ssorane TeFar Sta rin Camsnt Operational Information The Medium Speed 4 Stroke Trunk Piston Engine The Camshaft eran Eresne Binzer Bessa — Coste Cente 1. Eshawst Cam 2. Camshaft Bearing ‘Ful Cam {Inter Cams 5 Camehatt 6. Comal Gear ‘There are several diferent methods of manufacturing camshafts for medium speed 4 stroke marine diesel engines. On the smaller engines the camsheft may bea single forging complete with cams, Alternatively the camshaft can be built up in single cylinder elements, each clement made up of the fuel, inlet, and ‘exhaust cam on a section ofthe camshaft with a flange on each end. So that the element can be used on any unit in the ‘engine, the number of holes for filed bolts in the anges must be sulTicient to allow the cam to be timed for aay unit on the engine. For example, on a six eylinder engine, the flanges must have 6 equi spaced holes or a multiple thereof. The ‘cams must be hard enough to resist the wear and abrasion due to impurities inthe lub oil, yet they must be tough enough to resist shattering due to shock loading. The eams are therefore surface hardened using the nitriding process. omen eae sla romp Aet iene, ro rg ‘On the larger engines itis usual to manufacture the camshafl and cams separately. The nitrded alloy steel cams are then shrunk on tothe stel sha using heat or hydraulic means. Because the cams are ited progressively onto the sha ithe Dores in the cams were all the same diameter, it would be very difficult, ifnot impossible, to fit the frst cams al the way along the length of the shaft to the correct postion. To overcome this problem the camshaft is stepped, with the largest diameters at the end which has the cams fitted first. The larger bored cams fit easly over the small diameter steps tll they reach the correct position on the camshaft Keys are not generally used to locate the cams as they would act as stress raisers. ‘Most medium speed engines are unidirectional (Le they only rotate one way). This is because they either are driving an altemator, or because if they are used as direct main propulsion they tend to be driving a controllable piteh propeller. Ia the case where the engine is reversing, then the camshaft has two sets of cams, one for ahead operation, and one for aster, RARE jt To reverse the direction of the engine, | pressure ol i led to one side of a hydraulic J piston whieh is coupled tothe camshaft. The ‘whole camshaft is moved axially and the ‘cam followers slide up or down ramps which ect the ahead and astera cams ‘The camshatt is either chain or gear driven from the crankshaft, Because the engine is four stroke, the camshaft will, rotate at half the speed of the crankshaft, (the valves and fue! pump will only operate once for every two revolutions of the crankshaft), Ina case where the cams are shrunk on the camshaft, ia cam becomes damaged and has to be replaced, then it ca be cul off using a cutter grinder. Care must be exercised not to damage the camshaft or adjacent cams during the operation. The replacement cam is Gilled in wo halves which is then bolted on the camshaft in the correct position and the timing rechecked.et iene, ro rg TeFar Sta rin Camsnt ‘This isa damaged fuel eam fiom a ZA40 engine which has been cut off using grinding wheel. Note the grooves Which are used to distribute the hydraulic oil when expanding the eam on the camshaft