A conveyor component incorporating at least one sensor, a component identifier, and a transmitter, as well as a system/method for monitoring conveyor components. Each sensor is integrally formed in said conveyor component and is adapted to sense at least one characteristic of said conveyor component to produce sensor data representative of said sensed characteristic. An identification device is adapted to provide unique identification data for the respective conveyor component. The transmitter is adapted to transmit said sensor and identification data to a central server wherein said data is processed to generate status data in relation to the conveyor component indicative of any maintenance required to be performed on said conveyor component. The system/method for monitoring includes at least one sensor, a central server, and a user interface. Each sensor is adapted to sense at least one characteristic of a respective conveyor component and produce sensor data representative of said sensed characteristic. The central server is adapted to receive said sensor data from each sensor, process said sensed data to generate status data in relation to each conveyor component. The user interface is adapted to receive said status data from said central server and provide maintenance information to a user indicative of any maintenance required to be performed on said conveyor component.

Systems and methods are provided for conveyor operation and maintenance that employ one or both of a “smart shoe” technology where one or more conveyor shoes incorporate features, such as an RFID tag, and a “missing pin detection” technology where one or more pin components of conveyor shoes incorporate features, such as an RFID tag, allowing selective wireless tracking and identification capability. A conveyor system comprises a shoe management system allowing interactions directly with one or more RFID readers, which can detect, store and/or monitor information associated with “smart shoe” and/or “missing pin detection” RFID tags, where interface between this application and the reader can be implemented via a socket interface. An open platform communications (OPC) wrapper can be created around the interface so that a Human Machine Interface (HMI) could interact directly with shoe management system.

A system and method for conveyor configuration and testing. The system is configured to execute the method, which includes: receive input data relating to configuration of a conveyor system; prepare a simulation of the configured conveyor system; operate the simulation of the conveyor system; determine at least one operational parameter related to the conveyor system to be monitored; monitor the at least one operational parameter during operation of the simulation of the conveyor system; determine if the configuration of the conveyor system needs to be adjusted based on the monitored operational parameter; if the configuration needs to be adjusted, automatically make an adjustment and return to operate the simulation of the conveyor system; and continue the simulation until otherwise terminated. In some cases, the monitoring operational parameters uses a machine learning model based on actual data from operating conveyors.

A measurement system and a method for measuring a coefficient of friction on a slidable conveyor belt in a direction of movement are provided. The system includes a disk floatingly placed on the conveyor belt and having a bottom surface, wherefrom projects at least one rounded element that rests on the conveyor belt, having a shape that, regardless of the relative orientation of the disk and the conveyor belt, at least one rounded element extends along a direction not parallel to the direction of movement, a pair of abutment elements maintaining the disk fixed with respect to the direction of movement of the conveyor belt, and a pair of load cells operatively associated with the abutment elements and with the disk, to measure a thrust force exerted by the disk on each load cell by effect of the relative sliding of the conveyor belt with respect to the disk.

Described herein is an optical fibre mounting structure (180) for fibre vibration sensing of a distributed system (100) of spaced apart vibration sources (112-131). Mounting structure (180) includes a base portion (200) having a two dimensional surface area defining a vibration surface (202). A mounting apparatus (236) is adapted to mount the base portion (200) to a support structure (e.g. 104) of the distributed system (100) adjacent one of the vibration sources. A fibre engagement structure (e.g. 210-215) is provided for supportively engaging a length (218) of optical fibre in contact with the vibration surface (202).

A conveyance abnormality prediction system includes an estimation unit that has a learned model having machine learned a relationship between a data set including sensor data outputted, at a time of substrate transport in the past, from each of a plurality of sensors provided on a substrate transport unit and a degree of conveyance abnormality at the time of the substrate transport, estimates a degree of conveyance abnormality at a time of new substrate transport by using, as an input, a data set including sensor data outputted from each of the plurality of sensors at the time of the new substrate transport, and outputs the estimated degree of conveyance abnormality.

A system for detecting a rip in a conveyor belt carrying a material, the system including: a sensor arrangement configured to provide a light curtain under at least a portion the conveyor belt to detect material passing through the rip thereby detecting the rip. A related method is also disclosed.

A conveyor system includes a rail that supports multiple carts that move along a track of the conveyor system. A plurality of sensors is operably connected to the rail and configured to measure vibrations of the rail as the carts move along the track. One or more sensors are operably connected to the cart and configured to take measurements of the cart as the cart moves along the track. A central controller collects data from sensors, and a processor analyzes the data to determine whether the data is within a predetermined range that corresponds to normal operation of the conveyor system. A method of operating the conveyor system includes moving the multiple carts along the rail and collecting data from the sensors. The data is analyzed to determine if it is within a predetermined range.

A method includes emitting a laser including a plurality of laser points onto a surface of a conveyor belt, capturing a plurality of first images of the surface of the conveyor belt during a first cycle of the conveyor belt, creating a first three-dimensional image of the surface of the conveyor belt during the first cycle, each of a plurality of locations of the surface of the conveyor belt in the first three-dimensional image being assigned first position data, capturing a plurality of second images of the surface of the conveyor belt during a second cycle of the conveyor belt; creating a second three-dimensional image of the surface during the second cycle, each of the plurality of locations of the surface in the second three-dimensional image being assigned second position data; and determining whether a difference between the first and second position data exceeds a predetermined threshold.

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, a plurality of idlers monitoring systems are in data communication with a conveyor monitoring system and/or operational monitoring system.