The materials used for a camshaft are usually either: Piston engines Ĭamshafts are made from metal and are usually solid, although hollow camshafts are sometimes used. For examples see the Uniflow steam engine, and the Gardner-Serpollet steam cars, which also included axially sliding the camshaft to achieve variable valve timing.Īmong the first cars to utilize engines with single overhead camshafts were the Maudslay designed by Alexander Craig and introduced in 1902 and the Marr Auto Car designed by Michigan native Walter Lorenzo Marr in 1903.

Camshafts more like those seen later in internal combustion engines were used in some steam engines, most commonly where high pressure steam (such as that generated from a flash steam boiler), required the use of poppet valves, or piston valves.

Once the rotative version of the steam engine was developed in the late 18th century, the operation of the valve gear was usually by an eccentric, which turned the rotation of the crankshaft into reciprocating motion of the valve gear, normally a slide valve. He employed it as part of his automata, water-raising machines, and water clocks such as the castle clock. The camshaft was described in 1206 by engineer Al-Jazari.

Evidence for these exists back to the Han Dynasty in China, and they were widespread by the medieval period. from a waterwheel, into the reciprocating motion of a hammer used in forging or to pound grain. Trip hammers are one of the early uses of a form of cam to convert rotating motion, e.g. Camshafts are used in piston engines (to operate the intake and exhaust valves), mechanically controlled ignition systems and early electric motor speed controllers.Ĭamshafts in piston engines are usually made from steel or cast iron, and the shape of the cams greatly affects the engine's characteristics. A camshaft is a shaft that contains a row of pointed cams, in order to convert rotational motion to reciprocating motion.

Work cam