Development of a new rotary ultrasonic spindle for precision ultrasonically assisted grinding

In our previous work, a new method for inducing a machine spindle to ultrasonically vibrate was proposed in which the axial ultrasonic vibration is excited by a fluctuating electromagnetic force applied to the spindle. The validity of this method was also confirmed experimentally. In this paper, focusing on the development of a new rotary ultrasonic spindle based on this new method, an actual ultrasonic spindle unit was designed and constructed in accordance with the previous work. The unit consists of an ultrasonic spindle, two rotary bearings and their housings for holding the spindle, eight electromagnets and their supporters for the generation of a fluctuating electromagnetic force, and a base plate. Its performance was also investigated experimentally for different exciting conditions. The results showed that an ultrasonic vibration with a sub-μm order amplitude is generated on the produced spindle and that the applied electromagnetic force affects the spindle performance significantly.