A Procedure for Measuring Planar Cam Profiles and Their Follower Motions

A procedure 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 proposed procedure, analytical results generated from a theoretical design are compared to those obtained by the application of the 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 developed procedure with the built measuring test bed are also compared to those obtained by using a coordinate measuring machine with the proposed algorithms.