Contactless material flow detection on conveyor belts

Small improvements across plant equipment often lead to greater industrial efficiency across the board.

This is why an agricultural company began searching for an easy to install and maintain solution for monitoring material flows on top of its conveyor belt.

The company transported corn cobs and needed to detect material movement to provide more control and automation, as well as improve the upstream and downstream process where possible.

It decided to install a number of FlowJam sensors, which use microwave technology to provide contactless material flow detection. Because the sensor does not touch the material, it suffers less from wear and breakage.

FlowJam has been designed to be simple to install, adjust and maintain, and can be used to monitor any pipe section within a conveying system.

An automated system uses the material flow information to associate with related processes, making the batch work smoother and more integrated. Information can be exchanged with the truck unloading and the sieve.

In addition, the system is energy-efficient, as subsequent units only need to be switched on when the sensor detects material on the belt.