Thermal analysis for the feed drive system of a CNC machine center

A high-speed drive system generates more heat through friction at contact areas, such as the ballscrew and the nut, thereby causing thermal expansion which adversely affects machining accuracy. Therefore, the thermal deformation of a ballscrew is one of the most important objects to consider for high-accuracy and high-speed machine tools. The objective of this work was to analyze the temperature increase and the thermal deformation of a ballscrew feed drive system. The temperature increase was measured using thermocouples, while a laser interferometer and a capacitance probe were applied to measure the thermal error of the ballserew. Finite element method was used to analyze the thermal behavior of a ballscrew. The measured data were compared with numerical simulation results. Inverse analysis was applied to estimate the strength of the heat source from the measured temperature profile. The generated heat sources for different feed rates were investigated. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.