Definition:

cam and follower mechanism is a profiled shape mounted on a shaft that causes a
lever or follower to move. Cam and follower are used to converting rotary motion into
linear (reciprocating) motion. As the cam rotates, the followers rise and fall in a
process known as reciprocating motion.

A cam is a reciprocating, oscillating or rotating body which imparts reciprocating or

oscillating motion to a second body, called the follower, with which it is in contact.
The shape of the cam depends upon its own motion, the required motion of the
follower and the shape of the contact face of the follower.

Working principle/mechanism:

The working principle of Cam and Followers depends on the mechanism of the
combination of both Cam and Followers.

A cam is a rotating or sliding piece in a mechanical linkage, which is used in

particular to convert a rotary motion into a linear motion. It is often part of a rotating
wheel (e.g. an eccentric wheel) or a shaft (e.g. a cylinder with an irregular shape)
that hits a lever at one or more points on its circular path.
The cam can be a simple tooth, such as is used to give pulses of power to a steam
hammer, or an eccentric disc or other shape that allows a gentle reciprocating
motion in the follower, which is a lever making contact with the cam

For the smooth functioning of a cam-follower mechanism, it is imperative that the

follower should move smoothly without requiring too much input power, which means
the follower should not jam, during its movement.

In an IC engine the valves have to be kept open; first, then close it and keep it
closed, all these timing operations can be easily set by having cam-follower
mechanisms. In the case of linkages, we study about planar linkages or two-
dimensional linkages and more.
Now moving to different types of Cam,

Types of CAM:
The following five types of CAM:

 Disc or Plate Cam

 Cylindrical Cam
 Translating Cam
 Radial Cam
 Wedge Cam

Disc or Plate Cam:

A disc or plate cam is a type of cams in which follower moves radially from the center
of rotation of the cam. These cams are very popular due to their simple design and
compactness that can be fitted into remote places. The application of Disc or Plate
Cam is in I.C engines and machine tools.

Cylindrical Cam:
A Cylindrical cam is the cam in which the cylinder rotates about its axis has a
circumferential contour cut on the cylinder surface. They are also of two types in the
first types a groove is cut on the surface of the cam and the roller and has a positive
oscillating motion. Another one is having a cylinder as the working surface. In this
type of cam spring-loaded follower translates along the parallel axis to the rotating
cylinder.

Translating Cam:
Translating cam is the type of cam in which cam can move in a horizontal plane. The
follower attached too, it has the motion constrained with the help of the spring. Some
times groove cams are used in which the follower motion is achieved without the use
of the spring.
Radial Cam:
If the input link also called cam rotates as angular motion, then cam has rotational or
angular motion and then we call it a radial cam.

This profiled body is called the cam. This has a revolute pair with the fixed link that is
the foundation or fixed link. Cam is the revoluting link. There is a revolute pair
between fixed link and the cam and the output link is the follower. If this cam rotates
depending on the profile or shape of the cam, the follower will have translatory
motion along with this prismatic pair between fixed link and the follower.

So uniform rotary motion of this cam will have oscillation of the follower along with
the guide.

Wedge Cam:
If the cam has a linear motion, then we call it a wedge cam. Wedge cam has a four-
link mechanism, first is the fixed link, the cam which looks like a wedge is the other
link. It depends on the profile of this wedge, as this cam oscillates in the horizontal
direction, the follower will oscillate along the vertical direction along with this
prismatic pair or this guide.

Now we are moving to follower,

What is a Follower?
A follower is a translating or oscillating mechanical member that follows the motion
of the cam. It can touch the surface profile of the cam or can be spring-loaded. It can
have uniform velocity or can have uniform acceleration motion. Complicated output
motion can be achieved with the help of the follower motion.

