Flexco
Collecting data and refining it into insights, Flexco is pioneering digital sensor technology for the mining industry.
The
Challenge
Raw mining materials create significant wear and tear on conveyor belt systems, causing unpredictable maintenance of cleaner blades and costly downtime. Flexco aimed to find a solution to detect these belt-stopping problems before they occur.
Our approach needed to identify abnormal vibration or impacts, notify service teams immediately, and gauge ongoing conveyor belt health—minimizing conveyor downtime while maximizing the cleaner blade lifespan.
Work Summary
In the toolbox:
Immersion Workshops
Stakeholder Research & Analysis 
Sensor Design & Development
Algorithm Development 
Edge Device Design & Development
User Interface Design
Product Design
Cloud Architecture & Development
Through a human-centered design process, we learned what mining professionals desired most, from sensor housing and design, to data extraction and environmental needs.
These insights informed features like:
- Custom algorithms to capture and convert data into insights that prompt user action
- Durable sensors for remote locations + extreme weather that allows for battery replacement while the conveyor is running
- Compatible app and cloud-based connection to assign and log maintenance, update schedules and identify patterns and trends
The
impact
Flexco’s Elevate™ is an innovative belt cleaner monitoring system that uses predictive insights to gather real-time data remotely in extreme conditions. This edge-device has dramatically reduced downtime for Flexco’s customers, reduced product reputation and improved the lifespan of their conveyors by predicting future conveyor failures on-site or remotely.
Positively
quotable.
“Twisthink orchestrated a human-centered design approach to building a data collection device based on real customer pain points and needs.
Get
started.
Digital transformation,
with a twist.
