Next generation spindles for micromilling.

Abstract

There exists a wide variety of important applications for micro-and meso-scale mechanical systems in the commercial and defense sectors, which require high-strength materials and complex geometries that cannot be produced using current MEMS fabrication technologies. Micromilling has great potential to fill this void in MEMS technology by adding the capability of free form machining of complex 3D shapes from a wide variety and combination of traditional, well-understood engineering alloys, glasses and ceramics. Inefficiencies in micromilling result from the relationships between a cutting tool's breaking strength, the applied cutting force, and the metal removal rate. Because machining times in mesofeatures scale inversely to the part size, a feature 1/10 th as large will take 10 times as long to machine. Also, required chip sizes of 1 m or less are cut with tools having edge radius of 2-3 m, the cutting edge effectively has a highly negative rake angle, cutting forces are increased significantly causing chip loads to be further reduced and the machining takes even longer than predicted above. However, cutting forces do not increase with cutting speed, so faster spindles with reduced tool runout are the path to achieve efficient mesoscale milling.This research explored the development of new ultra-high speed micromilling spindles. A novel air-bearing spindle design is discussed that will run at very high speeds (450,000 rpm) and provide very minimal runout allowing the best use of micromilling cutters and reducing overall 3 machining time drastically. Two generations of this spindle design were completed; one with an air bearing supported tool shaft and one with a novel rolling element bearing supported tool shaft. Both designs utilized friction-drive systems that relied on diameter differences between the drive wheel (operating at speeds up to 90,000 rpm) and the tool shaft to achieve high rotational tool speeds. Runout, stiffness, and machining tests were conducted with the spindle designs and though they both showed promise for ultra-high speed machining, runout issues in the friction drive and in the stock tools kept the system from achieving sustained machining capability.4