Monitoring system for motorised pulleys
13/05/2026
Rulmeca Corporation has recently introduced the Rulmeca Monitoring System (RMS), offering continuous real-time monitoring of conveyor components. With RMS, Rulmeca aims to minimise conveyor system downtime by detecting early signs of malfunction and supporting better informed maintenance decisions.
“We monitor vibration, temperature, amp draw and drum rotation, essentially surface speed,” said Zach Laymon, Sales Manager at Rulmeca. “We are collecting all that data continuously.”
According to Zach, the information is received from a terminal box and feeds into a gateway box that interprets it.
“First, users can take that data and feed it into their existing monitoring system, alongside other components, and manage it themselves. The second option, and the one we encourage, is to use our RMS software.”
The software takes incoming data and establishes benchmarks, positioning Rulmeca and users to monitor pulley performance.
“If we start to see issues, increased vibration, rising temperatures or other concerning trends, we can alert the customer and provide guidance before a failure occurs. Instead of them just saying, ‘Hey, my motor is getting hot,’ we are giving them something actionable,” Zach said.
The RMS establishes benchmarks after about 400 to 500 hours of operation. Once those baselines are set, the system tracks trends.
“If the customer is using their own software, that level of benchmarking may not happen,” Zach added. “But with our system, it is built in. From there, notifications are triggered if something starts to spike or drift out of range.”
“Rulmeca began development on the RMS about a year and a half to two years ago. Right now, we have 11 pulleys on the way, not yet in the field, but they should be installed by mid- to late April,” Zach said. “It is gaining a lot of traction.”
Zach continued: “For the most part, motorised pulleys have not changed much since the 1950s. We have fine-tuned the technology over time, but this is something new. Customers have been asking for it for years and now we are finally bringing it to market.”
