MENG 371 Test 3 November 21, 1999 Name:

For the first 3 questions, please answer with your own words and complete sentences.
1) (7) What is the fundamental law of cam design?

2) (7) What is the radius of curvature criteria for cam design? How does it differ for roller
and flat faced followers? What happens if this criteria is not followed?

3) (7) What are force-closed and form-closed cams? When would one pick one over the
other?

4) In order to get a smoother

1
running table mechanism, v 5
TablesRUs added a pulley 12 45
system to its four-bar table leaf 2 4
insertion mechanism to make a
single degree of freedom 3
system. This forces 12 = 45+.
(Note: 12 and 45 are measured
in opposite directions.) If the
For illustrative purposes only, not to scale.
table is assembled correctly,
should be 0, and the leaf will
always remain horizontal.
Unfortunately, this is not the case in our table, so the leaf will rotate during the movement
of the table. Table tops 1 and 5 are connected by a slider mechanism that is not shown in
the drawing (they will always be in the same line, but can move with respect to each
other.)
a) (10) Define necessary lengths and angles, and set up a vector loop equation for the
table mechanism. (You can do your drawing on this sheet if you want).
b) (25) For tabletop 1 moving to the right at a constant velocity v, tabletop 5 grounded,
write a MATLAB function which will return the angular velocity and acceleration of
the links and leaf. You can assume you have a function that will return the angles of
the mechanism for a given position of the right tabletop. The function you write
should accept as inputs, the lengths, the position and velocity of the tabletop (1).
c) (5) Even if the geometry were correct, what problem would this table experience
when the leaf was in the inserted position? (The answer is not collision with the
tabletop.)

5) It is desired to dwell for 2 seconds, rise to 2 inches in 3 seconds, dwell there for a second,
then fall back to zero in 2 seconds. It is desired to minimize the kinetic energy in the
system.
a) (10) Sketch the SVAJ diagram for the system.
b) (20) What steps would you use in Dynacam to design the cam system.
c) (5) For a three inch Rp and no follower offset, what is the maximum pressure angle on
the rise?
d) (5) Would you expect to need to use eccentricity in this cam? Why or why not?