Spindle Bearing Vibration Characteristics of Surface Grinding Machine Tool

Machine tool, one among many resources in a machine shop of engineering manufacturing sector, takes maximum share in work done and hence it becomes mandate to maintain and ensure the availability of machine tool in good working condition. The decision on machine tool condition is made based on several criteria such as vibration, lubricant contamination and surface finish. In the present study, an experimental approach was developed to investigate the spindle bearing vibration characteristics of surface grinding machine to aid the decision-making process. The vibration data from the spindle bearing was acquired using tri-axial accelerometer and multi-channel FFT analyser under different operating conditions. The vibration behaviour of the spindle bearing of the machine tool was analysed to determine the most influencing combination of material hardness and grit size of the grinding wheel. Prediction analysis was also carried out by building the relationship between vibration and surface roughness using quadratic regression model. An empirical formula was developed to establish the surface roughness and multi-input parameters. The empirical formula was validated with Chi-square test to determine the variation between the empirically computed and experimental values. The experimental investigation reveals that the hardness of the workpiece material is the most influencing parameters on surface roughness and tangential vibration, whereas the combination of grinding wheel grit size and depth of cut is the most influencing parameter on radial and axial vibrations.