# GATE Questions & Answers of Cams

## What is Cams ?

A cam is very popular mechanism element that drives a mating component known as a follower. The unique feature of a cam is that it can impart a very precise and distinctive motion to its follower that is sometimes impossible to achieve using other linkages. The cam is usually driven with a constant velocity however the profile of the can controls the displacement, velocity and acceleration of the follower.

## What is the Weightage of Cams in GATE Exam?

Total 3 Questions have been asked from Cams topic of Theory of Machines subject in previous GATE papers. Average marks 2.00.

In a cam-follower, the follower rises by $h$ as the cam rotates by $\delta$ (radians) at constant angular velocity $\omega$ (radians/s). The follower is uniformly accelerating during the first half of the rise period and it is uniformly decelerating in the latter half of the rise period. Assuming that the magnitudes of the acceleration and deceleration are same, the maximum velocity of the follower is

In a cam design, the rise motion is given by a simple harmonic motion (SHM) $s=\frac{h}{2}\left(1-\mathrm{cos}\frac{\mathrm{\pi \theta }}{\beta }\right)$ where h is total rise, θ is camshaft angle, β is the total angle of the rise interval. The jerk is given by