Contents:

1- Abstract. 2-Introduction. 3-Objectives. 4-Method and Equipment. 5-Theory. 6-Set Up and Procedure steps. 7-Results and Calculations. 8-Discussion. 9-Conclusion. 10-References.

Abstract:
These papers are concerned with cam, follower assemblies as they are one of the most abundant mechanical joint mechanisms. Their classifications and theory of operation is introduced in the theory part, and compared with the Experiments results.

Introduction:
Take a pencil and a book to do an experiment as shown to the right. Make the book an inclined plane and use the pencil as a slider (use your hand as a guide). When you move the book smoothly upward, what happens to the pencil? It will be pushed up along the guide. By this method, you have transformed one motion into another motion by a very simple device. This is the basic idea of a cam. A cam is an element of the cam-follower mechanical system that compels the movement of the follower by direct contact. The motion of the follower is the result of a program. Just as a computer is programmed, so is a cam. Thus, the system can be thought of as a mechanical information device. No one is sure where and how cams got their start. The Sanskrit (IndoIranian) term Jambha (cog, peg, or tooth) may indicate the geographic area in which they had their beginnings, and so may the Teutonic Kambr (toothed instrument), which refers to cam mechanisms that have their origin in the wedge (a linear cam) and have been found in Paleolithic Age relics of about 10,000 years ago. The later construction of the great pyramids of Egypt also involved the use of the wedge. However, it was the genius of Leonardo a Vinci that produced a modern design cam applied to a machine for pumping water. Cam-follower mechanisms are found in almost all mechanical devices and machines (i.e., agriculture, transportation equipment, textiles, packaging, machine tools, printing presses, automobile internal combustion engines, food processing machines, switches, ejection molds, and control systems, and more recently in micro machines such as micro electro mechanical systems [MEMS]).

Objectives:
The objects of this experiment are as follows: To study the relation between the angular movement of the cam and the in-plane movement of its follower. To see how the above relates to the contour of the cam and how it is applied to a constant rise cam (Uniform displacement). To measure the turning force required on the cam.

Method and Equipment: Equipment:

A secured vertically positioned mounting panel having holes aligned vertically and horizontally. A Cam and Roller follower Assembly. An adjustable Hook.

A spring balance.

Method:
Mount the Cam Roller assembly on the vertical mounting through two holes aligned horizontally and secure with nuts. Place the adjustable hook in a hole aligned vertically with the cam and secure with nuts. Slide the hook down to its lowest position and hang from it the Spring balance.

Theory:
The cam-follower system may be designed for path, motion, or function generation.

FOLLOWER TYPES:
Cam follower systems are classified by referring to the follower or the cam or both. Let us consider the follower first. The follower movement is translation, oscillation, or indexing. The follower surface is knife-edge, flat, curved, or roller. The follower restraint to the cam is positive-driven by the use of rollers in the cam groove or multiple conjugate cams, is spring-loaded, or occurs by gravity. Also, the translating follower line of motion with reference to the cam center may be radial or offset. The radial translating follower shown in Figure 1.4 will be used as an example. The popular oscillating follower and the rotating follower are discussed later. The knife-edge, or point, follower (Fig. 1.4a), is, as the name implies, a sharp edge in contact with the cam. Although simple in construction, this type of follower is not practical because it results in excessive wear of the contact point. It is employed in design as the center of the roller follower. For proper performance the follower is constrained to the cam at all speeds. The roller follower, Fig. 1.4b, is the most popular design for accomplishing this criterion. Commercially available roller followers use ball or needle bearings supported by a stem. Positive drive action is accomplished by a roller follower internally in a cam groove or track (Fig.1.8), by followers on the opposite side of a single cam (yoke cam, Fig. 1.10), or by conjugate dual disk cams (Fig. 1.11). The roller follower has a low coefficient of friction when compared to the other followers and is most frequently used in production machinery and some automotive engines. In contact with the cam surface the follower roller action at low speeds can be that of pure rolling; however, at higher speeds significant sliding is evident. In groove cams the fluctuation in roller speeds is the result of the driven rotational acceleration of the roller as it rides on different radial surfaces of the cam. Experience has shown that the grooved cam roller follower does not provide exact positive-driven action because of the necessary clearance (backlash) between the roller sides and its groove. Sliding, wear, noise, vibration, and shock may be induced at high speeds. Furthermore, high speeds and high load may necessitate the use of crowned or conical rollers to accommodate the potential misalignment of contacting surfaces to avoid excessive surface stresses and wear. Figures 1.4c and 1.4d show mushroom followers in
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which the contacting surface is either flat or spherical. The spherical face of the Figure 1.4d mushroom follower has a large radius that compensates for detrimental deflection or misalignment that may occur with the flat mushroom follower. The radial follower is one in which the follower translates along an axis passing through the cam center of rotation. This type, shown in Fig. 1.4, is the most common. The offset follower is one in which the axis of the follower movement is displaced from the cam center of rotation. Offsetting often improves action by reducing force, stress, and also the cams size. The eccentricity should be in the direction that improves force components tending to jam the translating follower in its bearing guide. Figure 1.5a shows a follower on a radial cam with an offset shown. Figure 1.5b shows the same relationship for a translating cam. In both cams, the follower path is not the profile displacement of the cam.

