Lateral Motion of an Axially Moving String on a Cylindrical Guide Surface

Abstract

Lateral motion of an axially moving string on a cylindrical guide surface is investigated theoretically and experimentally. By deriving and solving the basic equation of the system, it is found that the axially moving string slips laterally on the fixed guide surface similarly to one-dimensional heat flow. The transfer characteristics of the string lateral displacement from one side to the other over the guide surface depends on the string transport direction, if the circumferential and axial friction coefficients between string and guide are different from each other. The solution for a rotary guide can be obtained as the limiting case where the circumferential friction coefficient is zero and the axial friction coefficient is infinity.