The study included five different cam profiles and five types of followers all with the same follower rise-return-dwell profile as a function of the cam angle of rotation as shown in the following image. The cams were designed using Sketcher and PartDesign then assembled and animated with Assembly4. Variables and Expressions were used to calculate the follower lift positions and as assembly constraints.
My design study file is attached for reference. Please note that I experimented with different ways of creating B-splines as at the time I was not that familiar with them since they were rarely used in my previous projects. The B-splines are approximate since they are created by "eye" but well within normal manufacturing tolerances. When tangent constraints are finally available the splines will be more accurate and easier to apply with this method.
I will be describing the method used for each cam in additional posts for those interested in the detail.
Code: Select all
OS: Windows 10 Version 2009
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.21.30492 (Git)
Build type: Release
Branch: master
Hash: b4578fb3eae842eb510a1bc055d07d369a67ce94
Python 3.10.6, Qt 5.15.4, Coin 4.0.0, Vtk 9.1.0, OCC 7.6.3
Locale: English/United States (en_US)
Installed mods:
* Assembly4 0.12.4
* fasteners 0.4.15
* freecad.gears 1.0.0