Introduction

A spindle is a drive that mainly serves to accommodate a tool or a workpiece and to rotate it for machining by metal cutting. A spindle encompasses the following function areas:

• Specifying the spindle's direction of rotation (M3, M4)
• Specifying the spindle speed (S..)
• Spindle halt (M5)
• Spindle positioning (M19)
• Gear change (M40 to M45)
• Automatic gear selection by means of speed range tables
• Spindle as channel axis (spindle is interpolated in the NC channel as a rotary axis)
• Thread cutting with endlessly rotating spindle (G33)
• Thread drilling without compensating chuck (G63)
• Feed rate in mm/rev (G95)
• Constant cutting speed (G96, G97, G196)
• Spindle monitoring for min. and max. speed
• Tool-related dynamics limiting
• Face and lateral surface machining
• Acceleration characteristics