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2012
Journal Article
Title
The ReduDust project - an innovative solution for treatment of bypass dust
Abstract
Low-cost monitoring of belt conveyor systems represents a growing challenge for plant operators. The operation of such complex industrial systems has to be safe and reliable and conserve resources. The quantity and quality of the bulk material product can be improved by continuous plant monitoring, the plant stoppage times can be reduced and emissions of noise and dust into the environment can be minimized. Process automation and innovative measuring techniques make a substantial contribution to increasing the availability and reliability of plants. Developments in the consumer market, especially in the gaming console industry, have produced new types of robust sensor technology for registering movements by means of rapidly clocked depth images which, thanks to open programming interfaces, are also rapidly finding their way into the automation technology sector. Technical solutions for logistics and material flow technology are being developed at the Institute for Logistics and Material Flow Technology at Magdeburg University in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation IFF Magdeburg. These solutions build on the new capability of simple and precise measurement of complex surfaces of bulk materials and plants - 3D scans of freight pallets, filling level measurements of lorries and railway trucks, 3D scans of industrial spaces and bulk material analyses when stationary and in motion. The article describes the development of a system concept for monitoring the operating status of belt conveyor systems based on a low cost sensor technology, including the development of corresponding evaluation software for appropriate analysis of the sensor data. Based on the sensor data it is possible to obtain near-real-time information about the volume flow of the bulk material and about the operating status of a belt conveyor system. Particular emphasis is placed on the requirement for robustness of the sensor technology in order to cope with the rough ambient conditions of bulk material conveying systems.