Cam drive system having parallel input and output shafts
AssigneeDocumation Incorporated
InventorsJoseph F. Cattorini, Subhash R. Dandage
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A cam drive system having parallel input and output shafts and means for rotating the input shaft includes a plurality of cams coupled at intervals around the periphery of the input shaft. Each cam utilizes a camming surface which incorporates a radially outwardly sweeping step section and a constant radius dwell section positioned adjacent to each step section. A plurality of cam followers are coupled at intervals around the periphery of the output shaft. Each cam follower is aligned to engage a single one of the cams. The present invention converts the continuous rotation of the input shaft into intermittant displacements of the output shaft.
Claims18
A cam drive system having parallel input and output shafts and means for rotating said input shaft, said system comprising:
- a. a plurality of geometrically identical cams coupled along the length of said input shaft at equal angular intervals, each said cam having a camming surface occupying an arc of less than one hundred eighty degrees and including
- i. a radially outwardly sweeping step section;
- ii. a constant radius dwell section adjacent said step section;
- b. a plurality of geometrically identical cam followers coupled in diametrically opposed pairs at equal angular intervals along the length of said output shaft, each pair of said followers being aligned to engage the entire camming surface of a single one of said cams;
- and
- c. biasing means coupled to said output shaft for continuously biasing said cam followers against the camming surfaces of said cams, whereby the continuous rotation of said input shaft is converted into stepped angular displacements of said output shaft, each stepped displacement of said output shaft being followed by a dwell interval of a predetermined duration.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.