CAM CLASSIFICATIONS:
Cams are classified in three ways: 1. In terms of their shape, such as wedge, radial, cylindrical, globoid al, conical, spherical, or three-dimensional. 2. In terms of the follower motion, such as dwell-rise-dwell (DRD), dwell-rise-return dwell (DRRD), or rise-return-rise (RRR). 3. In terms of the follower constraint, which is accomplished by either positive drive or spring load as mentioned previously. The most popular industrial production cams (Fig. 1.6) are: Positive drive, radial groove cam. Radial conjugate dual cams. Cylindrical groove cam. For simplicity these wont be discussed but they are shown below:

Fig 1.4

Fig 1.5

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CAM DEFINITIONS:
The displacement diagram is a rectangular coordinate layout of the follower motion in one cycle of cam operation. The rise of the follower is shown as the ordinate with the length of the abscissa arbitrarily chosen. The transition point is the point on the cam at which the follower is at maximum velocity. In the displacement diagram, the transition point (point of inflection) is located at the maximum cam slope. The time chart or timing diagram is the superimposing of more than one displacement diagram on the same abscissa or time basis. This provides a comparison of the operation of interrelated cams. The cam profile is the actual working surface contour of the cam. It is the surface in contact with the knife-edge, roller surface, or flat-faced follower. The base circle is the smallest circle drawn to the cam profile from the radial cam center. Obviously, the cam size is dependent on the established size of the base circle. The trace point is the point on the follower located at the knife-edge, roller center, or spherical-faced center. The pitch curve, or pitch profile, is the path of the trace point. Figure 1.21 shows the pitch curve of a radial cam. In cam layout, this curve is often determined first and the cam profile is then established by tangents to the roller or flat-faced follower surfaces. For the elementary knife-edge follower, the pitch curve and cam profile are the same. The prime circle is the smallest circle drawn to the pitch curve from the cam center. It is similar to the base circle. The pressure angle is the angle (at any point) between the normal to the pitch curve and the direction of the follower motion. This angle is important in cam design because it represents the steepness of the cam profile, which if too large can affect the smoothness of the action. The pitch point is the point on the cam pitch having the maximum pressure angle. The pitch circle is one with its center at the cam axis passing through the pitch point.

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The radius of curvature at any point on the pitch curve is the radius of curvature of the curve at that point. Here, we define the curvature as a measure of the rate of change of the angle of inclination of the tangent with respect to the arc length. The transition point or crossover point is the position of maximum velocity where the acceleration changes from positive to negative and the inertia force of the follower changes direction accordingly.

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Cam Calculations:
In all cams, the displacement of the follower is given by the mathematical relationship ( ) ....1 where = cam angle rotation in radians. However, since the cam rotates at a constant angular velocity, the displacement can also be written as: () ....2 and ....3 where t = time for cam to rotate through angle , sec = cam angular velocity, rad/sec By the use of Eq. (1) the follower characteristics can be normalized (dimensionless) as follows: The cam profile is usually given as a function of the angle . Thus y = follower displacement .... 4 The instantaneous angular rate of change of displacement follower Velocity .... 5 The instantaneous angular rate of change of velocity follower Acceleration The instantaneous cam angle rate of change of acceleration follower Jerk

....6 ....7

By the use of Eq. (2) the follower characteristics can be expressed as direct time dependent as follows: The follower velocity can be written as: ....8 The follower acceleration: ....9 And the follower jerk: ....10

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BASIC CURVE CLASSIFICATION: SIMPLE POLYNOMIAL CURVES

The displacement equations of simple polynomial curves are of the form: where n = any number, C = a constant straight line, n = 1; parabolic or constant acceleration, n = 2; cubic or constant jerk, n = 3.

TRIGONOMETRIC CURVES
The curves of trigonometric form are: simple harmonic motion (SHM) or crank curve, which has a cosine acceleration curve; cycloidal, which has a sine acceleration curve; double harmonic; and elliptical.

