TY - JOUR TI - A study of thermal behavior of the machine tool spindle AU - Živković Aleksandar AU - Zeljković Milan AU - Mlađenović Cvijetin AU - Tabaković Slobodan AU - Milojević Zoran AU - Hadžistević Miodrag JN - Thermal Science PY - 2019 VL - 23 IS - 3 SP - 2117 EP - 2130 PT - Article AB - The performances of high-speed machine tools depend not only on the speed, power, torque, dynamic and static stiffness, but also on the thermal behavior of the spindle. These parameters directly affect the productivity and quality of machining operations. This paper presents a 3-D finite element thermal model, which was based on the thermo mechanical bearing model and the numerical model of the spindle. Based on thermo mechanical analysis of bearings with angular contact, generated heat and thermal contact resistance are determined for each position of the ball. To provide the most accurate analysis possible in determining thermal contact resistance , bearings are divided into several zones based on the geometry of their cross-section. The aforementioned constraints have been applied to the 3-D FEM model which allowed for establishing temperature field distribution, and spindle thermal balance. In order to prove the efficacy of the proposed model, experimental measurements of spindle and bearing temperatures were done by using thermocouples and thermal imager.