An Evaluation of B-Spline for Synthesis of Cam Motion with a Large Number of Output Conditions

In the cam design process, cam motion functions play an important role due to affect not only kinematics but also the dynamics of the cam-follower systems. However, the selection of cam motion functions has been poor so far. This study aims to evaluate B-spline for the synthesis of cam motion with a large number of output conditions. The procedure for determining the cam motion was investigated. In addition, the comparison of the motion diagram between the cubic and quintic B-spline was also proposed. Moreover, Fourier analysis was used to examine the response of the kinematics in cam-follower systems. The results demonstrate that using quintic B-spline can be given good characteristics of the cam motion.