NFC Conveyor Belt Sensor: Battery-Free, Flex Polyimide

Challenge: Detect conveyor belt damage before catastrophic failure. Sensors are embedded in the belt itself with no batteries (impossible to maintain), must survive continuous flexing and impact from ore loading. Solution: Flexible polyimide PCB with an NFC antenna coil that harvests power from reader stations along the conveyor frame. When the sensor passes a reader, it powers up, takes a strain measurement, and transmits back over the same NFC link, all in the fraction of a second it takes to pass by. The flex PCB is thin and compliant enough to bond into the belt rubber without creating a stress concentration. Results: Early detection lets the mine schedule repairs during planned downtime. The battery-free design is install-and-forget. Some sensors have been through millions of flex cycles without failure.