Roller Conveyor Research Articles

A novel combined method for conveyor belt deviation discrimination under complex operational scenarios

Conveyor belt can enhance transportation efficiency and reduce labor intensity, which is extensively applied in material transportation. However, the deviation of conveyor belt commonly leads to malfunctions in the transmission system, affecting routine transportation function. Therefore, it is crucial to accurately identify whether the conveyor belt deviates and rectify anomalies promptly. Previously, the on-site camera have to be arranged in the appropriate position to ensure conducive recognition results for deviation discrimination, which is probably constrained by environmental conditions during implementation. In this paper, a combined method of detection and segmentation with deblurring function (CDSwD) is presented for conveyor belt deviation discrimination, which can avoid the impact of the camera position on the deviation discrimination results by combining roller information and conveyor belt contour information. Initially, the deblurring approach is adopted to remove the motion blur from the images. Subsequently, the object detection technology and the semantic segmentation technique are utilized to generate the detection results along the lower line of the rollers and the segmentation results of the overall conveyor belt contour. Finally, the outcomes will be combined for conveyor belt deviation discrimination. Comparisons have demonstrated that the proposed method can accurately determine the deviation of the conveyor belt, which is beneficial for maintaining the normal transportation and improving work efficiency.

Analysis of short-term treatment effects of dielectric barrier discharge plasma to improve germination characteristics of wheat seeds

In this work, an effort has been made to show that a cold atmospheric pressure plasma (CAPP) can be applied to promote the growth and development of wheat seedlings. A dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma-based reactor has been developed having two-roller conveyor rollers running on sprockets to generate cold plasma. Wheat seeds (Triticum aestivum) are treated with cold plasma for shorter durations to examine their germination parameters. In the cold plasma, reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) are generated which alter the surface of the seeds. This results in enhanced germination, growth, and enduring vitality of the plants enhance seed germination. After plasma treatment, the germination rate was enhanced from 84% to 98%. Also, after treatment surfaces of wheat seeds became more hydrophilic, as confirmed by a decrease in the water contact angle which results in higher seed germination. It is inferred that plasma is a viable alternative to the conventional pre-sowing seed treatment for germination due to its uniform treatment without degradation and the use of pesticides.

A grader for fresh jujube with electromagnetic synchronous actuator assembly

AbstractIn recent years, the post‐harvest commercialization of fresh jujube sorting technology is backward, the efficiency of manual grading is low, and the application of machine vision technology in fruit grading has been a research hotspot. To improve the grading accuracy and speed of the fresh jujube machine vision grading machine, this study designs a method of fresh jujube machine vision grading using an electromagnetic synchronous actuator. The grading machine consists of an automatic distribution and arrangement system, an image acquisition and processing system, and a synchronous actuator assembly, which uses a sensitive electromagnet to adsorb a silicon steel switching buckling plate to execute the action. The image processing process includes an image color component, Sobel operator filtering, Otsu method binarization, and ellipse fitting to extract the color and size eigenvalues. The experimental results show that the date images can be acquired quickly and processed accurately with a processing speed of 50 ms per frame. In addition, the proposed actuator can be sensitively triggered with a response time of 40 ms. The grader successfully classified jujube into five size classes and one color class. The grading accuracy and non‐destructive rate reached 93.7% and 100%, respectively. The grading efficiency is 20 jujubes per second, with a maximum production rate of 1400 kilograms per hour. This grading machine realizes the requirements of high accuracy, high speed, and non‐destructive grading of fresh jujube and provides an important technical and theoretical basis for the development of machine vision jujube rapid grading technology.Practical applicationsIn recent years, sorting technology in the post‐harvest commercialization of fruits has been outdated, and manual grading has been inefficient. The application of machine vision technology in fruit grading has been a research hotspot in recent years. This study designs a machine vision grading of fresh dates with an electromagnetic synchronous actuator. The grader was composed of a roller conveyor, synchronous actuator assembly, image main processor, and actuator controlling co‐processor. Experimental results indicated that jujube images could be acquired rapidly and processed accurately, with a processing speed of 50 ms per frame. In addition, the proposed actuator could be sensitively triggered with a response time of 40 ms. Finally, the grader successfully sorted jujubes into five size classes and one color class. The grading accuracy rate and non‐destructive rate reached 93.7% and 100%, respectively. The grading efficiency was 20 jujubes per second, and the maximum productivity was 1400 kg/h.

