Dynamics characteristics of a rotary table motorized spindle with externally pressurized air bearings

The face grinding process depends on high-precision rotary table spindle with a large axial load capacity. This paper develops an ultra-precision rotary table spindle with externally pressurized air bearings consisting of a double-pad thrust bearing and a journal bearing; a vacuum clamp system is designed to locate and hold the workpiece. The dynamic model for the rotor-bearing system has been established by using the Reynolds equation and the rigid-body dynamic theory considering five degrees of freedom (DOF). The effects of static and dynamic behaviors of the spindle with the bearing's key parameters are analyzed systematically. Finally, an experiment study is conducted to verify the theoretical model.