Case Study: Carbomech halves physical prototypes and validates 180,000 rpm spindle design with SimScale

Carbomech used SimScale FEA to develop a high-speed motorized spindle

Carbomech, an Italian startup founded in 2015 that develops high-end motorized spindles for PCB and CNC machining, needed to bring a new air-bearing spindle to market capable of 180,000 rpm. Their challenge was to find the natural frequencies and dimension the shaft so that high-speed deformation would not cause contact with tight air-bearing gaps of only a few micrometers, all while minimizing costly physical prototypes. To do this they used the SimScale FEA cloud-based platform.

Using SimScale, Carbomech performed modal analyses and a centrifugal (180,000 rpm) strength study with a second-order mesh (~500k elements) to identify natural modes, stress distribution and micro‑scale displacements, then iterated the CM180 geometry accordingly. SimScale’s simulations validated the redesign, cut physical prototyping by 50%, sped development from CAD to results, and delivered high ROI (each spindle costs 3–4× a SimScale subscription), with ongoing support from SimScale’s customer success team.

Carbomech

Fabrizio Pauri

CEO and Chief Engineer