Some notes about how to plot a cam profile.
Simplest method: the follower profile shall be just converted into polar coordinates, i.e. each vertical segment representing follower edge distance from lower axis shall be converted into circle radius.
Roller follower (video)
- 1: proceed like for knife follower, drawing a radius per each step in follower profile:
- 2: draw a circle centered on each follower edge position around cam center:
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3: draw a curved line tangent to all circles above
- 3a: Find intersection of follower axis at position 0 with cam radius:
- 3b: draw a tangent to second circle passing through point just found:
- 3c: mark the tangence point as P1:
- 3d: repeat from step 3a for next points, tracing tangents from last found point to next circle, until you arrive again to P0:
- 3d: smooth the resulting line into a contiuous curve:
to do