What Is the Characteristics of Cam Follower?

Cam follower has a thick outer ring, a convex-shaped needle roller with a bumpy surface, and a surface-hardened double-ended bolt with a certain toughness, that can withstand impact loads. It is deeply loved by consumers, and now we will take you to have a deep understanding of the characteristics of the cam follower.

Due to the small contact area between the rolling elements and the raceway of the inner ring, when the bearing bears a load, especially under large loads, the contact pressure of the contact surface is very high. In order to prevent excessive plastic deformation under high contact stress, which could cause the loss of bearing accuracy or surface cracking, it is required that the bearing steel has a high elastic limit. Hardness is one of the important indicators of rolling bearings. It has a close relationship with material contact fatigue strength, wear resistance, and elastic limit, and directly affects the service life of rolling bearings. The hardness of the bearing usually depends on the overall situation of the bearing load, bearing size, and wall thickness. Steel for cam followers requires a high degree of dimensional accuracy, as most bearing parts must undergo pressure forming. In order to save material and improve labor productivity, the vast majority of bearing outer rings are formed by forging, steel balls are formed by cold heading or hot rolling, and small-sized rollers are formed by cold heading. If the dimensional accuracy of the steel is not high, the product quality of the bearing parts cannot be guaranteed, and it can easily cause equipment and mold damage.

Definition and origin of the cam follower

The profile surface of the roller needle of the roller wheel slightly shrinks at the near end. The result of contact correction between roller needle and raceway line can avoid destructive edge stress in cam followers. The thick-walled outer ring of the support roller cam follower is quenched at high temperature and high nitrogen, and the high-precision sorted rollers are guided by the high-rigidity outer ring retaining edge. Using linear contact, the roller can rotate easily on the raceway and can withstand huge loads. In order to remove stress, the outer ring supporting the roller adopts a curved surface design. Curved rollers have various specifications such as single or double seal rings, no seal rings, and seal rings.

Cam followers are equipped with thin and long rollers (the roller length is 3-10 times the diameter, and the diameter is generally not more than 5mm), so the radial structure is compact. When the inner diameter size and load capacity are the same as other types of bearings, the outer diameter is small, making it particularly suitable for supporting results with limited radial installation size. Depending on the different usage scenarios, bearings without inner rings or roller needles and retaining frame components can be used. At this time, the surface of the shaft neck or the housing bore surface matched with the bearing is directly used as the inner and outer rolling surface of the bearing. In order to ensure the load capacity and operation performance is the same as that of the bearing with a cushion ring, the hardness, processing accuracy, and surface quality of the shaft or outer housing rolling surface should be similar to the rolling path of the bearing cushion ring. This type of bearing can only withstand radial loads.

Characteristics of the cam follower

Cam followers have a high rotational speed.
Cam followers can withstand higher radial loads (larger than other bearings with the same radial size).
Cam followers cannot withstand axial loads.
Cam followers have high rigidity.

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