Optimal synthesis of a spring-actuated cam mechanism using a cubic spline

Abstract

This paper presents the optimal synthesis for a cam with non-constant angular velocity based on the dynamic model of a complete spring-actuated cam system. In order to satisfy asymmetric constraints and guarantee continuous contact at the cam-follower interface, the follower motion, which is dependent on the requirements during the closing period of a vacuum circuit breaker, is optimized using a cubic spline. The optimized cam is compared with a cam designed by assuming the cam angular velocity to be constant and with a polynomial cam. Simulation results reveal that the dynamic behaviours of the optimized cam are superior to those of the original cam and the polynomial cam.