Description:
Trimble is an established world leader in Navigation and Measurement Systems, with over 6000 employees in more than 30 countries. Based in Auckland, Trimble Loadrite focuses on creating technological solutions to improve the productivity and efficiency of heavy equipment operations such as quarries, mines, waste management and construction. The aim of this project is to investigate methods of non-contact belt speed measurement.
To accurately measure the material flow rate on the conveyor belt scale the belt speed must be known. This has traditionally been done using a speed wheel that outputs a fixed number of pulses per revolution of a wheel of known circumference that is fitted that runs on the belt return near the scale frame. This has a number of disadvantages:
- There is almost always some slippage between the belt and the wheel. The amount of this slippage can be highly dependent on the environmental conditions (dust and water).
- If the wheel seizes it can cause significant damage to the belt.
- Over time the wheel circumference reduces due to wear leading to inaccurate speed measurement.
An improvement that eliminates the last two disadvantages is to mount an encoder on the shaft of the head drum or drive motor. It has reduced slippage compared to a speed wheel, but it is not perfect as there can be some slippage between the drum and the belt. Speed measurement at the drum has its own issues:
- The scale frame, which is usually near the middle of the conveyor, can be situated a significant distance from drum leading to excessively long cables.
- Access to the head drum to mount a sensor can be difficult.
A non-contact speed measurement device that can be installed near the scale frame would eliminate the disadvantages of the speed wheel and drum speed measurement.
Type:
Undergraduate
Outcome:
Prerequisites
None
Specialisations
- Mechanical Engineering
- Mechatronics Engineering
Categories
Supervisor
Team
Lab
No lab has been assigned to this project
