About Cam-Follower Friction
Friction occurs when two surfaces move against or relative to each other with a resulting loss of energy. You can add friction to simulate this loss. Friction, once added, will resist the motion of your cam-follower. Friction simulation coefficients are defined on the Properties tab of the Cam-Follower Connection Definition dialog box. Friction is available for cams with liftoff.
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You must apply friction to your cam-follower connection to be able to calculate cam slip measures in force balance analyses.
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Friction coefficients depend on the type of material in contact, as well as the experimental conditions. Tables of typical friction coefficients are often found in physics and engineering texts.
You can specify static and kinetic friction for your cam-follower or slot-follower connection:
• The coefficient of static friction for two surfaces must be larger than the coefficient of kinetic friction for the same two surfaces.
• The coefficient of static friction describes the amount of energy that is needed to initiate movement in your model.
• The coefficient of kinetic friction describes the amount of energy that is lost to friction while keeping your model in motion.