camshaft
13th World Congress in Mechanism and Machine Science, Guanajuato, México, 19-25 June, 2011
A21_574
Antique Applications of Cam Mechanisms
U. Meneghetti*
University of Bologna
Bologna, Italy
A. Maggiore†
University of Bologna
Bologna, Italy
It might be supposed that subsequent applications could have originated from those ancient ideas; however
─ if modern hypotheses about them are correct ─ no progress was made during the first millennium, so we prefer to start the history of cam applications from the year 1000 onwards.
Abstract—Cams are important mechanical devices widely used nowadays e.g. in i. c. engines, packaging machines and many other applications. In the past, they had interesting applications which in many cases were at the top of the mechanical engineering of the time. The most ancient documents regard camshafts used to operate devices like saws, hammers, bellows, and so on. The barrels of widespread mechanical musical instruments like organs, carillons and musical boxes originated from primordial camshafts. Ancient musical devices are sometimes quoted as the first programmable robots. The automata of the XVIII and XIX century are very complex applications of cams, where they are used to communicate an elaborate motion to the follower. More recent examples of cam applications are in typewriters, automatic lathes, analog computers and servomechanisms.
The paper briefly illustrates some cam applications during past centuries.
II. Camshafts
The first camshafts were simply shafts with some protuberances (“combs”, German “Kamm”, whence
“cam”).
When a protuberance strikes a movable member of the mechanism, this produces a displacement until the protuberance abandons it. In most cases, the follower is a lever and the camshaft is used to obtain an alternative motion.
Perhaps the first document in Europe regarding a camshaft is a drawing in the famous notebook by Villard de Honnecourt [1], a French architect and
A21_574
Antique Applications of Cam Mechanisms
U. Meneghetti*
University of Bologna
Bologna, Italy
A. Maggiore†
University of Bologna
Bologna, Italy
It might be supposed that subsequent applications could have originated from those ancient ideas; however
─ if modern hypotheses about them are correct ─ no progress was made during the first millennium, so we prefer to start the history of cam applications from the year 1000 onwards.
Abstract—Cams are important mechanical devices widely used nowadays e.g. in i. c. engines, packaging machines and many other applications. In the past, they had interesting applications which in many cases were at the top of the mechanical engineering of the time. The most ancient documents regard camshafts used to operate devices like saws, hammers, bellows, and so on. The barrels of widespread mechanical musical instruments like organs, carillons and musical boxes originated from primordial camshafts. Ancient musical devices are sometimes quoted as the first programmable robots. The automata of the XVIII and XIX century are very complex applications of cams, where they are used to communicate an elaborate motion to the follower. More recent examples of cam applications are in typewriters, automatic lathes, analog computers and servomechanisms.
The paper briefly illustrates some cam applications during past centuries.
II. Camshafts
The first camshafts were simply shafts with some protuberances (“combs”, German “Kamm”, whence
“cam”).
When a protuberance strikes a movable member of the mechanism, this produces a displacement until the protuberance abandons it. In most cases, the follower is a lever and the camshaft is used to obtain an alternative motion.
Perhaps the first document in Europe regarding a camshaft is a drawing in the famous notebook by Villard de Honnecourt [1], a French architect and
References: Villard de Honnecourt Disegni. Jaca Book, Milan, 1987. Taccola (Mariano di Jacopo called “il ─”) Liber tertius de ingeneis ac edifitiis non usitatis, ed. J. H. Beck. Il Polifilo, 1969. Giorgio Agricola (Georg Bauer) De Re Metallica, 1563. Facsimile, Macini P. and Mesini E., Eds., ANIM, Bologna, Italy, 1994. Vannoccio Biringuccio De la Pyrotechnia libri X, 1540. Biblioteca Digitale, fermi.imss.fi.it, IMSS Museo Galileo, Florence, Italy. Beck T., Beiträge zur Geschichte des Maschinenbaues. Berlin, 1899. al-Jazari The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices, 1206 of Culture, 1990. Salomon de Caus Les Raisons des forces mouvantes. Frankfurtam-Main, 1615. Heudin J-C. Les créatures artificielles: dès automates aux mondes virtuels, Odile Jacob, 2008. Maingot È, Les Automates, Paris, Hachette, 1959. Carrera R. & Loiseau D. Androidi, F. M. Ricci, ISBN 88 216 0317 2, 1980. Murray F. J. The Theory of Mathematical Machines. King’s Crown Press, 1948. 119-123, Sept. 1949; III: 126-130, Oct. 1949; IV: 121-124, Nov Institution Press, 1971. Barkan P. Trans. of the Fifth Conference on Mechanisms, (6476), 1958. Spur G., Stöferle T. Handbuch der Fertigungstechnik, Carl Hanser Verlag, München, 1979, ISBN 88 85009 54 9.