Energy Management Assessment through Case Study in Coal Handling System of Coal-Fired Power Plant

Coal Handling System (CHS) is the main system of Coal Fired Power Plant (CFPP), managing coal transportation from Vessel by Ship Unloader to coal yard through belt conveyor (BC) and Stacker/Reclaimer (S/R), then transported to Silo, known as forwarding process. CHS involves various large electric motors. The unwisdom of operating these motors would result in wasteful electrical energy consumption. To assess the energy management, United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) provides Energy Management System (EnMS) tools based on ISO 50001 industrial sectors. This tool identifies that operational patterns and maintenance activities have a significant impact on the energy consumption. Technically using Integrated SKF Calculation, applying the scenario of direct replacement conveyor rollers aged more than 2 years by only 30%, saves 103,144.20 kWH per cycle, equal to IDR 102,807,951, rather than replacing rollers when broken only. Meanwhile, Lean Six Sigma concept in increasing cycle performance, could save a monthly 594,984 kWH, equal to IDR 593,044,189.

Prototyping and evaluation of a novel machine vision system for real-time, automated quality grading of sweetpotatoes

Rapid advances in machine vision and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have generated high interest in developing automated grading and sorting solutions for fresh produce of specialty crops. Sweetpotatoes are an economically important crop in the United States and beyond, but grading and sorting the commodity, especially for surface defects, remains a labor-intensive operation at commercial packing facilities. In addition to incurring high labor costs, manual grading is subjective and prone to human assessment error. This study was therefore aimed to develop automated grading technology based on machine vision and state-of-the-art AI to reduce labor dependence and improve quality assessment for sweetpotato packing lines. The developed grading system prototype consisted of a custom-designed roller conveyor to transport and rotate sweetpotatoes and an overhead color camera to perform full-surface quality assessment for size and surface defects. A YOLOv8-based computer vision pipeline was developed to segment and track each sweetpotato traveling on the conveyor and analyze sample quality conditions in real-time. The YOLOv8l model coupled with the BoT-SORT tracker achieved the overall Higher Order Tracking Accuracy (HOTA) score of 0.952. Based on the instance segmentation by YOLOv8l, the length and width of sweetpotatoes were estimated with percentage accuracies of 96.7 % and 90.3 %, respectively, while the instance segmentation for three classes of sweetpotatoes according to surface defect conditions yielded an overall accuracy of 82.6 %, regardless of samples. The final sample grading, which was realized by taking into account the quality information recorded from a sequence of multi-view images for each sample, achieved an overall accuracy of 91.7 % in grading four classes of sweetpotatoes. The developed prototype holds promise for next-stage integration with sorting mechanisms into a full-fledged sorting system and will be eventually beneficial for sweetpotatoes packers.

Analysis of the Uniformity of Mechanical Properties along the Length of Wire Rod Designed for Further Cold Plastic Working Processes for Selected Parameters of Thermoplastic Processing.

This study presents the results of research, the aim of which was to analyze the uniformity of the distribution of selected mechanical properties along the length of a 5.5 mm diameter wire rod of 20MnB4 steel for specific thermoplastic processing parameters. The scope of the study included, inter alia, metallographic analyses, microhardness tests, thermovision investigations, and tests of the wire rod mechanical properties (yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, elongation, relative reduction in area at fracture), along with their statistical analysis, for three technological variants of the rolling process differing by rolling temperature in the final stage of the rolling process (Reducing Sizing Mill rolling block [RSM]) and by cooling rate using STELMOR® cooling process. The obtained results led to the conclusion that the analyzed rolling process is characterized by a certain disparity of the analyzed mechanical properties along the length of the wire rod, which, however, retains a certain stability. This disparateness is caused by a number of factors. One of them, which ultimately determines the properties of the finished wire rod, is the process of controlled cooling in the STELMOR® line. Despite technological advances concerning technical solutions (among them, increasing the roller track speed in particular sections), it is currently not possible to completely eliminate the temperature difference along the length of the wire rod caused by the contact of individual coils with each other. From this point of view, for the analyzed thermoplastic processing parameters, there is no significant impact by the production process parameters on the quality of the finished steel product. Whereas, while comparing the mechanical properties and microstructure of the wire rod produced in the different technological combinations, it was found that the wire rod rolled in an RSM block at 850 °C and cooled after the rolling process on a roller conveyor at 10 °C/s had the best set of mechanical properties and the smallest microstructure variations. The wire rod produced in this way had the required level of plasticity reserve, which enables further deformation of the given type of steel in compression tests with a relative plastic strain of 75%. The uniformity of mechanical properties along the length of wire rods designed for further cold plastic working processes is an important problem. This is an important issue, given that wire rods made from 20MnB4 steel are an input material for further cold plastic working processes, e.g., for the drawing processes or the production of nails.

