Conveyor Belt Fire Detection

"What the Eyes Don't See: Decreasing the Risk of Belt Conveyor Fires at Large Scale Plants"

Introduction

The world has seen its fair share of large-scale accidents in recent years. Despite many near-misses, unless major accidents happen some companies continue to claim that their facilities are sound. And no small number of these companies depend on others for monitoring. At many large factories that move coal, pulp chips, and other materials by belt conveyor, worker monitoring patrols are the main safety net. But people have limits, and they are not all equally skilled. This is risk management by people—replete with uncertainty. With only this level of monitoring, if you take on the critical mission of avoiding accidents that cause unplanned outages and damage to public image, it's only a matter of time before a major accident strikes that devastates the company. A belt conveyor fire detection solution employing the DTSX distributed optical fiber temperature sensor can greatly reduce crises that can threaten a company's survival.

What is the DTSX Distributed Temperature Optical Fiber Sensor?

The DTSX is a module that can be used as an optical fiber sensor to enable temperature monitoring over wide areas.

Customer Benefits

• Monitor Plant Safety 24 Hours a Day, 365 Days a Year
• Identifies Trouble Spots in 1 m-increments to Minimize Damage
• Avoid Risk while Keeping Running Costs Down

Solutions and Benefits

Monitor Plant Safety 24 Hours a Day, 365 Days a Year

The system acquires data from optical fiber sensors on the side of the belt conveyor 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for monitoring with no "blind spots." Since only one DTSX and its software application can cover most belt conveyors, you can centralize monitoring of the entire plant. This delivers much more precise and reliable risk prevention than monitoring by patrol at fixed times and places, and reduces personnel costs.

Idenfiries Trouble Spots in 1 m-increments to Minimize Damage

When accidents strike, the scale of damage depends on how rapidly you can identify the location of the problem and deliver emergency response. Since the belt conveyor fire detection application performs detection in 1-meter units at least every 10 seconds, it easily identifies the source of the accident. And as a total Yokogawa solution, you can customize the monitoring system to output monitor screens and reports that mirror the needs of the site.

Avoid Risk while Keeping Running Costs Down

Belt conveyor sensor installations only require optical fiber, so no control or power system lines are needed. Optical fiber sensors require almost no maintenance. You can increase prevention while minimizing running costs.