Thermal error controlling for the spindle in a precision boring machine with external cooling across coated joints

Spindles in precision boring machines usually operate without internal cooling, and thermal error in such spindles is nonnegligible and can severely affect the end-processing quality of the machines. This study aims to investigate the effects that external cooling exerts on the thermal behavior of such spindles. A helical tube cooler is taken for external cooling. An analytical thermal resistance model for the grease-coated cooler-housing joint surface, which considers the pressured cambered-flat contact pair and rough metal surface-grease contact, is presented and validated, and a numerical thermal–fluid–solid coupling model for the cooler-spindle system is then established. An evaluation method is put forward to obtain the stability of the thermal error, which determines the boring processing accuracy and thermal equilibrium time, from experimental data. Then, the external cooling was optimally designed based on the simulation results from the numerical model. Experiments show that the designed cooler reduced the thermal equilibrium time by 47.13% and the maximum thermal error by 81.7%, and the proposed model can accurately predict the cooling effect on the spindle thermal behavior. This study not only provides a thermal error control method for the spindle but is expected to advance the theoretical basis of cooling design for complex electromechanical systems.