Arc Euro Trade High Speed Spindle Motors

[Anonymous]

So, I’m bored waiting for a 2mm cutter to do the business at 5000rpm and 150mm/min feedrate. It’s a carbide cutter, in aluminium, so I should be able to run it much faster.

 

I note that Arc Euro Trade do a series of high speed spindle motors and associated VFDs. I’d be interested in the smallest setup, about 0.5hp. The question is, does anyone have practical experience of these particular motors and VFDs? At this stage there are three things I’m interested in. One and two, the radial and axial runout; does it meet the 0.005mm quoted? And third, how noisy are the motors. A dB(A) number would be ideal! I live in a quiet rural village, and this motor may be running for several hours, so the neighbours won’t thank me if it is noisy.

 

Regards,

 

Andrew

[Anonymous]

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Also available (different models) direct from China via Ebay…

[NJHParticipant @njh]

Andrew

 

Have you tried a call to ARC? The guy there – Ketan I believe?? – is pretty helpful and would, I suspect, be able to provide the info. you seek. I would guess that the noise would also be unpopular here (it’s very rural too) and it might remind eveyone of a visit to the dentist!

 

Regards

 

Norman

Edited By NJH on 14/06/2011 21:09:45

[blowlampParticipant @blowlamp]

Andrew.

I’ve got the equivalent Chinese motor and inverter combo from Ebay that John mentions.

To all intents and purposes runout is non-existant, as is motor noise, so I imagine the Arc Euro products would be as good.

 

As an indication of how little noise emits from the motor at full speed, I can tell you that the cooling fan for the inverter is noisier and the cutting process is far more significant in its contribution.

 

Martin.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies. In due course I’ll give Arc a call; I was rather put off by the notices on their website saying they couldn’t help with advice on the high speed spindles. I’m perfectly capable of deciding what I want to use the spindle for, and of dealing with all the wiring. But these are not cheap items, and advice on the suitability of the unit from the noise viewpoint would seem to be a reasonable thing for them to answer.

 

Martin: Thanks, that’s very helpful, and rather encouraging, anything more than that and I suspect it will be a non-starter in my quiet rural area. So far my only experience of high speed motors is a secondhand 3kW router motor on a test rig that I designed and made which we pushed to 24000rpm to drive a F1 car alternator, as part of a work project. Talk about noisy!

 

Best Regards,

 

Andrew

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Andrew,

If you want to give me a bell later tomorrow, say after mid day 0115 946 5885

 

I’ll start my router up and you can listen to it over the phone.

 

It’s the ARC small spindle with the ER11 collet chuck.

I normally run it at 12,000 and it’s quiet enough to have a conversation at the side of it, at 24,000 it is noisier but it’s fan noise.

 

Had it about 3 years now, it was one of the sample units sent over and it’s never given a problem, can’t comment on runout as I have never checked it but parts are always on size.

 

John s.

[Anonymous]

I rang John yesterday, and listened to the motor and inverter running. We had a perfectly audible conversation with John standing right next to the motor. That’s very encouraging and I will be looking at the purchase of one of these motors and inverters in a lot more detail. Thanks John!

 

While the recent machining of bevel gears has highlighted the lack of spindle speed on my mill (it is limited to just over 5000rpm) this is not the first time the issue has arisen. Last year, for work-related prototypes, I needed to do some engraving. After several broken cutters, poor finishes and general frustration I eventually got the job done with a 4 flute 60° chamfering cutter. However, the over-riding problem was lack of spindle speed. At one time I had an old Taylor Hobson manual engraver, this run at about 18000rpm I believe, and produced excellent work. Just slowing the feedrates down proportionally doesn’t seem to be as effective.

 

Regards,

 

Andrew

[Peter BellParticipant @peterbell11509]

 

Following on with this theme of Euro Arc spindles does anyone have any experience of fiitting one of the ER16 (0.75kw, 1hp) spindles to a KX3, or of know of anything to avoid when doing this?

 

Peter

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Seen a Kress fitted to the RH side of the head on a KX3 but not a high speed spindle but I see no reason why not.

 

Dependant of work and working area you may have to fit a sub plate / table to one side to make up for the spindle offset.

 

I know one person who has bought a high speed spindle and a KX3 but don’t know if they have fitted it at the moment.

 

John S.

[Peter BellParticipant @peterbell11509]

Had great success with my ER 16 spindle from Euro Arc but programmed my invertor to use on on another motor and for forgot to adjust the base frequency back afterwards—result smoke from the spindle motor—havent tried it since!

Presume its not possible to rewind them and its a bin job?

Bet John would have a good answer!

Thanks Peter

[Robert DoddsParticipant @robertdodds43397]

Andrew,

A significant proportion of the noise generated will come from the cutter and that will depend on your material and machine set up. Your motor may be quiet but will it be the high speed cutting noise that wakes your neighbours?

Bob D

[Phil PParticipant @philp]

I was thinking about grafting one of those high speed units onto a BCA type jig borer instead of using the antiquated belt driven spindle.

One reason is lack of available resonably priced collets on the BCA, and lack of high spindle speed for small cutters.

My only worry is that for the odd times I want to use a flycutter or a boring head, would I still be able to use the high speed unit but running very slowly, or will it over heat ?

Is there an option of forced ventialtion on the motor, or does it have a direct coupled fan ?

Any thoughts ?

Phil

[Peter BellParticipant @peterbell11509]

I have a feeling that I read somewhere that the min speed to get decent ventilation is 8-10,000 rpm for these units. Due to my silly mistake mine failed as it had full power at 1440 rpm and the current limit was set around around 12a—hence no cooling to speak of.

The fan is directly driven from the rotor but a pipe and flange could be added to push cold air through at lower speeds but essentially I think it is designed to run fast which is what its good at.

Will have to get another unit, no run out to speak of and handy with the collect chuck

Peter

[Russell EberhardtParticipant @russelleberhardt48058]

Have a look at this thread

It is a relatively low speed one but he's made some higher speed ones on the same principle; see further down the page.

Russell

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