Flexco’s innovative monitoring technology for belt cleaners is designed to avoid significant repairs outside of scheduled downtime.

Digital monitoring of servicing equipment can prove useful in gauging ongoing performance, but it can also help to minimise catastrophic damage by flagging functional abnormalities as they arise. This in turn saves major costs in repair and replacement of machinery components, halting the flow-on effect of one misaligned or damaged part.

Flexco, an international belt conveyor components and accessories manufacturer, has been trialling an innovative monitoring technology for belt cleaners that’s designed to avoid significant repairs on conveying systems outside of scheduled downtime.

The company estimates that between downtime loss, product availability, and replacement costs, its digital monitoring system on belt cleaners prevented a $37,000 expenditure for one trialling customer in the processing sector.

According to Sebastian Olguin, territory manager for Flexco in NSW, this real-time remote view of equipment health renders adopting digitalised schemes significantly worthwhile.

“It is highly important that companies make a shift towards embracing digitalisation,” he told Australian Mining. “Moving away from reactive maintenance as the norm is a huge time- and cost-saver, but a lot of businesses are still a bit wary.

“Automation to replace this kind of mundane monitoring task can also free up the need for manual labour, which will help to address the staff shortages we are seeing right across the industry.”

The Flexco Elevate i3 device aims to improve conveyor productivity by wirelessly transmitting live data from the cleaning units to a cloud-based platform. This data can then be utilised by individuals or groups in an intuitive digital dashboard to generate practical insight from cutting-edge analytics.

Olguin highlights the imperative nature of switching to automated processes such as this in order to maximise product output and operator efficiency.

“Essentially, Flexco Elevate is a collection of smart vibration sensors that attach to belt cleaners,” he said.

“The system records any abnormalities and alerts the user remotely via a desktop application. It is an extremely useful tool for predictive maintenance that could be utilised industry-wide.

“It is sort of two-fold in how it works. The vibration sensors can tell if the cleaners are operating at capacity without issues, but they can also ring the alarm bell if an anomaly is detected to prevent the risk of further damage.”

Designed in collaboration with key Internet of Things (IoT) and industrial artificial intelligence (AI) partners, this product allows suppliers, service partners and operators to work in tandem to make informed decisions regarding maintenance procedures.

Information can be manually logged via a mobile site and feed into the stream of data, providing full visibly from ground operators through to maintenance teams, key decision-makers and stakeholders.

The device is compatible with existing Flexco belt cleaners and prioritises ease of installation, eliminating the need for risk-prone manual inspection – particularly where cleaners are mounted high up. Digestible visual mapping of the sensors across a plant gives an ongoing asset rundown, allowing for efficient resource planning to reduce product waste.

Importantly, the dashboard works to eliminate guesswork by relaying vital information such as belt and cleaner run times, urethane and carbide blade wear, spring tensioner reminders, and tamper detection. The entire physical and software portfolio has been rigorously tested to ensure durability in environmentally harsh applications, such as mining.

In a recent case study on a steelworks plant in NSW, the Flexco Elevate framework offered return on investment almost immediately, as the system aided in flagging a tear in one of the conveyor belts. Picking up on excessive vibration affecting one of the pre-cleaners, the sensor sent an automatic email notification to the Flexco representative, as well as the customer’s maintenance team.

“We had approached the customer to do a research and development trial for Flexco Elevate, and they agreed to an 18-month term,” Olguin said.

“They had one particular conveyor that was already causing issues, but were struggling to pinpoint when or how it was acting up. After a few months, we started getting notifications through the IoT platform, so we went on site and identified a rip in the belt which had been the cause.”

This plant has a production capacity of over three million tonnes of steel per annum, so downtime as a result of consequential damages would prove extremely costly. The belt tear was forcing material to jolt against the cleaner with each rotation, posing a safety risk that might have otherwise gone undetected.

“Conveyor systems in the mining and processing industries are part of large, heavy, sometimes dangerous machines,” Olguin said.

“If technical teams can minimise the manual labour required for check-ups and repairs, especially while equipment is in use, it will significantly increase safety on-site.

“The Flexco Elevate portfolio is the perfect first step into automating when it comes to day-to-day monitoring.”

This feature appeared in the July issue of Australian Mining.

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