Thrust bearing design for high-speed composite air spindles

The air spindles whose shafts are made of carbon fiber composite are appropriate for high-speed and high-precision machining such as small hole drilling of printed circuit board (PCB) or wafer cutting for manufacturing semiconductors because the carbon fiber composite shaft has low rotational inertia, high damping ratio and high fundamental natural frequency. The axial load capability and stiffness of air spindles for drilling operation are dependent on thrust bearings that are composed of air supply part mounted on the housing and rotating part mounted on the rotating shaft of spindle. Since the stresses induced in the rotating part of thrust bearing by centrifugal force are very high at high-speed rotation, the axial stiffness and load capability of an air spindle should be designed considering the stresses induced by the centrifugal force as well as the natural frequency of rotating shaft to avoid the resonant whip vibration of the spindle. In this work, the air supply part of a thrust air bearing for a high-speed composite air spindle was designed considering its axial stiffness and load capability. The rotating part of the thin thrust bearing was designed through finite element analysis considering the static and dynamic characteristics under axial load and the centrifugal force during high-speed rotation.