Contact characterization between a cam and a crowned roller follower

Abstract

In the higher pairs of a mechanism, like the one existing between a cam and roller follower, it is common to localize the maximum deformations, the maximum contact pressures and that appears the surface fatigue failure due to the relative motion between the cam and the roller. The formulations that characterized the contact are based in Hertz elastic contact theory. In this paper the contact between a cam and a crowned roller is studied applying the formulation for elliptical point contact proposed by Johnson. The contact ellipse obtained experimentally is presented to validate the elliptical point contact. The comparison of the width of the axes of the contact ellipse obtained experimentally and by the formulation presents the same level of errors than more sophisticated experimental methods.