The invention relates to a drill spindle unit of the type having a drill spindle with axially extending keyways for cooperation with a rotation drive mechanism, and a screw thread for cooperation with a feed drive mechanism, and bearings for radial and axial support of the drill spindle.

A drilling apparatus comprising a drill spindle unit of the above type is previously described in for instance US Patent No. 4,591,299. This apparatus includes a single pneumatic motor drivingly coupled to both the rotation drive mechanism and the feed drive mechanism.

In some prior art drill spindle units of the above type the rotation drive mechanism and the feed drive mechanism are driven by a common electric motor, and the feed force applied on the drill spindle has been controlled via the motor current such that when the motor current rises above a certain level the feed force is too high, and oppositely when the motor power is below a certain level the feed force is too low. So, it has been assumed that there is a safe enough connection between output power or torque of the rotation motor and the axial feed force applied on the drill spindle, and therefore, the motor power output has been monitored and controlled not to exceed certain limits set up for each drill size. This known technique means that the actual feed force applied on the drill spindle has not been measured directly. A serious drawback with this known technique is that there are a number other factors involved that may change the relationship between the motor power output and the feed force actually applied on the drill spindle. For instance damaged bearings and/or gears in the power transmission between the drive motor and the drill spindle would result in a misleading high motor power output and a accordingly an indicated "high" feed force with an erroneous and undesireable motor power reduction as a result .

Another way of indicating the feed force actually applied on the drill spindle is to arrange a couple of axial force sensing devices associated with the ball type spindle bearings of the drill spindle feed mechanism. This means that the axial force on the drill spindle is spread out to two or more bearings and that two or more axial force sensing devices are arranged to deliver separate signals to a calculating unit, wherein the received signals are put together to give a true indication of the actual feed force. Employing two or more axial force transferring bearings and two or more axial force sensing devices requires an extra calculating capacity for signal treatment, and it causes an unnecessary bulky drill spindle unit .

It is an object of the invention to provide a drill spindle unit of the type having a drill spindle with axially extending keyways for cooperation with a rotation drive mechanism and a screw thread for coooperation with a feed drive mechanism, wherein a feed force sensing device is provided which enables slimmer outer dimensions of the spindle unit and which generates a single feed force responsive signal which is not influenced by irregularities in the power transmission of the spindle unit and which gives a direct and true measurement of the axial feed force actually applied on the drill spindle. Further objects and advantages of the invention will appear from the following specification and claims.

A preferred embodiment of the invention is described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawing.

In the drawing

Fig. 1 shows a side view of a drilling apparatus including a drill spindle according to the invention.

Fig. 2 shows, on a larger scale, a fractional view of the drilling apparatus in Fig. 1.

The drilling apparatus illustrated in the drawings comprises a rotation motor 10, a drill spindle unit 11 including a housing 12 and a tubular drill spindle 14, a drill spindle rotation drive mechanism 15, a drill spindle feed drive mechanism 16, and a power transmission 17 connecting the motor 10 to both of the rotation drive mechanism 15 and the feed drive mechanism 16. The rotation drive mechanism 15 includes a rotation drive sleeve 21 surrounding the drill spindle 14 and is axially locked to the housing 12. The feed drive mechanism 16 comprises a rotating feed drive sleeve 22 also surrounding the drill spindle 14 and being axially locked to the housing 12.

The rotation drive sleeve 21 is provided with internal projections (not shown), and drill spindle 14 is provided with a couple of axially extending keyways 20, wherein the projections are intended to cooperate with the keyways 20 for transferring a rotation drive torque to the drill spindle 14 while permitting axial movement of the latter. Moreover, the drill spindle 14 is provided with an external screw thread 26 for cooperation with an internal thread 27 of the feed drive sleeve 22 so as to exert axial forces onto the drill spindle 14 when rotated.

This type drill spindle rotation drive and feed drive arrangement is well known and previously described in the above mentioned US Patent No. 4,591,299 as well as in US Patent No. 5,351,797. Therefore this spindle drive arrangement is not described in further detail .

The feed drive sleeve 22 and the rotation drive sleeve 21 are radially supported relative to the housing 12 via needle type bearings 30,31,32 which are not able to transfer any axial forces between the sleeves 22,21 and the housing 12. Instead, the feed drive sleeve 22 is axially supported relative to the housing 12 by a thrust bearing 34 which is located between the rear end of the feed drive sleeve 22 and a rear end wall 35 of the housing 12. Between the thrust bearing 34 and this end wall 35 there is provided an axial force sensing device in the form of a load cell 36 which is arranged to deliver electric signals in response to the axial forces applied on the drill spindle 14 via the feed drive sleeve 22. These signals are received and treated by a non- illustrated drill operation monitoring and controlling unit connected to the drive motor 10.

In this embodiment of the invention the bearings 30,31,32 are of the needle type which is a suitable type of bearings. Alternatively, there could be used other types of roller bearings or even plain bearings. The important thing is that they do not transfer any axial load from the housing 12 to the drill spindle 14. A significant advantage gained by the bearing arrangement and axial force indication device according to the invention is that there is obtained a true indication of the axial force actually applied on the drill spindle 14 without any influence of occurring malfunctions of the power transmission between the motor and the feed drive mechanism 16.

The radial needle bearing support of the feed drive sleeve 22 is advantageous also in that the entire axial load on the drill spindle 14 is transferred to the housing 12 via a single thrust bearing 34 and that a single axial load sensing device could be used. This simplifies the signal treatment in the drill operation monitoring and controlling unit .

Still another advantage gained by the invention is that it enables a slim outer dimension of the drill spindle unit 11 because the needle bearing arrangement is very compact . A slimmer drill unit provides for an improved accessibility of the drill unit at different applications.

It is to be noted that the embodiments of the invention are not limited to the described example but can be freely varied within the scope of the claims. For instance the axial force sensing load cell 36 may be of any suitable type. One such type is a piezo electric element.