Conveyor idler monitoring apparatus, systems, and methods
AssigneeSuperior Industries, Inc.
InventorsEduardo Martinelli, Osvaldo Baggio
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Conveyor idler monitoring apparatus, systems and methods are provided. In some embodiments, one or more sensors (e.g., temperature sensors, load sensors, etc.) are supported by the shaft of a conveyor idler. In some embodiments, one or more sensors are in data communication with a wireless transmitter. In some embodiments, a power generator driven by rotation of the idler is in electrical communication with one or more sensors and/or a wireless transmitter. In some embodiments, idler monitoring systems are in data communication with a conveyor monitoring system and/or operational monitoring system.
Claims20
A conveyor monitoring system comprising:
- a plurality of conveyor idlers, each conveyor idler including a shaft configured to be supported on a conveyor, a cylinder rollingly supported on the shaft and configured to at least partially support a conveyor belt, and a monitoring system at least partially supported on the shaft, the monitoring system including a temperature sensor, a vibration sensor mounted to the shaft, and a wireless transmitter in data communication with the temperature sensor and the vibration sensor, the monitoring system configured to generate idler-related measurements including temperature data from the temperature sensor and vibration data from the vibration sensor;
- a communication gateway in wireless data communication with the wireless transmitters of the plurality of conveyor idlers;
- and
- an application server in data communication with the communication gateway, the application server configured to receive the idler-related measurements from the plurality of conveyor idlers and to apply artificial intelligence to the idler-related measurements including the vibration data to identify which idler among the plurality of idlers will fail first based on the vibration data and on the AI-processed temperature data.
A method of monitoring and predicting failure in a conveyor system, the method comprising:
- providing a plurality of conveyor idlers on the conveyor system, each conveyor idler including a shaft supported on the conveyor system, a cylinder rollingly supported on the shaft and at least partially supporting a conveyor belt, and a monitoring system at least partially supported on the shaft, the monitoring system including a temperature sensor, a vibration sensor mounted to the shaft, and a wireless transmitter;
- generating, with the monitoring system of each conveyor idler, idler-related measurements including temperature data from the temperature sensor and vibration data from the vibration sensor;
- transmitting the idler-related measurements wirelessly from the wireless transmitters to a communication gateway;
- receiving the idler-related measurements at an application server in data communication with the communication gateway;
- and
- applying, at the application server, artificial intelligence to the idler-related measurements including the vibration data to identify which idler among the plurality of idlers will fail first based on the temperature data and AI-processed vibration data.
A method of predicting failure of conveyor idlers in a conveyor monitoring system, the method comprising:
- receiving, at an application server, idler-related measurements from a plurality of conveyor idlers via a communication gateway, each conveyor idler including a shaft supported on a conveyor, a cylinder rollingly supported on the shaft and configured to at least partially support a conveyor belt, and a monitoring system at least partially supported on the shaft and including a temperature sensor, a vibration sensor mounted to the shaft, and a wireless transmitter configured to transmit the idler-related measurements including temperature data from the temperature sensor and vibration data from the vibration sensor;
- processing the idler-related measurements at the application server;
- and
- applying an artificial intelligence at the application server to the processed idler-related measurements including the vibration data to identify which idler among the plurality of idlers will fail first based on the temperature data AI-processed vibration data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.