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Bulk material flow measurement based only on a smart camera fixed above a moving belt conveyor

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Abstract

Non-contact measurement of bulk materials is used to measure flow rates of conveying systems. The non-contacting, can facilitate the instant control of the bulk materials, increasing production efficiency and ameliorating energy consumption on a conveyor belt. In this work, we present the innovative measuring instrument-bringing benefit to manufacturing industries. It is a smart camera provides measuring results on the current flow rate and the total produced mass. It helps make the process more reliable, efficient and profitable because it can be installed directly under belt conveyor, doesn’t contain any sensor in contact with the conveyor belt (E.g. speed sensors, integrating scales, etc.), maintenance is not required. In addition, it is without any negative impact on human health, because it is based on image processing to measure the flow and without using harmful radiation (laser triangulation, ultrasonic and Hall Effect). The actual results show this camera is identical by 99.927% to another flow sensor for measurement installed in the cement company.

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Acknowledgements

This work is also contributed by the professor Sadok Bazin and the electrical engineer of the Tunisian cement company SECIL, Abd El Hafidh Hfaiedh, especially for their encouragement, theirs supervision and their strong experience in this field.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire d’Ingénierie des Systèmes Industriels et d’Energies Renouvelables (LISIER), École Nationale Supérieure d’Ingénieurs de Tunis (ENSIT), Université de Tunis, 5 Ave Taha Hussein, 1008, Tunis, Tunisia

    Naji Guedri & Rached Gharbi

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  1. Naji Guedri
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  2. Rached Gharbi
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Correspondence to Naji Guedri or Rached Gharbi.

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Guedri, N., Gharbi, R. Bulk material flow measurement based only on a smart camera fixed above a moving belt conveyor. Multimed Tools Appl 82, 14077–14090 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-022-13893-x

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