Analysis on Dynamic Contact Characteristics and Dynamic Stiffness Estimating Method of Single Nut Ball Screw Pair Based on the Whole Rolling Elements Model

The purpose of this paper is investigating the characteristics of dynamic contact and dynamic stiffness of the single nut ball screw pair (SNBSP). Then a new sensorless method is proposed to extract the SNBSP dynamic contact stiffness of a mass production CNC machine tool feed system. First of all, the transformation relationship between each coordinate system of SNBSP is established. Secondly, the dynamic model of all ball-raceway contact pairs is established. Based on this, a dynamic contact stiffness model is established. The dynamic contact parameters are obtained by the numerical method. It is found that the influence of screw speed on screw and nut raceway normal force distribution are opposite. This will affect the variations of dynamic contact stiffness. It is also clear that the effect of axial load on dynamic stiffness is significant. Then, an effective method is proposed to estimate the dynamic contact stiffness of a mass production CNC machine tool feed system without any external sensors. The axial force of feed system is estimated by using torque current of servo motor. Current signals can be obtained through FANUC Open CNC API Specifications (FOCAS) library functions, and then dynamic contact stiffness can be calculated through the stiffness model without external sensors. Finally, a feed system dynamic model is built, and the contact model and sensorless stiffness estimating method are verified by experiments in this dynamic system.