Dual-cycle cam grinding machine with electrical pulse operated wheel feed

Claim 1

An improved machine for grinding camshaft blanks or the like, comprising in combination: a work table means movable in a longitudinal direction parallel to a characteristic long dimension of the work table, b. rocking bar means mounted on said table and comprising a rotatable work support and rotatable master cam spindle, having a plurality of annular cam shapes thereon, mounted on a rocker bar along a common first axis parallel to the direction of longitudinal movement of the table, and motive power means for moving said work into engagement with a master cam follower and away therefrom, c. means for driving said spindle and work support rotatably at seleCted fast and slow speeds of rough cycle work and a slow speed of finish work, d. grinding means comprising at least one grinding wheel and electric pulse motor means for feeding said wheel along a second direction perpendicular to said first direction inwardly to and outwardly from the work area defined by the work support at selected fast and slow speeds and means for rotating the wheel at selected speeds, e. electrical control means for controlling the feed of the wheel from a rough reset preset position, inwardly to rough size preset position, then outwardly to said rough reset preset position, then inwardly again to said rough size preset position and the outwardly to said rough reset preset position, cycling between said rough reset preset position and rough size preset position through a series of cycles, and controlling wheel feed to have said wheel similarly cycle between a finish reset preset position and a finish size preset position in a series of cycles and comprising an electrical pulse generator and means for selecting desired pulse speed rates therefrom to operate the said electric pulse motor as a function of a selected frequency of the applied pulses thereby producing a selected number of incremental wheel advance movements, means for counting pulses so processed and means for presetting said pulse counting means, f. electrical control means for operating said rocking bar means, g. electrical control means for operating said work support rotator, h. electrical control means for operating said work table drive, i. logic means interconnecting said pulse counter and electrical control means (f) (g) (h) to automatically cycle the work through rough grinding of all cam shapes on the work, then finish grinding and die-out grinding of all cams on the work, with each rough or finish grind proceeding until the pulse counter counts out the number of preset pulses for said rough or finish cycle, respectively, to provide thereby an open loop controlled rough and finish grinding wheel feed and work rotation,