Manufacture of a carbon fibre-epoxy composite spindle-bearing system for a machine tool

Self-excited vibration or chatter occurs when the width of cut or cutting speed exceeds the stability limit of a machine tool. As the carbon fibre-epoxy composite material has excellent properties for structures, owing to its high specific modulus, high damping and low thermal expansion, the vibrational and thermal characteristics of spindles will be improved if the proper design and manufacturing methods for the composite spindle are developed. In this paper, the design and manufacturing methods as well as the static and dynamic characteristics of the carbon fibre-epoxy composite spindle-bearing system were investigated using analytical and experimental methods to improve the performance of the spindle-bearing system. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.