I said it would cause damage, he believes it would just stop.
He doesn't believe that the spinning magnetic force applied to the opposing electromagnetic force would yield any heat or change in energy other than a dead stop in electron flow. From what i know of physics and engineering he is incorrect?
So now it's academic?
What I've surmised from the description* your equipment:
Reversing applied polarity to a "separately excited" DC machine, which your sounds to be(permanent magnet), would cause a reversal and huge increase in current.
Motor would deposit its Iω
2 inertial energy into the external voltage source and interconnecting wires..
Large magnetic forces would hammer the internal conductors and field magnet.
How big a hammer? Determined by size of wires and strength of field.
Hopefully the machine is built so you can't make it do that.
But if it did that, an almost immediate and ungraceful stop would result.
This was something we demonstrated when i took machinery lab ~ 1965.
We applied a solid short circuit to a 7.5 hp machine but only after it had had rolled nearly to a stop. Still the "THUD" was impressive. So was the instantaneous halt.
This application note, Microchip AN905,
ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/appnotes/00905a.pdf
suggests that motors designed for PWM may be "braked" by using the H-bridge as a low resistance load to decelerate the motor. That'd be the designer's job to match braking resistance to motor characteristic.
That's my best guess from far away !
* description:
...spindle motor in a CNC mill(Milltronics VM22), i am not sure if it is AC or DC, I know it is controlled by a PWM system, it does full torque any speed, forward or reverse 10,000 rpms and yes it weighs a lot.
OMG that VM22 is a 16,000 pound 24 hp machine !
http://www.milltronics.net/Product_VM22_MillingMachines.aspx