Optimization and a reliability analysis of a cam-roller follower mechanism

The aim of this work is to synthesize a cam mechanism with translating roller follower based on optimization approaches and reliability analysis. The study consists of two parts. At first, this study performs preliminary deterministic optimization to find the optimum size of a cam system and to ensure its high operating performance. For this, an objective function is defined and that takes into account the three major design parameters typically influence the design of this type of mechanism: the base radius of the cam, the radius of the roller and the eccentricity. Also, constraints on performance and resistance indicators such as the acceptable pressure angles, size radius of curvature of directories curves, the efficiency of the transmission and the specific contact pressure between the cam and follower are taken into account in this work. The second part is devoted to a reliability-mechanism study whose system failure probability is estimated by two complementary methods: the approximation methods FORM/SORM and Monte Carlo simulation using the Phimeca reliability engineer Software. Moreover, inverse FORM was used to provide an elasticity factors evaluation in order to carry out possibilities of the cam mechanism design and reliability improvement. The study has shown that the reliability is greatly improved.