Research on the Temperature and Thermal Stress of the Roll Quenching Process of Thin Plates

The roll quenching process can be approximated as a high-pressure jet impinging on a high-temperature moving steel plate. The process can greatly improve the strength and overall mechanical properties of the steel plate. However, the cooling uniformity and other factors lead to the problem of poor plate shape after quenching. It is found that in the roll quenching process, the roller conveyor speed has a large influence on the temperature field and stress field. This paper establishes a roll quenching mechanism model, iterates the convective heat transfer coefficient on the steel plate surface through the inverse heat transfer method, and performs a numerical simulation. Through the numerical simulation of the roll quenching process in the high-pressure zone of the steel plate, the temperature and equivalent force change rule of the transient of each position of the steel plate in the thick direction are obtained. It is found that the plate does not reach its maximum value when it is in the quenching zone, but there is some hysteresis that becomes more pronounced as it gets closer to the core. These findings are valuable for regulating the roll-hardening process and maintaining optimal strip surface quality in industrial production environments.

Detection of movement resistance and friction coefficient in the transport of building materials and construction materials

In the production of building materials and construction materials, continuously operating conveying equipment is commonly used, including roller conveyors. Roller conveyors are devices designed for horizontal, slightly ascending or descending transport of piece products moving on a system of rotating rollers of different shapes (cylindrical, conical, disc, pulley or according to the profile of the conveyed object). The rotating rollers are placed in the track frame (supporting structure), which can be either stable, relocatable or adjustable (height and length adjustable, so-called scissor conveyors). An analogue of the roller conveyor is the pulley conveyor, where instead of rollers, discs - pulleys are mounted on a non-rotating axis. Several discs are installed on the axis with gaps. The pulleys on adjacent axes overlap so that there is no continuous gap. The track is used for handling flat building parts and objects such as metal sheets, glass panes, furniture parts, etc. When transporting item building materials or bulk building materials placed in storage boxes which are transported on a powered roller track on pallets, a driving force is required depending on the angle of inclination of the roller track, the weight of the load, the number of rollers on which the load rests and the coefficient of shear friction during movement. The paper presents a laboratory device that has been designed to detect the adhesion force during the transport of piece loads by a roller conveyor. On the implemented device, it is possible to determine in laboratory conditions the amount of resistance to the movement of the load on the driven roller conveyor depending on the weight of the load. The paper presents measured values of the shear friction coefficient during the movement of a steel storage box on a driven roller track. In this paper, a driven roller track is used for laboratory tests, where the drive of the rollers is implemented by so-called short chains. In addition to horizontal tracks, this chain drive allows you to drive rising tracks with variable gradients or even rising curved tracks.

Optimization of Pallet Conveyor System for Weight Reduction

Pallet roller conveyors are designed to facilitate the movement of pallets along a conveyor system, which consists of a series of rollers mounted on a frame. In industries such as manufacturing, logistics, and distribution, pallet roller conveyors are widely used where the efficient movement of palletized loads is crucial for productivity and warehouse optimization. This study optimized pallet roller conveyors in the case of the number of critical conveyor parts. To verify the existing design, pallet conveyor parts were first modeled geometrically, and then, structural analysis was carried out. To reduce the overall weight and save a significant amount of materials, the existing pallet conveyor system is redesigned by designing the critical parts. A structural analysis was carried out, followed by a comparison of the existing pallet roller conveyor design and the optimized one. The calculated maximum deflection and safety factor remained within acceptable limits, ensuring the safety of the optimized design. This minimizes the overall weight and cost of the pallet conveyor system as well as saving a considerable amount of materials.

Failure Identification Method of Sound Signal of Belt Conveyor Rollers under Strong Noise Environment

Accurately extracting faulty sound signals from belt conveyor rollers within the high-noise environment of coal mine operations presents a formidable challenge. To address this issue, this study introduces an innovative fault diagnosis method that merges the variational modal de-composition (VMD) model with the Swin Transformer deep learning network model. First, the study employed the adaptive VMD method to eliminate intense noise from the original signal of the rollers, while also assessing the reconstruction accuracy of the VMD signal across different modal components. Subsequently, we delved into the impact of the parameter structure of the Swin Transformer network model on the fault diagnosis accuracy. Finally, the accuracy of the method was validated using a sound test dataset from the rollers. The results indicated that optimizing the K-value of the VMD method effectively reduced the noise in the reconstructed signal, and the Swin Transformer excelled in extracting both local and global features. Specifically, on the conveyor roller sound dataset, it was shown that, after the VMD reconstruction of the signal so that the highest Pearson correlation coefficient corresponded to a modal component of 3 and adjusting the parameters of the Swin Transformer coding layer, the combination of the VMD+Swin-S model achieved an accuracy of 99.36%, while the VMD+Swin-T model achieved an accuracy of 98.6%. Meanwhile, the accuracy of the VMD+Swin-S model was higher than that of the VMD + CNN model combination, with 95.4% accuracy, and the VMD+ViT model, with 97.68% accuracy. In the example application experiments, compared with other models the VMD+Swin-S model achieved the highest accuracy rate at all three speeds, with 98.67%, 98.32%, and 97.65%, respectively. Overall, this approach demonstrated high accuracy and robustness, rendering it an optimal choice for diagnosing conveyor belt roller faults within environments characterized by strong noise.

