What are the types of follower?

Answer 1

Cam followers or Lifters in North America come in two basic types and several sub types.

The basic types are:

• Roller
• Flat

The roller type has a tip made of a small bearing wheel to reduce stress wear and friction, the down fall is complexity and cost to make this system reliable.

The flat tappet type is a slightly convex bottom of the follower to ride directly on the camshaft. The reason virtually no current engine uses this design is that they requires the heavy metal Zinc to be present in the engine oil. The metal actually lubes the high stress contact points in the engine, but it also reduces the life of catalytic converters and has been banned.