charter Cams Advantages and Disadvantages Cams, like ratchets, are very popular intermittent Motion devices; but the two are rarely competitors for the same jobs. Like ratchets, cams are very simple mechanisms, at least they involve very few parts Unlike ratchets, however, cams give the desiguer seat freedom in his choice of motion patterns. Acceleration, velocity, and displacement ean all be ™anipulated and controlled by the cam designer. Other general advantages which ean be obtained with cam systems are sueh things as: a, High load-carrying ability b. Low shock and acceleration—virtual climi- nation of impact Very long life High reliability e. Quiet operation eae Disadvantages are less easy to find. The best cam ‘Systems require a rotary input; this is not o dis- Advantage to a machine designer, but it is for a Mechanism or instrument. designer, in many cases: A second, und more pertinent disadvantage is the fact that a cam must be manufactured with great Precision in order to realize its full potential. Again, ‘this is not a serious drawback when a heavy duty and/or sophisticated machine is involved, because ‘the advantages offered by cams are worth their cost, ‘but it can be a disadvantage in other areas if pro- duction quantities preclude precision easting, ete. Cam shapes are complex and good cams are costly. 13 But many companies make them and superb manu- facturing equipment is readily available, Driver and Driven Members In the best cam systems, the eam, itself, is the driver and a reciprocating or pivoted arm is the follower. Figure 8-1 is an example of such a eam system, The lobed member is the driver and the group of rollers is the follower. In this ease, two drivers are used to keep the follower system under positive control at all times. (See also Fig, 8-23.) It is also possible for a follower to drive a eam as in Fig. 8-2. Generally speaking, this class of eam systems is less desirable than the first, as far as acceleration patterns, ete., are concerned, but they find many applications. I think, for example, that the Geneva might be considered as a cam system of this class: but it is so important as an indexing device that we will devote a separate chapter to it later. ‘The “inverse eseapement” is also a follower-driven cam system. This mechanism is covered at length in the chapter on cscapements. Machine design handbooks often diseuss the pres- sure angle between a cam and its follower, Such treatments are always related to the first class of ‘eam systems in which the cam drives the follower. If the follower is mounted in slide bearings it is essential that the resultant forces generated by the cam on the follower deviate as little as possible from, the axis of the follower. 30 degrees is usually eon sidered a maximum pressure angle in a practicalche CAMS, us constant acceleration A\_nengelar | ‘ triangular engular acceleration cosine Fig. 8-4, Unpopular acceleration patterns for indexing cams motors, escapements, ete, Designers of cams for heavy-duty machinery or high-speed business mi chines, especially, have spent « good part of their Professional life thinking about the ‘ideal eam pro- file.” The results are described at length in many exeellent books on eam design and eannot be repented here as space docs not permit. But some general concepts can be considered. One historical goal of the eam designer has been to avoid instantancous change in aeecloration of the output, beeause this means the instantuncous appli- lad glad modified Daplesid pore ne affoet oxime plas angular acceleration Fig. 8-5. Popular acceleration patterns cation of foree; and “instantaneous force” means shock and oscillation, as explained in Chapter 3. ‘Thus, the cam designer tries to avoid acceleration, time patterns such as those of Fig. 8-4, and looks, instead, for smoothly changing patterns. It is virtu- ally impossible for the cam designer to build a practical eam with zero slope at the beginning and end of motion, but he can sueceed in making finite slopes such as those shown in Fig, 8-5. Designers say, however, that. since a truly zero slope at. the be= ginning and end of motion is impossible in a practi- eal cam, they look instead, for “continuity of ac~ celeration.”” max. speed + 200 rpm 7! max speed >1000 rpm angular acceleration rime Fig. 8-6, ‘The time required to get from zero to maximum acceleration has an influence on the maximum speed at which ' given cam can be driven in these modified trapeaoid curves ‘The cam designer would also like to keep peak accelerations as low as possible since peak stress in a system is proportional to peak acceleration, and high stress means massive machine members, heavy duty constraints and bearings, and/or rapid wear. The designer has also traditionally been interested in the rate-of-ehange of