Types of Follower:
The six different types of follower are:

 Oscillating or Rotating follower

 Translating or Reciprocating follower
 Knife Edge Follower
 Roller Follower
 Flat Faced or Mushroom Follower
 Spherical faced Follower
Linear follower:
If the follower has linear motion, then we call it as a translating follower. Now for the
translating follower, that is the axis of that prismatic pair passes through the cam
centre, then we call it radially translating. We call it a radial translating follower when
the follower axis passes through the centre of the camshaft. If it has a little offset,
that means the axis of the translation of the follower does not pass through the cam
centre, then we call it as an offset translating follower.

Oscillating follower:
The cam rotates as before but this is the follower due to the shape of the cam, the
follower undergoes an oscillatory motion and the follower is hinged at this point. So,
this is called an oscillating follower.

Knife-edge follower:
If the follower has just a knife-edge with the cam then we call it a knife-edge follower.
the knife-edge is only theoretical because knife-edge follower is never used because
of the very high wear rate. Contact-stress will be extremely high

Roller follower:
The follower is hinged to a roller and this roller is in contact with the cam, this is
called roller follower. This is the cam that rotates and the follower which is hinged
here oscillates. it is used when a large force has to be transmitted like in stationary
IC engines. If there is not enough space to use a large roller because this pin has to
be sufficiently big to transmit the force between the cam and the follower and the
roller has to be bigger than the pin at least twice as big as the pin, then the roller
needs a lot of space.

Flat face follower:

The follower surface which is in contact with the cam is in the form of a flat surface is
called flat face follower. The follower surface, instead of flat, can be also a curved
surface. This is the cam that rotates and the follower which is hinged here oscillates,
so this is called curved-face. If space is restricted then we can use flat face follower,
if the force involved is not too large as we used in the case of automobiles.
APPLICATIONS:
A cam follower mechanism is an integral part which operates the inlet and exhaust
valves of an Internal Combustion Engine. A cam is a rotating part that converts
rotary motion into translating motion of a follower. The cam follower mechanism finds
application in machines of printing press, shoe industry, textile machinery, gear
cutting machines and screw machines. The contact surface between the cam and
follower causes friction loss which reduces the mechanical efficiency of the engine.
There are different methods to reduce the friction losses such as lubrication shape,
optimization etc. Few types of follower used are knife edge follower, flat follower,
roller follower and mushroom follower. In this work, we consider a roller cam follower
as it is widely used in the automobile engines and reduces the line contact between
the cam and follower.

PROBLEM STATEMENT
The existing cam and follower mechanisms used in internal combustion engines
have roller cam followers with full line contact. To improve the mechanical efficiency
and reduce the vibration, it is desirable to reduce the line contact between cam and
follower. In this work, an attempt is made to reduce the line contact by designing
different shapes of cam followers and then analyzing the results. Fig-1 shows the
line contact between the existing cam and follower.
METHODOLOGY
The design of roller cam follower is modified to reduce the line contact between the
cam and follower. In this work two types of modified designs are compared with the
existing design of roller cam follower. Software used for designing is Solid Works.
Standard dimensions are used for designing the roller cam follower. After completing
the design of the cam follower, the models are imported into IGES format for
analysis. ANSYS 14.5 software is used for the analysis. While analyzing the part,
three types of material are used: Structural steel, Stainless steel and Chromium
steel. Modal analysis and static structural analysis are then performed. Finally, the
results of the existing and the modified follower are compared.
DESIGNS OF THE CAM FOLLOWER
Three designs are evaluated: one is the existing design of the roller cam follower
and other two types are the modified types of roller cam follower. Fig. 1.2 – Design of
existing and modified follower The main difference in the existing and the modified
cam follower are in the mating point which is contacting with the cam follower.
Designs of the roller follower are shown in Fig. 1.2.
Prominent changes between the existing and modified design of the follower
Line contact area is the main difference of the existing and the modified design
follower.

CONCLUSION
In this work, modification is done in existing roller cam follower design. Two such
modifications are suggested. Main motive to change the design of the cam follower
is to reduce the line contact between the cam and the follower. It is 12.70 mm in the
existing design, and after modification it is 2 mm. Contact area has been kept the
same in the both modified designs.