At the recent PACE Zenith Awards, Honeywell’s Aaron Deal won the coveted Young Achiever of the Year award.
Aaron Deal graduated from the University of Newcastle with a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) in 2012 and joined Honeywell Process Solutions shortly thereafter.
Since Aaron joined Honeywell Process Solutions, he has excelled among his peers and has been instrumental in making BeltAIS a commercially implemented online conveyor belt monitoring system in the Hunter Valley area of NSW.
Aaron became responsible for BeltAIS technology in 2013 and developed it from a proof of concept to a viable industrial product with its first commercial installation in 2014 – within one year. As a result of his efforts, the solution is now also being evaluated for use in South Africa, North America and Japan.
Aaron’s first milestone achievement with the BeltAIS system was the enhancement of the user interface.
Thanks to Aaron’s diligent work, the data analysis and reporting functionality of the system has been streamlined, which has enabled the addition of a plant operator interface, automated alarming and developed an automated email report system.
Thanks to his amendments, the BeltAIS system is now significantly easier to use so it can now be implemented into the plant with less training and technical operational skill, reducing costs and time whilst still providing immediate notification of operational personnel of a conveyer belt issue.
Aaron recognised that the existing system was not robust enough for heavy industrial installation and operation, so he then sought about developing a solution for this problem. After implementing an RFID tag reader system to give position information, Aaron also further enhanced its functionality by integrating a position encoder into BeltAIS that allows the system to provide accurate location information of a defect long the length of the conveyor belt. This opened up a new market for the BeltAIS system with its new ability to be used in heavy industrial settings.
Delving into the source code of BeltAIS Aaron was next able to alter the existing code so that it could be executed faster and installed on less expensive server hardware. This has meant that the system operates more efficiently, but the cost of the hardware can be reduced, bringing down the overall cost of purchase and making it a more attractive proposition for potential purchasers.
Aaron has been heavily involved in BeltAIS installations and demonstrations and is actively pursuing the future development pathways of the technology. In summary, it has been with his unbridled passion for excellence that this product is now available for use in the process and manufacturing industry.