neceleration which is caused by his cam, The greater the rate-of-change, the more nearly he approaches instantaneous change, of course, and the more apt the eam is to produce unwanted vibrations throughout the machine, Cam, designers, therefore, have identified a ‘dimension BY shown in Fig, 8-6 on the modified trapezoid curve, as the pereentage of total acecleration time that is devoted to the transition from zero to peak16 CAMS ns acceleration. Mr. Neklutin, in his excellent book on ccamm designs (see bibliography in the appendix), says that designers were able to inerease the operating speed of modified trapezoid eams from # maximum of 300 rpm to over 1,000 rpm by increasing B from 15 pereent to 25 percent of the total acceleration time, as shown in the illustration. ‘A more recent concern of eam designers has been to minimize the peak input or drive torque require- ment for the eam, As explained in Chapter 4, the rive torque curve ean differ significantly from the cutput torque ot acceleration curve, and the two ‘cannot usually be minimized simultaneously. In Fig. 8-5, the modified sine eurve is more popular than the modified trapezoid, because the former requires a lower peak-drive torque ‘The Problem of Crossover Whatever starts must stop, and thus, every ace celeration in & machine is ultimately followed by a input AS oo & ae ouput Fig, 8-7, Simple barrel cam—roller gear system, deceleration. At some point the driver must become a brake as the acecleration goes from positive to negative. This is called the crossover point in a barrel or roller cam system and is one of the eam designer's problems. Figure 8-7 illustrates a simple barrel eam drive. ‘The input rotates continuously, the output moves intermittently. Figure 8-8 shows what happens at the erossover point in this particular system, When the follower is being aceclerated by the driver, the forees on the follower arc towards the left, as shown in sketch (a). At the crossover point the follower leaves the right-hand wall of the groove in the drive cam and moves toward the left-hand wall (b). The drive eam then brings the output to Fest by applying a force toward the right on the m= om 7 wo ue Tce ‘decelerating (by crossover © Peering Fig. 8-8. Illustration of the change in forces that oceuts of 4 follower during the crossover point, This is t echemat representation of the intermittent motion cam system how in Fig. 8-7. follower, us shown in sketch (c) of Fig, 8-8. The crossover point is defined as that point where & roller follower reverses its dircetion of rotation about its own axis, Af there is any play between roller and drive eam, then the change from acceleration to deceleration at the crossover point will be sudden and can caus? vibration, impact, chatter, ete. There would be play between follower and cam slot in the simple eam system shown in Fig. 8-7 because the follower will inevitably be a roller; in order to roll, it must have some freedom in the slot. More elegant eam systems Ore, (B) © Fig. 8-0. When the follower is driving the cam and enter? the drive slot ax at A, impact: vibration: chatter; ete.: 2° liable to occur. These ‘are avoiied when the follower enter® slong the axis of the drive slot, as at 2.2@a8 CAMS, output {A} __inpue 123 Fig, 8-23, Conjugate cam system with parallel input and output shafts, hand end of the helical spline. (‘The pinion velocity is ¥ rpm.) The action is similar to that of a push-pull helical-spline screwdriver. In the center illustration, the nut is not only being pushed down the helieal spline, it is also being rotated in a counterclockwise direetion. The rotation of the output gear will now be increased to a value X + Y; the rotation of the drive nut being added to the rotation produced by the translation of the drive nut down the helical spline. In the bottom illustration, the rive nut is being drawn back along the helical spline. It is also being rotated, still in a counterclockwise direetion, while being brought back. Since it is now following, the helieal spline, there will be no motion in the output pinion during this part of the operation. Ifa drive nut of this sort, then, could be eontinu- ously rotated in a counterclockwise direetion, and at the same time, moved back and forth along the helical spline, the output pinion would index inter- mittently with a velocity X + Y rpm, A cutaway view of an indexing drive developed by Roger Gerber, of the New Britain Machine Company, is shown in Fig. 8-25. This drive operates on the principle shown schematically in Fig. 8-24, in Which a drive nut (the inside of the eam shown on the right-hand end of the mechanism) is rotated continuously, and is simultancously reciprocated back and forth along a helical spline to produce intermittent motion in the output gear. In practice, the cam nut