Title: Cam Jump Phenomena

TYPES OF CAM

ACCORDING TO ACCORDING TO
ACCORDING TO SHAPE
FOLLOWER MOTION CONSTRAINT MOTION

A)PRELOADED SPRING A)FLAT/WEDGE

A)DWELL-RISE-DWELL
B)POSITIVE DRIVE B)RADIAL
B)DWELL-RISE-RETURN-
DWELL C)GRAVITY CAM C)DISC
C)RISE-RETURN-RISE
Aim:-
-To study various types of cams and follower systems and verification of cam jump
phenomena.

Theory:-
Cam follower systems are frequently used in all kinds of machines, especially in automatic
machines like machine tools, printing presses, IC engines, mechanical devices, etc. A cam is
a mechanical member for transmitting desired motion to a follower by direct contact. Driver
is called as cam and driven member is known as follower. The cam may remain stationery or
translate, oscillate or rotate whereas follower may translate or oscillate. Because of the
various cam geometries and large number of cam and followers combinations, the cam is a
very versatile mechanical element. Although cam and follower maybe designed for motions,
path or function generation, majority of applications utilize cam and follower for function
generation. The rotary motion of cam is imparted to roller follower which is oscillating. The
direct contact between cam and follower is maintained due to self-weight of follower and the
spring force.
In most of the cases the cam is connected with the frame to form a sliding pair. The cam and
follower form a three link mechanism of the higher pair type.
The three links of higher pair mechanisms are:-
 Cam which is the driving link and has a straight or curved contact surface.
The follower is the driven link and it gets motion by contact with surface of the cam.
The frame which is used to support the cam and guide follower when cams are
required to produce on a large scale, milling methods are used.

Types of cams:-
Cams may be basically classified in three ways:-
According to follower motion.
According to shape.
According to the manner of constraint of follower.

According to follower motion:-

There are three basic types of cams classified in terms of type of follower motion. A dwell is
a zero displacement of the follower during rotation of the cam.
Dwell-rise-dwell-cam(DRDC):-
The dwelling of the cam is followed by rise and dwell period. This type of cam is widely
used in machinery. This type of cam is as shown in figure (2).
Dwell-rise-return-dwell-cam(DRRDC):-
This type has the rise and return preceded and followed by a dwell. This type of cam is
shown in figure it has applications in machinery.
Rise-return-rise-cam(RRRC):-
This type has only the rise and return contour and has no dwell. This type of cam is as shown
figure (1.4).it has a limited use in industry.
According to shape:-
Following are the three most common cam types according to cam shapes.
Wedge cam or flat cam:-
Wedge cam has a wedge, which in general has translation motion. The follower may either
translate or oscillate. Follower is held in contact by a spring. Instead of using this shape, flat
plate with a groove can be used and hence also called flat cam. The follower is held in
contact by a positive drive groove and a roller.
Radial or disc cam:-
In this type, position of follower is determined by cam axis. The follower reciprocates or
oscillates in a plane at right angles to the cam.
Cylindrical or barrel cam:-
In cylindrical cam,a cylinder which has a circumferential contour cut into a surface of
rotation. The follower reciprocates or oscillates in a plane parallel to axis of cam.in
cylindrical cam,followers are usually used. Cam is of positive drive type.

According to the manner of constraint of follower:-

For proper performance of cam follower system, followers must be constrained to maintain
the contact with the cam at all speeds and for all types. This is by either a preloaded
compression spring or a positive drive conductor or by gravity.
Preloaded spring cam:-
This type of spring cam is used for the purpose of keeping contact between cam and follower.
Positive drive cam:-
A cylindrical cam as shown in figure and a wedge cam as shown dont need any external
force to maintain contact between follower and cam profile. Figures show yoke cam and
conjugated cam which are also positive drive cams.
Gravity cam:-
In this type, the cam rise is achieved by rising surface of the cam and return due to force of
gravity or due to weight of the follower.

Types of followers:-
As discussed earlier, followers either reciprocate of oscillate. They may be further divided
into subgroups according to:
Shape of the follower.
Movement of follower.
Location of line movement.

