Mitigation of hand-arm vibration in workers on a pneumatic nail gun assembly line

Authors

  • Yi-Tsong Pan Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Council of Labor Affairs, Yuan, Taiwan
  • Chih-Yong Chen Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Council of Labor Affairs, Yuan, Taiwan
  • Cheng-Ping Chang Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Council of Labor Affairs, Yuan, Taiwan
  • Jen-Chieh Liu Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Information, Chung Hua University, Taiwan
  • Hsieh-Ching Chen Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Chaoyang University of Technology, Taiwan
  • Shih-Yi Lu Department of Occupational Safety and Health, Chung Shan Medical University, Taiwan

Keywords:

Assembly, Assembly machines, Ergonomics, Machine vibrations, Tools, Assembly line, Hand-arm vibration, Polyurethane materials, Root Mean Square, Shock absorbing, Weighted acceleration, Work efficiency

Abstract

Experimental findings and subjective responses of operators' recruited to assess the effectiveness of the fixture in reducing their hand-arm vibration (HAV) are reported. A wooden fixture was developed to reduce the exposure of assembly line operators to HAV caused by the impact wrench. A wooden fixture, which fastened the impact wrench to a worktable and held the assembly part of nail gun, was designed to reduce the vibration at the operators' hands by supporting the impact wrench and incorporating shock absorbing polyurethane material. The HAV levels, frequency-weighted root mean square acceleration, with and without the fixture plate were evaluated according to the ISO 5349-1 (2001) and ISO 8041 (2005) standards using Viewlog software. Significant reductions are achieved in frequency- weighted accelerations using the fixture plate. With regards to work efficiency, the design of the fixture requires pans for assembly to be mounted and removed easily and quickly.

Additional Files

Published

2011-06-01

How to Cite

1.
Pan Y-T, Chen C-Y, Chang C-P, Liu J-C, Chen H-C, Lu S-Y. Mitigation of hand-arm vibration in workers on a pneumatic nail gun assembly line. Canadian Acoustics [Internet]. 2011 Jun. 1 [cited 2024 Apr. 16];39(2):84-5. Available from: https://jcaa.caa-aca.ca/index.php/jcaa/article/view/2369

Issue

Section

Proceedings of the Acoustics Week in Canada