Date of Award
9-22-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Engineering, MSE
First Advisor
Robert (Drew) Fleming
Committee Members
Ilwoo Seok; Paul Minor
Abstract
The use of conveyor systems within industrial and warehouse settings gives the ability for increased productivity and increased speed of moving objects. As in many settings, the use of these conveyor systems requires large amounts of continuous runtime, and the ability to save even small amounts of energy over a large period can create large improvements in the total overhead cost of running the facility. Research into the ability to characterize the components within a conveyor system gives the ability to identify sources of large amounts of wasted energy and quantify these losses. There is a need to quantify the mechanical performance of a conveyor, especially related to the frictional losses between the belt and slider pans. To characterize the system, a load cell is used to measure the force output of the drive motor as a function of speed controlled by a variable frequency drive (VFD). The force output of the motor changes as a function of speed as well as whether the belt laces are in contact with either a Test Bed pulley, idler pulley, or return pulley within the system. These changes in force output can be analyzed with signal processing to observe the prominent frequencies within the system and characterize each component in combination with an accelerometer on individual locations. This will further allow for the understanding of the losses within the system at individual locations within the system.
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Recommended Citation
Wilson, Coleman Emerson, "Development Of an Instrumented Test System to Evaluate Mechanical Characteristics of Belted Conveyor Systems" (2025). Student Theses and Dissertations. 1102.
https://arch.astate.edu/all-etd/1102
