Nomograms for maximum pressure angles in radial cams with follower eccentricity for cycloidal and harmonic motion curves

For an adequate design of radial cams with translating roller followers, it is necessary to maintain the constraint that maximum pressure angle cannot exceed the empirically accepted value of 30°. The direct calculation of this parameter is difficult and it is usually sought to reduce it by trial and error. Nomograms that exist so far only calculated this angle for cams with no eccentricity between follower and cam. This research presents two nomograms with this additional parameter, which allows for greater design freedom using all available variables. The charts are for cycloidal and harmonic motion curves, and can be used for their full and half curves. The study discusses the advantages of using nomograms and the methods to obtain low values of maximum pressure angle by satisfactorily combining available parameters. Although nomograms are no longer a widely used tool in the industry, they still have didactic functions in textbooks and could be useful for preliminary analysis in engineering projects.