Conveyor and sorter condition
Wireless Pulsenode W sensors on gearmotors, bearings and drive rollers, prioritized by criticality, so merges and sorter inductions get the closest watch.
Warehousing & logistics
Find the failing sorter motor before peak
We monitor conveyors, sorters, compressed air, dock doors and cold rooms, and watch parcels and labels at induction, so distribution centers lose fewer hours, fewer kilowatt-hours and fewer packages.
What goes wrong
The building is the machine
A distribution center is one long, interconnected machine. A gearmotor failing on a merge conveyor or a sorter induction backs up everything upstream, and in peak season there is no slack to absorb it. Most of those failures give weeks of warning in vibration and temperature, but with miles of conveyor and a maintenance team stretched across shifts, nobody is listening.
Parcels carry their own costs. When label read rates drop, packages fall out to manual handling, and nobody can quite say whether the cause is damaged labels, poor print from a shipper, or a scanner that needs attention. Damage claims arrive without evidence of where the damage happened.
Then there are the utilities nobody owns. Dock doors left open heat or cool the yard. Compressed air for diverters and tools leaks through hundreds of fittings. Refrigeration in cold storage runs flat out to compensate. And charging areas, where forklift batteries charge every shift, have their own thermal risk.
Applications
Warehouse energy monitoring and parcel inspection in one system
Parcel damage and label read rates
Lensnode V cameras at induction or exit flag crushed corners, open flaps and leaks, and photograph every no-read so the cause, whether damaged label, poor print or scanner, is visible by lane and shift.
Dock-door energy
Door state through Gatepoint inputs and temperature at each door, reported as open time by door and shift, priced in the energy it costs to condition the air you lose.
Compressed air
A Pulsenode U ultrasound survey route, permanent leak monitors on the worst headers and Pulsenode C nodes on compressors. See compressed-air leaks.
Cold-storage refrigeration
Compressors, condenser fans and evaporator motors monitored for vibration, temperature and current, with Gatepoint XT inside freezers rated down to −40 °C.
Forklift charging areas
Lensnode T views over charger rows and battery connectors, with Pulsenode C on charger circuits, flagging abnormal heating as a maintenance alert.
Recommended stack
The distribution center stack
| Application | Hardware | Service |
|---|---|---|
| Conveyors and sorters | Pulsenode W; Pulsenode C on critical drives | Predictive Maintenance |
| Parcel damage and no-reads | Lensnode V at induction or exit; Gatepoint G4 | AI Visual Inspection |
| Dock doors | Door contacts and temperature into Gatepoint I/O | Facility & Energy Monitoring |
| Compressed air | Pulsenode U survey and fixed leak monitors; Pulsenode C on compressors | Facility & Energy Monitoring |
| Cold-storage refrigeration | Pulsenode W and Pulsenode C; Gatepoint XT | Predictive Maintenance |
| Charging areas | Lensnode T; Pulsenode C on charger circuits | Thermal & Multispectral Monitoring |
Environment and compliance
Cold rooms, forklifts and peak season
- Cold. Gatepoint XT runs from −40 to 70 °C, so it can live inside a freezer. Lensnode cameras are rated to −20 °C; colder rooms get heated enclosures or cameras that look in from outside.
- Traffic. Cameras and gateways mount out of forklift and pallet paths, with guards where they must sit low. Wireless Pulsenodes avoid cable runs along conveyor frames.
- Privacy. Induction cameras are framed on the belt, not on people, and only package images are stored. Our approach is described in seeing without surveillance.
- Charging areas. Thermal monitoring is an early warning for maintenance. It is not a fire detection or suppression system, and your fire protection, ventilation and the battery maker's charging requirements still apply.
- Peak season. We install and run a Proof of Value outside your peak, and freeze configuration changes during it unless you ask otherwise.
Honest fit
Where this pays in a warehouse
A good fit when
- Multi-shift distribution centers with long conveyor runs and automated sortation
- Cold-storage sites where a refrigeration failure puts inventory at risk
- Buildings with large compressed-air systems and no leak program
- Parcel operations with rising damage claims or falling read rates
Probably not when
- Small warehouses with little conveyance, where a walk-round and a service contract work fine
- Replacing your warehouse control system. We monitor equipment and parcels; sortation logic stays with your WCS.
See it in context
A modeled distribution center, and how it was built
Compressed-air and energy monitoring
An ultrasound survey route, permanent leak monitors, compressor nodes and dock-door and HVAC monitoring. In the modeled scenario, compressed-air energy falls about 25%.
Read more
Facility & Energy Operations Monitoring
Energy sub-metering, compressed-air leak detection, refrigeration health and environmental monitoring.
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Predictive Maintenance & Condition Monitoring
Vibration, ultrasound, temperature and motor-current monitoring for conveyors, sorters and refrigeration plant.
Read moreFAQ
Questions we hear often
Do we have to stop conveyors to install sensors?
Rarely for long. Pulsenode W sensors are wireless and battery-powered, so most install on a running site during a scheduled maintenance window or between shifts. Cameras at induction need a short stop for mounting and alignment, which we plan with your operations team.
Can you connect to our WMS or WCS?
We can send inspection and condition data to them over MQTT, OPC UA or REST, for example to tag a damaged parcel or log a no-read cause. We don't control sortation; that stays with your warehouse control system.
How much can compressed-air work save?
It depends on the size of your system and how leaky it is today. In our modeled distribution center scenario, compressed-air energy fell about 25%. Your own numbers come from the baseline we measure at the start of a Proof of Value.
Will cameras record our employees?
Induction cameras are framed on the belt and store package images only. For occupancy or area counts, counting happens on the device and only numbers leave it. We document fields of view so you can share them with your teams.
What does a warehouse project cost?
Facility monitoring starts at $1,450 per building per month for buildings up to 150,000 sq ft on a 36-month term; larger buildings are priced on scope. Conveyor and refrigeration monitoring starts at $89 per monitored asset per month. See pricing.
Get ahead of next peak
In a 45-minute discovery call we'll identify the conveyors, compressors and cold rooms where monitoring would pay back first, and what a Proof of Value would measure.