A method to synthesise groove cam Geneva mechanisms with increased dwell period

Abstract

The present study develops a method to synthesise the groove cam Geneva mechanism with increased dwell period. The main condition of the synthesis is to provide the desired law of motion of the wheel. Additional synthesis conditions are the limitation of the maximum pressure angle and the limitation of the minimum curvature radius of the cam profile. Unlike the conventional Geneva mechanisms, the synthesised groove cam Geneva mechanisms enable motion of the wheel due to an arbitrarily specified law, double locking of the wheel at its dwell-to-motion and motion-to-dwell transitions, absence of soft impacts in the extreme positions. The analysis shows that for the cycloidal law of motion, number of slots in range 3–15 and additional dwell coefficient in range 0–0.7, the operating time coefficient can be provided in wide range from 0.053 to 0.765. The effectiveness of the method is illustrated by numerical examples.