Design of Torque Balancing Cams for Globoidal Cam Indexing Mechanisms

A technique for designing torque balancing cam (TBC) systems that are composed of spring-loaded planar cams with translating followers for globoidal cam indexing mechanisms (GCIMs) has been presented. Such a device can be attached to the input shaft of a GCIM to reduce the variation of its cam rotational speed. As a result, for high-speed applications, the intensity of residual vibrations of a GCIM can be decreased and its indexing accuracy can be improved. To approximate the required counterbalancing torque curves, nonparametric rational B-splines have been applied to synthesize the planar cam motion programs. Experimental results have also been shown to illustrate a practical, high-speed application. It has been proven that the use of such a TBC mechanism is useful and effective.