Design General Cam Profiles Based on Finite Element Method

This paper presents a general framework to design a cam profile using the finite element method from given displacements of the follower. The arbitrarily complex cam profile is described by Lagrangian finite elements, which are formed by the connectivity of nodes. In order to obtain the desired profile, a penalty-type functional that enforces the prescribed displacement of the follower is proposed. Additionally, in order to ensure convexity of the functional, a numerical stabilization scheme is used. The nodal positions are then obtained by solving a nonlinear system of equations resulting from minimizing the total functional. The geometrical accuracy of the cam profile can be controlled by the number of finite elements. A case study is considered to illustrate the flexibility, accuracy, and robustness of the proposed approach.