How to Reduce Temperature Effects on Machining Centers for Face Milling and Center Hole Drilling

How to Reduce Temperature Effect on Machining Centers for Face Milling and Center Hole Drilling

As winter approaches, we remind everyone to take precautions against the cold and stay warm. Additionally, be especially mindful of the usage of milling machines with end face and center hole during the cold and hot temperature fluctuations of winter. Due to the low temperatures, the machine bed temperature gradually increases during operation, but uneven heating can adversely affect the machine's accuracy. Although controlling temperature changes in machines is a global challenge, Tongya's engineers offer some suggestions to minimize the precision errors caused by peak temperature changes:

Machine tool form accuracy and machining accuracy are often affected by changes in workshop environmental temperature, motor heating and mechanical movement frictional heating, cutting heat, and cooling medium. Temperature variations cause the temperature of each component to change over time, leading to a loss of existing adjustment accuracy in the machine tool, thereby affecting the dimensions of the workpiece being processed. Additionally, increased temperature also causes changes in the bearings, further impacting machining accuracy. Moreover, temperature rise leads to uneven distribution of the machine bed temperature, causing changes in the mutual positioning relationships between components or parts, resulting in component displacement or distortion.

Measures to reduce the thermal deformation of the spindle include the following four aspects:

Reduce heat sources by focusing on the rotational speed of the main shaft bearings, intermittent adjustments, and reasonable pre-tension. For thrust bearings and tapered roller bearings, which have poor working conditions and significant heat generation, it is advisable to replace them with thrust angular contact ball bearings to minimize frictional heat in certain components as much as possible.

2. Insulate to keep heat sources away from the main shaft, such as isolating motors and gearboxes, and using separate drives.

3. Enhanced heat dissipation through improved lubrication and cooling, utilizing oil cooling and air cooling methods to accelerate heat dissipation.

4. Reducing the impact of thermal deformation is possible, though it's challenging to eliminate it completely regardless of the method used. Therefore, measures should still be taken to minimize the effects of thermal deformation. In the case of sliding bearings, the wear resistance of the shaft journal significantly affects precision retention.

Milling machines, face milling machines with center drilling - Wuxi Tongya Machine Tool wishes everyone a prosperous new year and a wealth of success!