Cam-Follower Mechanism Using a Barrel Cam

The design of a novel transmission to convert rotational into translational motion, is reported in this paper. The transmission is based on a cam mechanism with roller mounted on a translating follower. This feature thus provides pure-rolling contact, by using the rollers on the sliders. Moreover, a provision is made to allow for the elimination of backlash. The design relies on a unified methodology for indexing cam mechanisms, whereby the same procedure is used to design planar, spherical, and spatial mechanisms.