Belt misalignment is often a major problem during operation of belt conveyors for bulk materials. There are various belt guiding systems on the market, which are aimed to steer the belt back into the centre of the carrying or return idlers. Those training idlers are used for belt misalignment suppression and can be equipped with a monitoring function.
Such a new monitoring system was developed in cooperation with an industrial partner at the University of Leoben. This movable idler performs an automatic angular adjustment of the axis of rotation in conveying direction and orthogonal to the belt surface. It was equipped with sensors, which measure the movement and the rotational speed of the idler. The extent of the movement is dependent on the intensity of the belt misalignment to be corrected. With training idlers, it is possible to compensate the belt misalignment up to a certain level. When this level is exceeded, the belt runs off the idlers.
The new system can be used for two different purposes. The first application is a simple belt misalignment warning system, which sets an alarm, if a critical belt movement occurs. The second application is a teachable conveyor error identification. With this function a conveyor malfunction, which could lead to a belt misalignment, can be identified after recurrence. In this publication the new monitoring system is introduced and the functions are explained on the basis of trials.