle housing, a spindle shaft directed therethrough and a draw bar directed through the spindle shaft for adjusting the position of a cutting tool mounted on the output end of the spindle shaft the improvement comprising:
- first, second and third bearing means supported on said spindle housing for rotatably supporting said spindle shaft;
- said first and second bearing means each including a pair of bearing races located at opposite ends of said spindle housing;
- each of said bearing races having a plurality of roller elements thereon for radially supporting said spindle shaft;
- said third means being including a pair of bearing races located in said housing between said first and second bearing means and nearer said first bearing means than said second bearing means;
- said third bearing means including a plurality of ball bearing elements supported on each of said bearing races for axially supporting said spindle shaft;
- a motor housing directly connected to one end of said spindle housing electric motor means for drying said spindle shaft;
- said electric motor means including stator means supported on said motor housing and rotor means connected to said spindle shaft for rotating said spindle shaft with respect to said spindle housing in a range of 3600 to 7200 revolutions per minute;
- and
- fourth bearing means constituting the sole means for supporting said spindle shaft on said motor housing and said fourth bearing means being located near only one end of said motor housing;
- said first, second and third bearing means maintaining a rigidity at full operating speed of said spindle shaft to maintain the axis thereof within plus or minus 50 millionths of an inch.
In a machine tool assembly having first housing means, a spindle shaft directed therethrough and an actuating shaft directed through the spindle shaft for adjusting the position of a cutting tool mounted on the output end of the spindle shaft the improvement comprising:
- first bearing means supported on said first housing means for rotatably supporting said spindle shaft;
- electric motor means within said first housing means for driving said spindle shaft;
- said electric motor means including stator means and rotor means connected to said spindle shaft for rotating said spindle shaft with respect to said first housing means;
- second bearing means supporting said spindle shaft on said first housing means near one end of said first housing means;
- adjusting means for controlling the stroke of said actuating shaft and for controlling the amount of radial cut by the cutting tool, said adjusting means including a driven member for adjusting the axial position of said actuating shaft with respect to said spindle shaft to control the radial location of the cutting tool with respect to a workpiece bore for controlling the amount of material removed from the workpiece bore by the cutting tool during spindle rotation;
- a second housing means for said adjusting means;
- said second housing means including bearing means for rotatably supporting said actuating shaft;
- and pilot means on said second housing means directly rigidly connecting said adjusting means housing on said one end of first said housing means thereby to prevent excess lateral loading of said last mentioned bearing means during rotation of said spindle shaft as material is cut from a bore by the cutting tool.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.