Study on Approach for Computer-Aided Design and Machining of General Cylindrical Cam Using Relative Velocity and Inverse Kinematics

Cylindrical Cam Mechanism which is one of the best eq uipments to accomplish an accurate motion transmission is widely used in the fie lds of industries, such as machine tool exchangers, textile machinery and automa tic transfer equipments. This paper proposes a new approach for the shape design and manufacturing of the cylindrical cam. The design approach uses the relative velocity concept and the manufacturing approach uses the inverse kinematics concept. For the shape desig n, the contact points between the cam and the follower roller are calculated bas ed on relative velocity of which the direction is on the common tangential line, and then the whole shape of cam is determined from transformation of the coordi nate system. For the manufacturing procedures, the location and the orientation of cutter path can be allocated corresponding to the designed shape data. The in tegral NC code for multi-axis CNC machining center is created using the inverse kinematics concept from the data of the location and the orientation of cutter path. As the advantages of the proposed approach, the machine tool is designed t o having an alternative size in fabricating the general cam, while the tool must be fitted to diameter size of the follower in the conventional approach. Finally, CAD/CAM program, "Cylindrical DAM", is developed on C++ lan guage. This program can perform shape design, manufacturing and kinematics simul ation, which can make integral NC code for multi-axis CNC machining center. The proposed method can be applied easily on fields of industries.