According to shape of the follower:-

Knife edge:-
It is simplest in construction, but very little practical use due to the fact that extreme wear of
cam surface and contact surface will take place.
Roller follower:-
The rolling motion takes place between contact surfaces and hence the rate of wear is greatly
reduced. The roller action at low speed is pure rolling but as speed increases fluctuation
occurs.it is widely used in cam follower system. The roller follower jams the cam in case of
steep rise.
Flat face mushroom follower:-
Here the contacting end of the follower is a perfectly flat face. The relative motion between
the contact surface is largely of sliding nature.
According to movement of the follower:-
Reciprocating follower:-
In this type, the cam rotates and the follower reciprocates or translates in the guides.
Oscillating follower:-
In this type, cam rotates and the follower rotates about the pivot.

According to location of line movement:-

Radial follower (inline):-
Radial follower is also known as inline follower in which the line of action of movement of
follower passes through the centre of rotation of cam.

Cam jump phenomena:-

Theory:-
The jump phenomena of eccentric cam and follower in a cam and follower system, the
contact between cam surface and follower are maintained by means of retaining spring.
Beyond a particular speed of cam rotation, follower may lose contact with the cam because of
inertia force acting on the follower. This phenomenon is known as jump phenomena. When
the follower re-establishes contact with the cam, it may do so with several impact loads that
can damage the surface of cam and hammering noise can be heard at this jump speed.
During follower jump, transient vibrations are setup in the follower and this occurs only at
high speed, highly flexible cam and follower system with jump, the cam and follower
separate owing to excessively unbalanced forces exceeding. The spring force is period of
negative acceleration. This is undesirable as fundamental function of cam follower system,
the constraint and control of follower motion are not maintained. Also life of cam flank
surface is reduced due to hammering action of follower on cam and noise is generated, which
results in system vibrations. The jump phenomena cam be avoided by limiting speed of the
cam.
Eccentric cam follower system which is analysed for the jump phenomena;

Lift of follower is;

y=OC-CR
 =e-OPcos
=e-ecos.(1)

Differentiating eqn 1.wrt time(t) velocity of follower is;

Differentiating again;

Now consider arrangement as shown in figure.

Let,
m: mass of follower
e: eccentricity
k: spring stiffness
F: contact force between cam and follower
Fs: total spring force
P: preload in spring
:angular speed of cam

Then from FBD, we have;

Inertia force=my (downwards)
Total spring force Fs=ky(downwards)
Preload in spring=P (downwards)
Contact force between cam and follower=F (upwards)

Thus equilibrium becomes;

Description of setup:-
The machine is a motorised unit consisting of cam shaft driven by a d.c. motor. The shaft
runs in a double ball bearing.at the end of the camshaft, a cam can be easily mounted. The
follower is properly guided in gun metal bushes, which can be suited to the cam under test. A
graduated circular protractor is fitted coaxially with the shaft and a dial gauge is fitted to note
the follower displacement for the angle of cam rotations. A spring is used to provide the
controlling force to the system. Weights on the follower rod can be adjusted according to the
requirements.an arrangement is provided to vary the speed of the camshaft. The machine is
very useful for cam performance.
 The machine clearly shows the effect of change of inertia state on the jump of the cam
follower system throughout the experiment.it is used for testing various cam follower pairs
like;
Circular arc cam with mushroom follower.
Tangent cam with roller follower.
Eccentric cam with knife edge follower.

Experiment accessories:-
Setup of cam and follower, dimmer stat, dial gauge and tachometer.

Procedure:-
Select a suitable cam and follower combination. Fix the cam on the driving shaft and
follower on push rod and properly tighten the check nut.
Give required initial compression to the spring in order that initial compression is not
lost during compression. The check nut is to be tightened against the spring seat.
Choose suitable amount of weight to be added to the follower. Weights in the central
hole can be inserted from the top end to push rod. A test plate for weights should be
first screwed and tightened against lowermost motion. Then add weights and tighten
the upper end nut.
See that the knob of dimmerstat is at zero position.
Now switch on the supply and increase the motor speed gradually with dimmerstat.do
not operates the knob vigorously.
For different weights note the speed at which jump occurs. When the jump occurs, the
follower bounces on the cam surface giving audible thumping sound.
Plot the graph of speed versus the weights added.

Result table:-

Sr.NO. Weight added(kg) N (theoretical) rpm N (experimental) rpm

01.
02.
03.
04.
05.

Conclusion:-
Hence we have studied various types of cams and followers and also studied the cam jump
phenomena. It was found that speed of cam jump calculated theoretically is approximately
equal to experimental speed.
Observations table:-

Sr.No. Weight added (kg) N (experimental) rpm

01.
02.
03.
04.
05.

Calculations:-

Stiffness of spring (k) =

Eccentricity (e) =
Mass of follower =

For 1kg weight;