How GMN Design Engineering Support Helped a Spindle OEM Enter a New Market

A spindle manufacturer was designing a new spindle to enter a new market and grow business. This spindle was larger than anything they had designed in the past and there were unique challenges for bearing selection and performance. In search of the best strategy to maximize spindle life, this manufacturer reached out to GMN Bearing USA and partnered with our engineering team to get the job done.

Precision Bearings for Machine Tool Spindles

Bearings are critical components in machine tool spindles. They must be strong enough to handle the application loads, allow the tool to rotate at high RPMs, and provide tight T.I.R. (Total Indicated Runout). Because of this, spindles require the accuracy of high precision bearings with extremely tight tolerances that are specifically designed for these types of application conditions; axial and radial loads, desired RPMs, application temperatures, system rigidity, and overall life of the machine.

The Challenge

This manufacturer’s new spindle design was for a robotic machining application that they had never designed a spindle for in the past. It required larger bearings and a much higher load capacity than they were used to. Because of how crucial the role of bearings are in the application, the manufacturer couldn’t afford to make them an afterthought or something that was designed in just based off of availability.

It’s common for certain applications to operate in extreme conditions that make bearing selection difficult. In this case, the loads of our manufacturer’s new application were very high for precision angular contact bearings, but the RPMs were too high to use tapered roller bearings.

We needed to figure out the best solution for high-speed angular contact bearings to work efficiently in the application, so we got started on design support to recommend the perfect bearing selection.

How GMN Helped

Our team of engineers ran performance calculations analyzing the load and RPM effects on the bearings. Both contribute to the overall ball contact (Hertzian) pressure. We were also able to rely on our industry knowledge for common approaches and bearing configurations for these types of high-load application conditions.

This application had both high radial and axial loads. Because there was flexibility in the design on the number of bearings, GMN engineers recommended using a quad set of S 6016 C TA P4+ DUL angular contact bearings at the front of the spindle.

The bearings were configured as a “Double Big O” bearing arrangement with the front two bearings in tandem facing the application load, and the back two bearings also in tandem facing the opposite direction. This allowed the front two bearings to split the application axial load and all four bearings to handle the radial load. A 15° contact angle was also selected because of the combined loading at high RPM.

Explore GMN “S” Series Bearings

The Results

The manufacturer implemented GMN’s recommendations into the spindle and was thrilled with the bearing performance. All requirements of load capacity, RPM, system tolerance, and life were exceeded, and the application is still running smoothly.

Talk to an Engineer!

If you’re in need of design support for your application, our team of in-house engineers, certified bearing specialists, and technical experts are here to help. With decades of experience under our belts partnering with OEMs, we’re no strangers to common approaches and market needs.

Contact us for your next project to learn how we can help with design engineering support!