Brother spindle noise

[wmpy]

We put a brand new spindle from Yamazen in to our TC-S2D about six weeks ago. We just noticed today that it's making noise. See the short video for the noise.

It's a 10k rpm, non-coolant through spindle. In the video, the spindle is running at 6k. You can hear a noise even at 1000 rpm, though, if the shop is quiet. It's not getting hot. We removed the spindle, and nothing is obviously wrong. With the spindle removed, I can feel a slight "tick" or hesitation when turning the spindle very slowly. Is my brand new spindle junk? Am I missing something?

At the moment, my plan is to send the old spindle out for rebuilding and continue to run this one in the meantime unless it blows up first.

 

[Milland]

That sounds like ball skidding (IMO), and shouldn't be present. I'd contact Yamazen and send them a link to the video.

 

[mottrhed]

Could be a slight lack of preload, but can be cause by a number of things, like misalignment or bearing seats out of spec. On the other hand it could be "cage noise" which is the ball cage hitting a harmonic and vibrating loud enough to be audible, usually only at a particular rpm and shouldn't affect bearing life, but if possible you would program to avoid that rpm. Id measure the bore that the bearings sit in since this is not replaced of requalified with this design, you just receive a shaft and bearings. It may last a little while, or many years, the best thing to do is some vibration analysis and see whats really going on.

 

[Milland]

Could be a slight lack of preload, but can be cause by a number of things, like misalignment or bearing seats out of spec. On the other hand it could be "cage noise" which is the ball cage hitting a harmonic and vibrating loud enough to be audible, usually only at a particular rpm and shouldn't affect bearing life, but if possible you would program to avoid that rpm. Id measure the bore that the bearings sit in since this is not replaced of requalified with this design, you just receive a shaft and bearings. It may last a little while, or many years, the best thing to do is some vibration analysis and see whats really going on.

I was hoping you'd see the OP's post, thanks for the insights...

 

[wmpy]

We contacted Yamazen, and they want to send a tech out to do an analysis. We are waiting to get that scheduled. Hopefully they can figure something out.
The funny thing is that today the noise is gone. We ran a good part of the day. The spindle never got warm to the touch.

 

[Mario56FR]

Hello

Do you resolve your problem ?

I hace the same thing on a spindle (I did the full design, all parts are controlled, I did a complete check of one set of bearing totally open and controlled by the bearing's manufacturer, nothing everything totally normal, I change the bearing and the same sound). I controlled all the seat, less than 1 micron of deviation...

It only appear when the spindle is cold or when the temperature is cold (like now in december in France). With a correct spindle warmup, the sounds disappear when the temperature is enough hot (35 degrees). We could run the spindle during several month without anything, and we could have this sound, totally random, but clearly only when you use the spindle a low speed and low temperature.

I have the same thing like you:
- the temperature doesn't incrase. Complete following and a perfect stabilization
- no unbalance

It is like cage "vibration", you could see a vibration at very low frequencies, like the grease is not enough smooth, or one ball doesn't have grease on it.

If you could share your opinion about that.

Many thanks

Mario

 

[wmpy]

Since posting that video, we never heard the spindle make the noise so loud, so consistently. It would make a noise here and there, but not like that one day. We were only running the machine if we absolutely had to, though.

Then, last week, we had Yamazen out to balance the spindle. We never balanced it after installing it. We had requested to borrow the tool, but we were still waiting on that. The tech found that the balance was out of spec, so he brought it in.

We are now running the machine full-time. It has mostly been quiet, but one of the guys near the machine swears he heard it making the noise again after balancing. By the time I went to check it, all was quiet.

So, maybe the balance has something to do with it. I am not sure. We are keeping a close eye on the spindle to see if it starts making the noise again or shows any other signs of trouble.