Valve moving apparatus of an internal combustion engine

A valve moving apparatus of an internal combustion engine having an intake camshaft provided with at least one intake cam piece for opening and closing an intake valve and an exhaust camshaft provided with at least one exhaust cam piece for opening and closing an exhaust valve, at least one of said intake cam piece and said exhaust cam piece having a variable cam piece provided with a variable cam section having different valve operating characteristics changing in direction of a rotary axis of said intake camshaft or said exhaust camshaft for opening and closing said intake valve or said exhaust valve in accordance with said valve operating characteristic including lift amount and operation angle, wherein

• Said variable cam piece is provided on said intake camshaft or said exhaust camshaft so as to slide in direction of said rotary axis;
• a driving mechanism for moving said variable cam piece in direction of said rotary axis in accordance with engine operating condition to change said valve operating characteristic of said intake valve or said exhaust valve;
• said driving mechanism comprises a movable member driven so as to reciprocate along a center axis and arms extending from said movable member toward said intake camshaft or said exhaust camshaft having contact sections contacted with both side surfaces of said variable cam piece in direction of said rotary axis, respectively;
• said center axis of said movable member is positioned near a center axis of a cylinder of said internal combustion engine more than said rotary axis of said intake camshaft or said exhaust camshaft;
• and
• said variable cam piece has cams adjacent to each other having respective base circle portions smoothly connected with each other.