Calculation of the Tubular Elements Made of Pressed Profiles

This paper is dedicated to ensuring the strength of cargo equipment elements of transport aircraft. The strength of rollers of roller conveyors, which are made of standard pressed aluminum tubular profiles or composite tubular elements, is considered. The main disadvantage of these semi-finished products is the deviation of the diameter of these standard aluminum profiles, which leads to the emergence of eccentricity Δ between the axes of the outer and inner surfaces. The influence of eccentricity on the change in the values of normal and tangential stresses is considered. This analysis was carried out for standard diameters of tubular profiles at values Δ equal to half of the standard limit deviation of the outer diameter D. Calculations of normal and tangential stresses and their comparison with nominal stresses that occur in the absence of misalignment have been carried out. Calculations were made of the value c of the removal of the center of rigidity from the center of the circle of the outer border of the cross-section at different cross-section sizes of standard profiles with values of Δ equal to half of the standard limit deviation of the outer diameter D inclusively. The calculations showed an increase in tangential stresses τ in some cases by 64% and even by 213%. The obtained results indicate that the presence of Δ≠0 will have a negative effect on the resource of these elements. In order to eliminate the negative consequences, it is necessary to increase the requirements for the shape deviation of the tubular profiles in the input control.

Molybdenum powder coating on steel substrate to study three body wear resistance

Steel rollers are most commonly used in conveyor system across different industries like mining and construction. In the conveyor rollers used in mining industry, the steel specimen of the roller is in continuous contact with another metal of the same or different material rolling and sliding on that surface. In this motion of the roller, the third body i.e., the sand, grits and dust of various sizes may be entrapped in the interface of the roller material. The third body induced causes the wear due to its abrading action. To reduce this abrading action, a layer of molybdenum coating is developed on the steel substrate to improve its wear resistance by using the plasma spray technique, a thermal spray method. The experimental procedures were performed according to standard ASTM G65 method. The results were compared and tabulated in full factorial method. The SEM and EDAX results were obtained. The average specific wear rate [Ks] of the coated specimen is reduced by 30% when compared with the uncoated specimen.

Time Study for the Power Stow Rollertrack Conveyor for Airport Baggage Handling

A time study was conducted to evaluate the operation efficiency and the risk of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) for using the Power Stow Rollertrack Conveyor (PSRC) for baggage handling in the cargo holds of narrow-bodied aircrafts. The PSRC employs a retractable roller conveyor from a belt loader to provide powered transportation for loading and unloading baggage in the cargo holds. Thirteen baggage handlers at the Boston Logan International Airport participated in the data collection, which involved videotaping their work postures and methods during baggage handling operations in the cargo holds of the Boeing 737 and 757 aircrafts. Results showed that the PSRC provided improved efficiency in handling baggage, especially for unloading baggage by about 2 bags per minute. There was no significant difference in the total time spent on the risk factors for MSDs, such as lifting, pushing and pulling tasks per person for each bag between PSRC users and non-users.

Developing the concept of roller conveyor systems using Industry 4.0 tools

In the increasingly globalized world, markets are no longer competed for by individual companies, but by groups of companies and networks. Due to the challenges of globalization and sustainability, the management of the material flow has become a critical issue for organizations engaged in manufacturing activities, as the implementation of changed products due to new regulations into the existing material flow service network is a major challenge. Today, Industry 4.0 tools help solve challenges. The tools of Industry 4.0 and Logistics 4.0 offer many opportunities to professionals today, which are driven by several key basic technologies, such as simulation technologies, digital copies, Big Data technology. These technologies have a positive impact on the sustainability performance of material flow activities. Simulation models play an important role in the evaluation and planning of material flow strategies. The purpose of this study is to apply the methods used in Industry 4.0 and Logistics 4.0 in the design of material flow on a roller conveyor.

