Vari-speed head spindle encoder

[RP Designs]

I am looking to add an encoder to my spindle to be able to do rigid tapping. The mill has a vari-speed head and packaging constraints make it difficult to attach anything directly to the spindle for speed and position measurements. I am looking for a simpler way to attach an encoder to the spindle. I have thought about using a hall effect pick-up and either attaching a toothed wheel to one of the pulley halves, but do not know how well that might work and whether that would be accurate enough or not. Has anyone else added an encoder to the spindle of their vari-speed head? Would you mind sharing how you set it up?
TIA

[spindleservice]

Hello,

right! could add it by a toothed wheel and then add the encoder to it. As encoder Lenord+Bauer or a Sensor of VS-Sensorik (located in Germany). Then L+B offers also a small test device to adjust the values correctly. The run-out of the toothed wheel should be adjusted lower then 5µm. The toothed wheel is also available at L+B with mostly 256 tooth.

spindleservice

[emader]

Hi,

You don't mention what type of cnc controller you have and whether or not the cnc has the capability to do rigid tapping. The spindle drive amplifier must also be capable of providing full torque to near zero motor speed (should be a full vector type ac drive).

If your system has the capabilities, it is also best to use a quadrature encoder attached directly in some way, to the output shaft of the spindle.

If you don't have these capabilities, then you could be throwing away good money.

Good luck,
Ed Mader
President - EMR, Inc.

[RP Designs]

Originally Posted by emader Hi, You don't mention what type of cnc controller you have and whether or not the cnc has the capability to do rigid tapping. The spindle drive amplifier must also be capable of providing full torque to near zero motor speed (should be a full vector type ac drive). If your system has the capabilities, it is also best to use a quadrature encoder attached directly in some way, to the output shaft of the spindle. If you don't have these capabilities, then you could be throwing away good money. Good luck, Ed Mader President - EMR, Inc.

I will be running an AjaxCNC centroid control which does have a Rigid Tapping option. I will be adding a constant torque VFD as well. My main difficulty is packaging really.