Belt-Integrated Monitoring of Tensile Loads in Conveyor Belts

Belt conveyors are widely used in bulk material handling, yet system-level observability remains limited. Existing monitoring solutions are typically localized and component-specific, while comprehensive monitoring of distributed components is often impractical. This article presents a belt-integrated monitoring concept that measures tensile loads during operation by instrumenting a belt section with multiple strain-based sensing elements across the belt width. The resulting measurements aim to detect asymmetric load states and load peaks associated with, for example, eccentric bulk material loading, belt mis-tracking, or localized increases in idler rolling resistance. The concept includes an in-belt measurement chain with signal conditioning, data acquisition, and wireless transmission to an external base station for processing and evaluation. Splice-compatible integration using a hot-vulcanized step splice in a fabric conveyor belt was investigated; representative vulcanization temperature and pressure profiles were recorded during splicing of an 11 mm thick belt segment, and the strain-based sensing elements remained functional after curing. Operational validation on an in-house test stand is ongoing.