INFORMATION-MEASURING SYSTEM FOR CONTROL OF APPLES BY SIZE IN THEIR SORTING

The article provides information about the information-measuring system of the layout of the complex for sorting apples, which allows you to determine the maximum diameter of an apple when it moves along a roller conveyor. The control algorithm is based on the use of automated thresholding using the method of moments, as well as the Advanced Morphology operation. Studies have shown that the maximum diameter measurement error does not exceed 2 mm, and the influence of radial distortion is reduced to 0.17 % as a result of calibration.

Experimental measurement of a pulling force and determination of a friction coefficient during driven transport rollers’ movement

The paper presents an experimental measurement of a pulling force and determination of a friction coefficient during driven transport rollers’ movement in a continuous transport system. To implement an experimental measurement, a laboratory machine was designed, enabling an experimental detection of a friction coefficient during movement in the contact surface of the transported load and the roller casings. The values of friction coefficient were determined for three material types: wood, plastic and rubber against the acrylic paint sprayed on a steel roller’s casing. Experimental pulling force measurement with a tensometric load sensor was realized for three different angles of the roller conveyor’s inclination. The results made it possible to determine a mean value of friction coefficient during movement between the contact surfaces of the three materials and the coating of driven rollers casings. The results can be implemented to digitize and monitor operation of electric motor machines.

Modelling of roller conveyor for the simulation of rubber tire tread extrusion

Abstract The extrusion of large or heavy technical rubber profiles is usually assisted by a conveying device. Such a device can be a conveyor belt or a series of rollers, and its use is necessary mainly for being able to achieve the process. Within the context of numerical simulation of extrusion flows, a conveying device brings additional downstream constraints to the flow governing equations. In the present paper, we propose a simple engineering approach for modelling a roller conveyor used in rubber tire tread extrusion, and we apply it to the extrusion simulation of a flat tire tread profile as typically encountered in the tire manufacturing industry.

Rancang Bangun Roller Conveyor Adjustable dengan Metode Banchmarking

Abstract Technology that is increasingly rapidly developing encourages all parties to compete to create or develop better technology, and has great benefits and efficiency. In these moving activities, an efficient, practical and economical means of transport is needed to facilitate the transfer process. The objectives of this research are: 1. Applying Benchmarking method in the design of adjustable roller conveyor. 2. Analyze the function and material components, and record the advantages and disadvantages. This research was conducted using the Benchmarking method, the results of this study were in the form of product designs and products for adjustable roller conveyors as material transferers. The conclusions of this study are: 1. Design of an adjustable roller conveyor based on benchmaking with two Roller conveyor tools, this tool is very well suited and very easy in the transfer process, especially for materials that are very far away. 2. The manufacture of adjustable roller conveyors has gone through an analysis process in terms of function, and the component materials used are in accordance with the aspects that have been designed with the advantages and disadvantages made.

MOSPPA: monitoring system for palletised packaging recognition and tracking

The paper industry manufactures corrugated cardboard packaging, which is unassembled and stacked on pallets to be supplied to its customers. Human operators usually classify these pallets according to the physical features of the cardboard packaging. This process can be slow, causing congestion on the production line. To optimise the logistics of this process, we propose a visual recognition and tracking pipeline that monitors the palletised packaging while it is moving inside the factory on roller conveyors. Our pipeline has a two-stage architecture composed of Convolutional Neural Networks, one for oriented pallet detection and recognition, and another with which to track identified pallets. We carried out an extensive study using different methods for the pallet detection and tracking tasks and discovered that the oriented object detection approach was the most suitable. Our proposal recognises and tracks different configurations and visual appearance of palletised packaging, providing statistical data in real time with which to assist human operators in decision-making. We tested the precision-performance of the system at the Smurfit Kappa facilities. Our proposal attained an Average Precision (AP) of 0.93 at 14 Frames Per Second (FPS), losing only 1% of detections. Our system is, therefore, able to optimise and speed up the process of logistic distribution.

Concept of an innovative technological line for the processing of linear profiles

Abstract The paper presents the concept of an innovative technological line intended for the processing of long linear profiles used in engineering steel and aluminium structures, which can be both hollow and open section profiles. The line is set up with seven main sections: profile loading system, input roller conveyor, plasma arc cutting section, circular saw cutting section, robot welding section, output roller conveyor and profile packaging system. The assumptions adopted to create the concept of the technological line were specified. A block diagram of the line and drawings showing the structure of its selected elements were depicted. The features of the technological line documenting its product and process innovativeness were indicated. The proposed technological line is built in the AGICO Group company, but it can also be successfully implemented in other companies dealing with the processing of long linear profiles.