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Computerized Conveyor Belt Control
A belt conveyor consists of two or more pulleys, with a continuous loop of material - the conveyor belt - that rotates about them. One or both of the pulleys are powered, moving the belt and the material on the belt forward. The powered pulley is called the drive pulley while the un-powered pulley is called the idler. There are two main industrial classes of belt conveyors; those in general material handling such as those moving boxes along inside a factory and bulk material handling such as those used to transport industrial and agricultural materials, such as grain, coal, ores, etc. generally in outdoor locations. Generally companies providing general material handling type belt conveyors do not provide the conveyors for bulk material handling. In addition there are a number of commercial applications of belt conveyors such as those in grocery stores.
The belt consists of one or more layers of material they can be made out of rubber. Many belts in general material handling have two layers. An under layer of material to provide linear strength and shape called a carcass and an over layer called the cover. The carcass is often a cotton or plastic web or mesh. The cover is often various rubber or plastic compounds specified by use of the belt. Covers can be made from more exotic materials for unusual applications such as silicone for heat or gum rubber when traction is essential.
Aim:
• Our aim is to build a microcontroller driven automated conveyor belt drive.
• The assembly must be a two piece model, with two conveyor belts. The primary belt delivers the load to the secondary one.
• The weight on secondary belt slows down or speeds up the primary belt. Less the weight on secondary, faster the primary belt moves.
• There must also be a full load condition in which case the primary belt must stop entirely.
• Even the secondary belt must speed up or down according to current load.
• The system must be driven using PWM outputs and H-bridge motor drives for bi-directional and variable speed operations.
• Load cells must be used for weight sensing.
• System must be re-configurable for various speeds.
• Entire system must be controlled and monitored using a PC.
• System must send SMS to administrator on overload conditions or additional critical events.
• Even administrator must be able to send control messages to system remotely.
• The PC must maintain a database (log) of all the activities/events.