Development of a Measuring System for Planar Cam Profiles and Their Follower Motions

A measuring system that can be used to inspect planar cam contours and to evaluate their follower displacement, velocity, and acceleration curves with a higher degree of accuracy without the aid of approximating follower displacements in traditional methods is constructed. Based on the geometric relationships at the contact point between a planar cam profile and its follower, analytical descriptions that can be utilized to determine the follower displacement curve and its derivatives are first identified. To verify the feasibility and accuracy of the algorithms proposed for the measuring system, analytical results generated from a theoretical design are compared to those obtained by the application of the computing procedure. To demonstrate the effectiveness and usefulness of the developed procedure, a measuring test bed has been constructed for a practical application example. Furthermore, the results obtained by using the built measuring system are also compared to those obtained by using a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) with the proposed algorithms.