Linkage and Cam Design with MechDev Based on Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines

Several software products exist in order to support engineers during the mechanism design process. The software “Mechanism Developer” (abbr. MechDev) is one of these products. MechDev provides many functionalities concerning the kinematic and kinetostatic analysis of mechanisms based on revolute, prismatic as well as cam joints. This paper will introduce the software MechDev and will outline these functionalities. Furthermore, it will name the advantages of MechDev compared to other software products. In order to give an impression of the functionality of the software, this paper also includes a special use case. This use case describes a cam mechanism with a prismatic roller-follower. In order to optimize the transmission angle of the cam mechanism, the cam is actuated by a servo drive. To mathematically model the angular input of the servo drive, Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS) are described and applied. Thus, a nearly arbitrary input function can be described by few parameters.