New breakthroughs have been made in electric spindle technology, facilitating the upgrading of high-end manufacturing equipment

Recently, a domestic technology enterprise announced the successful development of a new generation of high-performance electric spindles. The rotational speed, precision and stability of these spindles have all reached the international leading level, and they are expected to break the monopoly of foreign manufacturers in the high-end electric spindle field. This breakthrough marks an important progress made by our country in the field of core components for precision manufacturing, providing key technical support for industries such as CNC machine tools, semiconductor processing, and aerospace.

Electric spindle: The "Heart" of high-end Equipment

As a core component of CNC machine tools, grinding equipment and precision processing equipment, the electric spindle directly determines the processing accuracy and efficiency of the equipment. Traditional mechanical spindles rely on belt or gear transmission, while electric spindles integrate the motor and the spindle, featuring high rotational speed, fast dynamic response, and low vibration. They are widely used in precision turning, milling, engraving and milling, and wafer cutting, among other fields.

The new generation of electric spindles released this time adopts high-speed permanent magnet synchronous motor technology, with a maximum speed of up to 60,000 revolutions per minute and a radial runout accuracy of less than 0.001 millimeters. Meanwhile, the working temperature difference is controlled within ±0.5℃ through an intelligent temperature control system, significantly enhancing the stability during long-term operation.

Breakthroughs in domestic production have been made to solve the "bottleneck" problems

For a long time, the high-end electric spindle market has been dominated by enterprises such as FISCHER from Switzerland, GMN from Germany, and NSK from Japan. Especially in ultra-high speed (> 40,000 revolutions per minute) and high-rigidity application scenarios, the import dependence exceeds 80%. The successful mass production of domestic electric spindles this time not only achieved independent control of key technologies, but also shortened the delivery cycle from six months of imported products to eight weeks, reducing costs by approximately 30%.

Our team has overcome challenges such as high-speed bearing lubrication, rotor dynamic balance, and electromagnetic interference suppression. Life tests have shown that the continuous operation time exceeds 10,000 hours without any faults. The project leader said. This product has been verified on the production lines of enterprises such as Huawei and BYD, and will be given priority for application in the processing of precision parts for 5G base stations and the cutting equipment for new energy battery electrode sheets.

Industry impact: Promoting the upgrade of intelligent manufacturing

With the evolution of the semiconductor industry towards smaller manufacturing processes and the explosive demand for lightweight components in new energy vehicles, the market space for high-precision electric spindles continues to expand. Industry analysts point out that the global electric spindle market size is expected to exceed 5 billion US dollars in 2024, with a compound annual growth rate of 8.7%, and China will become the fastest-growing market.

This technological breakthrough not only fills the domestic gap but also drives the development of the upstream and downstream industrial chains, including supporting industries such as ceramic bearings and high-frequency drivers. Many machine tool manufacturers have planned to adopt domestic electric spindles in new models to further reduce the manufacturing costs of high-end equipment.

Looking forward to the future

It is learned that the R&D team will focus on the integration of intelligent diagnostic functions in the next step, monitoring the health status of the main shaft in real time through built-in sensors to prevent sudden failures. Meanwhile, dedicated electric spindles for emerging fields such as silicon carbide wafer cutting and micron-level medical device processing are also under development.

Industry experts believe that the advancement of electric spindle technology will accelerate the climb of China's manufacturing industry towards high value-added links, providing core power support for "Intelligent Manufacturing in China".