Thermal structure design and analysis of a machine tool headstock

Abstract

In this study, it used a vertical machining center as the study object, conducted finite-element simulations and experimental research on its thermal performance, ana-lyzed the weaknesses affecting the thermal performance of the machine tool, and proposed a machine tool thermal performance analysis method by combining structure op-timization based on the headstock thermal characteristics and the temperature field control. Without changing the machine tool's heating power and static and dynamic stiff-ness, on the one hand, the design theory of the thermal plane of symmetry was used to reconstruct the headstock into a symmetrical structure such that the thermal defor-mations could be mutually coupled and offset each other. On the other hand, cooling troughs were designed on both sides and the front of the headstock so that cooling control could be arranged for the headstock by optimizing the lay-out and the width/depth of the cooling troughs. Therefore, the whole-machine temperature elevation and thermal de-formation can be reduced. Based on the heat transfer anal-ysis of the cooling troughs, it constructed a thermal per-formance finite-element simulation model and compared the temperature and whole-machine thermal deformation on several critical points before and after the reconstruc-tion. Finally, the experimental measurements of the ther-mal performance were obtained using the prototype de-signed and manufactured based on the optimization results. It was verified that the thermal performance of the vertical machining center was greatly improved by comparing the simulation results with the experimental results.