Conveyor belt with damage detecting optical fibre - has embedded transmitter to send signal to stationary receiver if fibre breaks

摘要

The endless conveyor belt (1) has a flexible optical fibre (2) embedded in it. The fibre is laid across the width of the belt to form a zig-zag pattern along the whole length. One end of the fibre is coupled to a light source (3) and the other to a photo-cell (4). Damage to the belt breaks the fibre and is detected by loss of light to the photo-cell. The photo-cell is coupled to a radio or ultrasonic transmitter (5) which transmits this information to a stationary receiver (6), coupled to a logic circuit (7). The light source (3), photo-cell (4) and transmitter (5) are powered either by batteries or by being inductively or capacitatively coupled to an external source.