Patent Granted to ANCA for Motor Temperature Control Method

ANCA CNC Machines has been granted a US patent for motor temperature control (MTC), a technique that is supposed to increase the stability of precision machine tools.

The ANCA patent is for a method of keeping motorised spindles at a consistent temperature. According to the company, a significant issue in the usage of precision machine tools is the impact of temperature variations, notably the temperature of the spindle. Temperature fluctuations in the machine tool can be induced by changes in the ambient temperature, coolant temperature, run time, spindle rpm, and spindle load. ANCA’s method is to actively control spindle temperature by adjusting electrical losses in the motor element while maintaining spindle motor speed and load. This is accomplished by utilising customised firmware in the spindle drive amplifier.

A common technique to precision machining is to run the machine through a warming cycle to bring all of the machine’s elements to some level of thermal stability. This warmup cycle usually takes about 30 minutes. Using MTC, this time is said to be decreased to roughly five minutes.

ANCA develops a specialised machine, the GCX, for grinding skiving cutters used in the production of internal and exterior gears for electric vehicles. The drivetrain of electric vehicles includes a high-speed gearbox. The precision of the components of this gear box will have an impact on the lifetime, efficiency, and noise of electric vehicles. MTC is a critical enabler technology for the GCX to make AAA-class cutters. It is used to regulate the temperature of a dressing spindle, which is utilised to create a high accuracy profile on the grinding wheel. MTC is also utilised to control the primary grinding spindle temperature during up to 12 hours of continuous grinding.