Cam Designer SE™

Cams are one of the most useful and efficient devices for high speed machines. They are also one of the most difficult machine components to design because of their mathematical complexity. That's where CAM DESIGNER SE™ comes in. This mature program was written by an engineer for engineers to take the complexity of designing cams away and provide a design in minutes and not hours or days.

Watch the demo video (27 min)

Download a Demo Version of Cam Designer SE™

See the features below, or see what it can do for you in any of these three ways: Features Video, Demonstration Video, or download a demonstration version of CAM DESIGNER SE™.

• complete design and fabrication program for mechanical cams
• only one of its kind
• based on vector calculus not numerical methods.
• produces exact cam surfaces
• easy synthesis of the follower kinematics
• produces cnc files for most cnc machines
• handles 2D and 3D cams
• all of the basic follower motions
• supports most cams and follower combinations
• output to CAD programs and spread sheet programs

Kinematics basic profiles available:

• Cycloidal
• Harmonic
• Constant acceleration
• Constant velocity
• Modified sine (with variable C factor)
• Modified sine X% Constant Velocity (50% CV shown)
• Modified trapezoid (with modified C factor)
• Modified trapezoid X% Constant Velocity (50% CV shown)
• Polynomial (up to 20^th order) (Pause in mid stroke)
• Polynomial 3-4-5
• Polynomial 4-5-6-7
• Rise-return (matching acceleration or jerk)

Synthesis of the follower kinematics can be made by joining any of the basic profiles together.

Cams and followers supported:

• Circular plate cams with:
  • roller translating
    • Offset follower
    • Radial Inside face
    • Outside face
    • Groove
    • Rib
  • roller oscillating follower
    • Inside face
    • Outside face
    • Groove
    • Rib

• Linear plate cams with:
  • roller translating follower
    • Inside
    • Outside
    • Groove
    • Rib
  • roller oscillating follower
    • Inside
    • Outside
    • Groove
    • Rib

• Barrel cams with:
  • roller translating follower
    • Inside
    • Outside
    • Groove
    • Rib
  • roller oscillating follower
    • Inside
    • Outside
    • Groove
    • Rib
• Globoidal cams with oscillating rib

Other features:

Roller followers can be either cylindrical or crowned.

Conjugate cams easily designed.

Output from the geometry/dynamics computation:

• Displacement, velocity, acceleration, and jerk in real time.
• Pressure angle
• Contact stress (for both cylindrical and crowned followers)
• Torque or force to move the cam.
• Cam surface coordinates in Cartesian and cylindrical coordinates.
• Follower loading and mean speed so the follower may be selected accurately.
• Bearing computation utility for selecting a follower.
• Printed output of all the computed parameters.
• Graphic output includes graphs of any of the computed parameters.
• 2D and 3D views of the computed cam is available in wireframe configuration.
• View the cam by dynamic rotation
• Animate the cam and view various computed parameters, such as pressure angle or contact stress.
• Place various features on the drawing, such as bore, keyway, hub, followers, or cutters.
• Transfer the drawing to CAD software via:
  • DXF file transfer
  • Microsoft Excel transfer of the surface vectors
  • IGES transfer of the cam surface, to be used for creating a solid model of the cam.
  • Metafile.

Fabrication output:

• Cutter coordinates are computed and can be printed. These coordinates are exactly to the center of the cutter with no cutter compensation necessary.
• The CNC portion of the program allows the user to output an ASCII file of the G Code for fabricating the cam.
• CNC output can be produced for any machine that can be described via the generic machine setup.

Other features:

• Forces and masses may be modeled where they apply to the cam motion. Spring forces, masses, constant loads, effects due to gravity, and even loads and forces from the operation of the cam can be modeled accurately. This feature allows accurate computation of the stress on the cam surface and torque or force to move the cam.
• Any of the table output may be exported to Microsoft Excel® directly or to a comma/tab delimited ASCII file.
• Actual mass/inertia and force/torque loads can be modeled for better accuracy in determining stress and torque.