Modernization framework for real-time monitoring of legacy belt conveyor systems

Abstract Legacy conveyor systems remain widely deployed across manufacturing industries but lack the sensing, connectivity, and real-time monitoring capabilities required for Industry 4.0 compliance. As critical material-handling assets, their unexpected failures, particularly at the induction motor drive, result in unplanned downtime, production disruptions, and higher maintenance costs. While system monitoring frameworks have been extensively studied for advanced or newly designed equipment, their application to retrofitting legacy assets, such as conveyor systems, remains limited. This work presents a framework for modernizing legacy belt conveyor systems by integrating sensing, control, and visualization technologies to enable real-time operational monitoring. The induction motor of the conveyor has been retrofitted with multiple sensors, including temperature, vibration, current, and voltage, providing comprehensive data acquisition on the system’s performance. The acquired data were processed through a programmable logic controller (PLC) and integrated into the Ignition supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) platform, where a digital dashboard has been developed to visualize live operational states, trigger alarms, and record historical trends. The proposed framework demonstrates a scalable and cost-effective pathway for modernizing non-digital manufacturing assets. Experimental validation under real operating conditions confirmed the reliability and effectiveness of the modernized system. This work contributes to transforming legacy manufacturing systems by offering a practical methodology for sensor-based retrofitting and SCADA-level digital integration.