This calculator divides one revolution into rise, high dwell, return and low dwell, then calculates their times at constant speed. An illustrative cam shows the sequence. Its roller position uses a radial offset, not a solved roller-contact envelope, so the drawing is not a manufacturable cam profile.
Irregular Cam Motion Interactive Calculator
Explore rise, high-dwell, return and low-dwell angular/time budgets after enforcing nondecreasing phase boundaries.
Equation Used
- One complete cycle corresponds to 360 degrees and entered total cycle time T.
- Input angular speed is constant over the cycle.
- Phase boundaries are ordered rise end <= high-dwell end <= return end; invalid entered order is clamped.
- No follower lift, motion law, base circle, roller/flat follower, offset, pressure angle, curvature/undercut, velocity, acceleration, jerk, force, spring, contact, stress, wear or safety model.
The words rise and return identify phase allocations only. No lift, velocity, acceleration, jerk, base circle, follower or motion law is entered, so ‘slow’ and ‘fast’ behavior cannot be inferred.
Four-phase timing and normalized follower motion
The three entered end angles partition a 360-degree cycle into rise, high dwell, return and low dwell. At constant speed, each phase time is its angular share times the entered cycle time.
The visual uses a cubic rise and return to illustrate the entered angular spans. It places the roller above the radial profile value, which does not establish tangent contact on a sloping flank. This illustrative shape supplies no dimensional lift or roller-envelope design.
Use as timing-allocation arithmetic
The outputs can check that ordered phase allocations sum to one cycle. They cannot synthesize a cam, establish follower displacement or predict process performance.
Boundaries, not motion laws
Only angular spans are calculated. A rise occupying 120 degrees may follow many different displacement laws with different velocity, acceleration, jerk and pressure angle.
If a later entered boundary precedes an earlier one, the calculator clamps it to zero-length for that intervening phase rather than producing negative time.
Worked example
For boundaries 120, 180 and 260 degrees with a 6-second cycle, phase spans are 120, 60, 80 and 100 degrees. Their times are 2.000, 1.000, 1.333 and 1.667 seconds, summing to 6.000 seconds.
Limits of the timing calculation
Phase times alone do not define a working cam. Lift, follower dimensions and a displacement law determine its profile and motion derivatives. Roller contact, pressure angle, curvature and loads must also be evaluated; none is established by these timing outputs.
Questions
Does a shorter return allocation prove a faster safe return?
No. Lift and motion derivatives are absent.
Is the displayed cam a manufacturable profile?
No. It is a normalized explanatory shape generated from phase boundaries only.
Can the result determine pressure angle?
No. Physical lift, base-circle radius, roller dimensions and a selected displacement law are not provided.
About the illustration
The cam shape illustrates the entered phase boundaries with a fixed normalized lift. It does not reproduce the dimensions or exact profile of the reference video.
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