Proposal of disturbance-compensating and energy-saving control method of air turbine spindle and evaluation of its energy consumption

This paper introduces a disturbance-compensating and energy-saving control method of an air turbine spindle equipped with a rotation control system designed for use in ultra-precision milling. As one of the key components, our proposed pneumatic regulating device, called a high-precision quick-response pneumatic pressure regulator (HPQR), is used to control the air supply pressure of the air turbine spindle precisely and quickly. The rotation feedback control system including the HPQR and a disturbance force observer, which avoids changes of rotation speed due to disturbance forces applied to the air turbine spindle, is explained. In addition, a pneumatic energy assessment method using a device called an “air power meter” is explained. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through the experimental results.