NREC designed, built and tested a high-speed “machine vision” system for monitoring the condition of conveyor belts such as those used in underground coal mines. This system is in everyday use at mines operated by CONSOL Energy, Inc., and it is available for purchase from Beitzel Corp., which licensed the technology from CONSOL and Carnegie Mellon.

NREC developed the patented machine vision system as part of an innovative belt inspection system designed to reduce costly downtime caused by degradation of conveyor belt splices.

Developed in collaboration with project partners CONSOL Energy, Inc. and Beitzel Corporation, the system incorporates a computer workstation that monitors and records digital images obtained from cameras mounted above the conveyor belt to provide continuous imaging of the belt and splices; and software algorithms to help operators detect, analyze and flag belt defects.