OTHER CURVES
In addition to these two families are the miscellaneous, little-used curves: modified straight-line circular arc and the circular arc curves. These are employed primarily as an improvement over the characteristics of the straight line curve and for special design requirements.

CONSTANT VELOCITY CURVE

The constant velocity or uniform displacement curve is the simplest of all (n = 1). It has a straight-line displacement at a constant slope giving the smallest length for a given rise of all the curves. When the straight-line curve is developed for a radial cam, it becomes the Archimedes spiral.

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For a constant velocity curve: At At

We see that the displacement is uniform, the velocity is constant, and the acceleration is zero during the rise. At the ends where the dwell meets the curve, however, we have an impractical condition. That is, as we go from the dwell (zero velocity) to a finite velocity, we have an instantaneous change in velocity, giving a theoretically infinite acceleration. This acceleration transmits high shock throughout the follower linkage, the magnitude of which depends on its flexibility. In other words, we have a bump in the contour that neither a roller nor other follower could follow. This curve is therefore impractical for a DRD cam.

MODIFIED CONSTANT VELOCITY CURVE WITH CIRCULAR ARCS:

The constant velocity curve with its infinite acceleration and abrupt shock at the ends of the DRD cam is rarely used in industry. It can be applied with minor modifications. One such modification is made by utilizing circular arcs with a radius h and a tangent at the dwell ends (Fig. 2.3). In view of the poor characteristics of this curve, mathematical presentation is omitted.

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Procedure Steps:
Wind the cord clockwise around the pulley behind the cam and loop the end on the hook of the spring balance. Turn the cam to the starting position with zero angle measured from the center of the cam to the center of the roller follower to induce a zero moments arm. Calibrate the spring balance to read zero force at this position. Slide the hook upwards until angle. Read and record the turning force shown on the spring balance scale. Repeat with recording and tabulating the results. Reset the cam to the zero angle and record the distance measured from the center of the cam to the point of contact with the roller follower. Repeat with recording and tabulating the results.

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Results and calculations:

Angle 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 Force F N 0.4 1 1.1 1.3 1.2 1.3 1.1 1 0.8 0.4 Distance h mm 40 44 50 57 64 69 75 80 87 92

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Discussion:
It is apparent from the displacement diagram that the cam used for the experiment has a uniform displacement curve (constant velocity in the follower). As verified from the slope of the displacement curve which is constant with some discrepancies present. The equation that fit the curve was found to be h= 0.287575758 + 29.21818182 Which is similar to Where is the max displacement and displacement is attained. the angle through which the max for

A high shock load is expected if this cam, roller assembly was to be run in real applications as the cam is to change movement direction in its min and max positions (i.e ), because the cam here acts like a bouncing ball producing inelastic collision: And at instantaneously

The relation between the angle and the turning force was found to be linear but it is expected that the cam will overhaul at max position because at this point the roller normal force passes through the center of cam and thus no moment is resisting the moment produced by the pulled spring scale.

The propagation of error from the input values of to the resulted values of displacement y is formulized in statistics theory as follows:

Thus as h increases the percentage error decreases. While, when the increases the total error increases.
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Therefore we find that the errors and the discrepancies are not totally due to error propagation. Nevertheless, they statistical propagation errors) exist and are mainly responsible for the discrepancies in both the displacement and force diagrams. On the other hand human errors are also present and are one of the causes of the discrepancies in both the displacement and force diagrams.
The reason that, the error between the expected value and the curve fits measured value being proportional to the displacement, is expected to be caused by the cam profile, as it is the only possible reason behind inducing displacement dependent errors between, the values expected if the cam profile was truly that that would produce uniform displacement, and the values resulted after statistical means of reducing measurement errors from the measured values. Another possible reason for this error is maybe, that the formula for a translating rollers uniform displacement cam, is different than the formula for an oscillating roller. Because when the cam is rotated the angle measured is not the angle the cam rotated rather, it is the relative angle (i.e. The angle the cam was expected to rotate, minus the angle the cam did not rotate because the follower moved relative to the cam)

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Conclusion:
A modified cam is advised for real applications, where the reaches zero value and change direction, over a small allowed range, not abruptly as is the case with the ordinary cams. The formula assumed in the theory part was that for a translating roller follower. Another formula for the oscillating roller follower must be looked for.

References:
Harold A. Rothbart, Cam Design Handbook , 2004, College of Science and Engineering, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, New Jersey McGraw-Hill Companies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki.

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