News - 2015

Bridgestone Develops Conveyor Belt Wear Monitoring System and BRIDGESTONE MONITRIX Mining Operations Support Software

2015/01/26

Tokyo (January 26, 2015) - Bridgestone Corporation today announced that it has developed a unique system capable of automatically assessing conveyor belt wear and plans to launch this system worldwide in January. The company also will launch BRIDGESTONE MONITRIX, a mining operations support software also designed by Bridgestone that integrates conventional maintenance services with the newly created conveyor belt wear monitoring system.

Until now, checking conveyor belt wear involves measuring the belt at various points which requires temporary system stoppages and associated production losses. The new conveyer belt wear monitoring system uses Bridgestone sensing and communications technology to enable automatic measurements of belt thickness through sensors embedded in the belt. This data is transmitted to a data collection system to allow monitoring of wear conditions without stopping belt conveyor operations. In addition to minimizing production losses attributable to system stoppages, the new technology eliminates manual measurements, potential errors associated with manual data entry, further improving productivity and efficiency. Bridgestone's new conveyor belt wear monitoring system has already been deployed for testing at a mining operation in Australia.

The BRIDGESTONE MONITRIX software, developed by Bridgestone, also provides total management of the new wear monitoring system, including management of conveyor belt specifications data, operating life and stock, and simulations of wear conditions and replacement schedules. Bridgestone intends to continue expanding the functions of the software to provide customers with even greater operating efficiency and ease of use.

Drawing on the Bridgestone Group's advanced technologies, Bridgestone is committed to providing solutions that meet customer needs.

About Bridgestone Corporation: Bridgestone Corporation (BSJ), headquartered in Tokyo, is the world's largest tire and rubber company. In addition to tires for use in a wide variety of applications, it also manufactures a broad range of diversified products, which include industrial rubber and chemical products and sporting goods. Its products are sold in over 150 nations and territories around the world.