Abstract
A general, integrated, and systematic procedure for the synthesis and analysis of non-rigid cam-follower systems is presented. The method is based on a linear, lumped, two-degree-of-freedom (two-DOF) model and uses spline functions for the synthesis of output motions. Solution techniques for differential equations are identified that make the method sufficiently fast and efficient to be employed in an iterative design process. For the equations that occur in the determination of the cam profile the finite element spline collocation method is used to obtain approximate solutions. To analyze the vibrational response of the follower system, both the finite element spline collocation method and the Crank-Nicolson method are applied. The overall procedure offers the advantage over other procedures of greater generality yet requires only routine application procedures. An example is provided to illustrate the complete synthesis/analysis procedure and the results are compared to those obtained using a traditional polynomial approach.
