Fast heat conduction-based thermal error control technique for spindle system of machine tools

In view of the thermal declination of spindle system caused by the uneven heating, this paper proposed a thermal error reduction strategy by optimizing the thermal conductivity of the material. Firstly, according to the structural size and material characteristics of the spindle system, the thermal resistance and thermal contact resistance of each component are calculated, thereby establishing a spindle-housing thermal resistance network model and calculating temperature values of the key points. Then, heat conduction and insulation device are properly installed in the headstock, so that the heat in the high temperature zones can be quickly conducted to the low temperature zones, and the temperature field of the headstock is balanced. Finally, the multi-objective optimization method is used to optimize the size, material properties, and surface parameters of the device to achieve optimal heat balance. Verification was performed by numerical simulation and experiments. The results demonstrate that the thermal conductivity optimization strategy can effectively improve the temperature nonuniformity of the headstock and reduce the thermal tilt of the spindle.