This paper proposes, investigates, and validates, by comprehensive experiments, new online automatic diagnostic technology for belt conveyor systems based on motor current signature analysis (MCSA). Motor current signature analysis (MCSA) is a method employed for detecting faults in electric motors by analyzing the current waveforms generated during motor operation. The technology capitalizes on the fact that motor defects, such as mechanical misalignment, bearing damage, and rotor bar defects, cause variations in a motor’s current waveforms, which can be discerned and analyzed using advanced signal processing techniques. MCSA is a non-invasive and cost-effective technique that can detect motor faults in real-time without requiring expensive equipment or disassembly of the motor. In this study, the researchers tested the proposed diagnostic technology, which relies on a power feature. The power feature is calculated as the integrated power within a specific frequency range, centered around the fundamental harmonic of the supply frequency. The purpose of the study is to evaluate for the first time the effectiveness of the proposed diagnostic technology for the diagnosis of a tracking of a belt conveyor. The proposed technology’s effectiveness is assessed using current signals that are obtained for two different scenarios: the normal belt tracking, and a belt mis-tracking under two different loads of a belt conveyor system. The study’s findings indicate that the proposed technology has a high level of diagnostic effectiveness when used for belt mis-tracking. Therefore, it is feasible to recommend this technology for diagnosing tracking issues in belt conveyors.

For the first time ever worldwide, this paper proposes, investigates, and validates, by multiple experiments, a new online automatic diagnostic technology for the belt mis-tracking of belt conveyor systems based on motor current signature analysis (MCSA). Three diagnostic technologies were investigated, experimentally evaluated, and compared for conveyor belt mis-tracking diagnosis. The proposed technologies are based on three higher-order spectral diagnostic features: bicoherence, tricoherence, and the cross-correlation of spectral moduli of order 3 (CCSM3). The investigation of the proposed technologies via comprehensive experiments has shown that technology based on the CCSM3 is highly effective for diagnosing a conveyor belt mis-tracking via MCSA.

In the last decade, research centered around the fault diagnosis of rotating machinery using non-contact techniques has been significantly on the rise. For the first time worldwide, innovative techniques for the diagnosis of rotating machinery, based on electrical motors, including generic, nonlinear, higher-order cross-correlations of spectral moduli of the third and fourth order (CCSM3 and CCSM4, respectively), have been comprehensively validated by modeling and experiments. The existing higher-order cross-correlations of complex spectra are not sufficiently effective for the fault diagnosis of rotating machinery. The novel technology CCSM3 was comprehensively experimentally validated for induction motor bearing diagnosis via motor current signals. Experimental results, provided by the validated technology, confirmed high overall probabilities of correct diagnosis for bearings at early stages of damage development. The novel diagnosis technologies were compared with existing diagnosis technologies, based on triple and fourth cross-correlations of the complex spectra. The comprehensive validation and comparison of the novel cross-correlation technologies confirmed an important non-traditional novel outcome: the technologies based on cross-correlations of spectral moduli were more effective for damage diagnosis than the technologies based on cross-correlations of the complex spectra. Experimental and simulation validations confirmed a high probability of correct diagnosis via the CCSM at the early stage of fault development. The average total probability of incorrect diagnosis for the CCSM3 for all experimental results of 8 tested bearings, estimated via 6528 diagnostic features, was 1.475%. The effectiveness gains in the total probability of incorrect diagnosis for the CCSM3 in comparison with the CCCS3 were 26.8 for the experimental validation and 18.9 for the simulation validation. The effectiveness gains in the Fisher criterion for the CCSM3 in comparison with the CCCS3 were 50.7 for the simulation validation and 104.7 for the experimental validation.