is rotated continuously only when the cluteh (shown on the left-hand end of the illustra tion) is engaged and the brake is disengaged. Adding & elutch-brake system to this device allows the ma- chine programmer to provide long dwell periods by electrical control of the input rotation. Tf the eluteh is left engaged, the deviee will continuously produce output cyeles. (Drawing made from information supplied by the Now Britain Machine Company.) Figure 8-26 shows one design for using the general principle iMustrated in Fig. 8-24. An input shaft Grives @ barrel cam and worm gear, both of which are keyed to the input shaft, but are free to slide along it. A roller on the frame engages a slot in the barrel cam and moves the eam gear assembly back and forth as the input turns. Rotation of the worm gear is effectively cancelicd or aided by this linear motion and the output worm wheel will move inter- mittently. This is similar to the motion shown sche- matically in Fig, 8-24, although, of course, is not identical to it. ‘A third design for a cam-helical dwell mechanism ouput Paes, we \y of output —©) inion, bearings Ee est drive nut Fig. 8 24. Helical apline-cam eystem,124 CAMS drive pulley brake clutch electrical coil ring gear fixed to che carrier driven at constant “x rpm helical Spline straight Spline output gear housing Fig. 8-25. Cutaway view of tho indexing drive of a helical spline-cam system, is shown in Fig. 8-27 and also operates on the general prineiples shown schematically in Fig, 8-24. ‘The mechanism of Fig. 8-28 is like an “inverse Geneva” with the eam driving the roller arm follower output - worm wheel barrel cam input Ss worm gear Reoratwceteautng of PRODUCT BNOLNEBRING Mopasne: June 8 Ta Fig. 8-26. Another helical spline-cam syatem, Since the cam cannot move one roller far enough to bring the next roller into engagement sith the next drive slot, the follower must be provided with four leaf springs which engage rollers on the slotted driver- The springs determine the torque this system ‘eat deliver to the load Anatomy of a Cam Now let us review some of the main features of & cam system, as shown again in Fig. 8-29, and discus each component of the system and its funetion: A. Follower turret (output) consists of two groups of three precision rollers fastened rigidly together by triangular yolks. ‘The rollers (followers) are yoke mounted, instead of cantilever mounted, for greater rugged- ness; B. Two hardened stcel cams (input) are shaped alike but are mounted in reverse order, rather like the mirror images of each other. (This can best be seen in Fig. 8-23.) The cams are fastened rigidly together; C- Two rollers (at least) are always in contact with the cams to eliminate backlash andch8 sleeved helical CAMS, 125 input output non - rotating rod Reprod emtery of PRODUCT ENGINEERING Mocasine: Jun 8, 105: pp. 67-58 Fig. 8-27. Cam-helical dwell mechanism. “crossover” effects. As a result, the follower turret is never free to move independently. Since no springs or other forms of eomplianee are presont, the various elements of the sys tem must be machined with considerable "oh ngs Fig. 8-28. A ono-of-v-kind eam system intended for light loads only. (U.S. Patent $,421,980; M, N, Mansour.) precision to make this possible; D. Input and output “shafts” are parallel and hollow, for convenience. Shafts ean be extended on cither and/or both sides of the system from either follower turret or cam assembly, for rowing coery of Commerial Cam and Machine Compeny Fig.8-20. The anatomy of a ear,126 CAMS: ch example. The distance between shafts must be carefully selected and maintained for proper performance; E. The cam profile is a modified sine curve (eycloidie-harmonie- eyeloidie) with low peak necelerations, and a relatively long period between peak ae- celerations. The curve makes a gradusl tran- sition to and from zero at the beginning and end of motion, hence, there is no instan- taneous change in acceleration (no “jerk”), thereby reducing vibration and shock. Historical Note Sinee man's beginning, new technology has very often found its first application in his weapons. Was the first lever spear? Or the first ratehet used to wind a catapult or a crossbow? Perhaps not, but certainly these uses were not far behind the original invention. In this chapter we have seen a sophisti- cated eam system used to index a high-speed aireraft cannon (Fig. 8-21), whose action is similar to that Fig, 890, Sketch of the trigger and hammer mechanism of an early Colt revolver. of the famous (or infamous) Gatling gun. In the illustration, Fig. 8-30, the trigger and hammer mechanisms of an early Colt revolver are shown. Perhaps it is stretching the case a bit to eall the ‘trigger a “one-shot eseapement,” but: certainly the chamber (+) is indexed by a ratchet (a).