Smart-Idler® is the world’s first commercial intelligent conveyor monitoring system that embeds sensors within the roller. Smart-Idler® is designed to improve safety, increase productivity and reduce operating costs in mining applications.

Roller failure is the leading cause of conveyor downtime, costing the Australian mining industry over $1.5B p.a. in lost productivity.

Unlike conventional manual inspection methods, Smart-Idler® automatically monitors rollers in real-time. It accurately predicts roller failures, allowing rollers to be replaced during scheduled maintenances, rather than during critical production.

Smart-Idler® also improves safety by reducing the need for potentially hazardous manual inspections and the likelihood of fires caused by failures. This is critical for work in underground coal mines. The system is powered by energy harvested from roller rotation and is wireless, communicating back to a gateway via a meshed network. Operators can view the status of their conveyor rollers in real-time via the Smartphone App or HTML Server.

The Ingenuity design team developed all aspects of the Smart-Idler® system. This included electronics, embedded software, enclosures, mechanical items, servers and apps. Our team also assisted in brand development, securing funding, IP protection and manufacture. Further, Ingenuity’s work has not gone unnoticed, with Smart-Idler® winning a Good Design Gold for the industrial category in 2018 .