More OP info for clarification
All,
I'm definitely glad this post created as much interest as it has. For more clarification, the system is a servo axis on a highly cycled saw. Therefore, the old cycle time of 4.77 seconds is highly critical as far as production is concerned. This saw cycles about twice a minute, or 120 cycles. Being the saw axis is already the bottleneck, slowing this axis down further would have a largely negative effect on production.
This axis is a Kinetix6000 axis, and the move is executed via the MAM command in CLX. With the profile set to S curve in the move properties, I was allowed to alter the accel and decel rates, as well as the max velocity. I don't believe one has the ability to alter jerk rates with the move commands involved(if so, please feel free to elaborate.)
This info hopefully gets everyone on the same page as far as why the original post mentioned nothing about jerk rates or parabolic moves. My understanding is that the MAM set to S curve takes care of these calculations based on the info you give it, i.e. the variables I had asked about.
The 5 in/s^2 was based on calculations concerning the mass of the load, the distance from the plane of travel, and the torque rating of the guidearms the axis travels on.
Hope this gives everyone a clearer picture of the situation and why the original answers really did meet the requirements of the question, and where the "arbitrary" values came from. Peter's answer just prompted me to wonder what others out there do, as I've only been exposed to what I see here. Thanks again to all.
Russ