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Plate cam with flat-faced follower (constant acceleration (parabolic) rise)

How does a plate cam with a flat-faced follower work? · Hardware · basis: Xem Studio design following Brown No. 138 (1868)

Also called: flat-faced follower cam, cam and follower, parabolic cam profile, leva de disco con seguidor de cara plana, Kurvenscheibe mit Flachstößel

Exact dimensions. True size, with no printing tolerance added.

sizes
5 in table

Notes

  • A disc cam turning on its shaft lifts a flat-faced follower that slides in a straight guide: the profile is drawn from the displacement law — here constant acceleration (parabolic) rise of 12 mm over 120°, dwell, return, dwell.
  • Flat face: contact point moves sideways by ds/dθ, the profile must be convex; constant-acceleration (parabolic) motion gives the lowest peak acceleration.
  • Drawn at 60° of cam rotation (mid-rise, lift 6 mm) with the follower touching the profile; follower guide 30 × 16 block. Brown's No. 138.
  • Parts (each has its own page): plate-cam-parabolic-flat-r20-h12, flat-face-follower-40, follower-guide-block-8.
  • Brown's movement No. 138 (1868) shows it; this model is a Xem Studio design following his figure, every part at true size.

Plate cam with flat-faced follower (constant acceleration… size chart

parametervalue
base circleR20
rise12 mm / 120°
lawconstant acceleration (parabolic)
followerflat-faced
pose60°, lift 6 mm

Where the files are

Other publishers' files are linked, not hosted. "verify" = check the license at the link before commercial use.

Henry T. Brown (1868, public domain)Five Hundred and Seven Mechanical Movements — scan on archive.orgwebPublisher's page; dimensions are facts
507movements.comBrown's movement No. 138: figure, his text and an animationwebPublisher's page; dimensions are facts

Free files

★ Free files 1 parts. Generated by Xem Studio from the standard; threads are plain cylinders at major diameter. CC BY 4.0. index.json

plate-cam-flat-follower-mechanism-assemblyAssembled mechanism, all parts placed at one pose (STEP keeps each part separate)STEP · STL
Let your AI pull this. Add https://xemstudio.com/mcp to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any MCP client (free, no account, one minute) and it can look up exact sizes, mating fits and free STEP/STL from every chat.
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Plain text: sheet.txt · JSON: /api/geometry?object=plate-cam-flat-follower-mechanism

Plate cam with flat-faced follower (constant acceleration (parabolic) rise), isometric render of a generated part
Render of plate-cam-flat-follower-mechanism-assembly from the free STEP; not to scale.

Fits with

Plate cam, constant acceleration (parabolic) rise 12 mm, base circle R20, for a flat-faced follower, isometric render of a generated part
Plate cam, constant acceleration (parabolic) rise 12 mm, base circle R20, for a flat-faced follower52.0×52.0×6.0 mm★ 1 file
Flat-faced cam follower, 40 mm face, 8 mm stem, isometric render of a generated part
Flat-faced cam follower, 40 mm face, 8 mm stem40.0×60.0×6.0 mm★ 1 file
Follower guide block 30 × 16 × 6 for an 8 mm wide follower, isometric render of a generated part
Follower guide block 30 × 16 × 6 for an 8 mm wide follower30.0×16.0×6.0 mm★ 1 file

Questions

How does a plate cam with a flat-faced follower work?

A disc cam turning on its shaft lifts a flat-faced follower that slides in a straight guide: the profile is drawn from the displacement law — here constant acceleration (parabolic) rise of 12 mm over 120°, dwell, return, dwell.