Plasma process promises ultrafine powders

Abstract

Traditionally the production grinding of camshaft profiles has been mechanically copying from a master campack. This has the disadvantage of cost and lead time to manufacture the master cam and places restrictions on accuracy and production rate. Existing commercially available CNC machines for cam grinding are versatile in operation but operate at very low production rates. The paper describes the research, design and development following the early research described in McKeown and Dinsdale's paper on this subject (CIRP Annals Vol. 23/1/1974 pp 115 and 116). A new high performance machine to grind camshaft profiles under CNC control at economic production rates and enhanced accuracy has now been brought to commercial fruition. Features described include: high performance servo drive wheel infeed system, variable workspindle rotation speed to maintain uniform surface cutting speed conditions, software compensation for wheel radius changes, direct data input from lift figures, and generation of master campacks without need for additional data input. Results from prototype machines show that consistently accurate camshafts can be produced with excellent surface finish at competitive production rates.