We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Laboratory and Workplace Assessments of Rivet Bucking Bar Vibration Emissions.
- Authors
McDowell, Thomas W.; Warren, Christopher; Xueyan S. Xu; Welcome, Daniel E.; Dong, Ren G.
- Abstract
Sheet metal workers operating rivet bucking bars are at risk of developing hand and wrist musculo-skeletal disorders associated with exposures to hand-transmitted vibrations and forceful exertions required to operate these hand tools. New bucking bar technologies have been introduced in efforts to reduce workplace vibration exposures to these workers. However, the efficacy of these new bucking bar designs has not been well documented. While there are standardized laboratory-based methodologies for assessing the vibration emissions of many types of powered hand tools, no such standard exists for rivet bucking bars. Therefore, this study included the development of a laboratory-based method for assessing bucking bar vibrations which utilizes a simulated riveting task. With this method, this study evaluated three traditional steel bucking bars, three similarly shaped tungsten alloy bars, and three bars featuring spring-dampeners. For comparison the bucking bar vibrations were also assessed during three typical riveting tasks at a large aircraft maintenance facility. The bucking bars were rank-ordered in terms of unweighted and frequency-weighted acceleration measured at the hand-tool interface. The results suggest that the developed laboratory method is a reasonable technique for ranking bucking bar vibration emissions; the lab-based riveting simulations produced similar rankings to the workplace rankings. However, the laboratory-based acceleration averages were considerably lower than the workplace measurements. These observations suggest that the laboratory test results are acceptable for comparing and screening bucking bars, but the laboratory measurements should not be directly used for assessing the risk of workplace bucking bar vibration exposures. The newer bucking bar technologies exhibited significantly reduced vibrations compared to the traditional steel bars. The results of this study, together with other information such as rivet quality, productivity, tool weight, comfort, worker acceptance, and initial cost can be used to make informed bucking bar selections.
- Subjects
METALLURGY equipment; RISK assessment; PEARSON correlation (Statistics); DATA analysis; NATIONAL Institute for Occupational Safety &; Health; TASK performance; LABOR productivity; VIBRATION (Mechanics); MUSCULOSKELETAL system diseases; PROBABILITY theory; PRODUCT design; ACCELEROMETERS; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; ANALYSIS of variance; STATISTICS; OCCUPATIONAL exposure; DATA analysis software; PHYSIOLOGICAL effects of acceleration; DISEASE risk factors; STANDARDS
- Publication
Annals of Occupational Hygiene, 2015, Vol 59, Issue 3, p382
- ISSN
0003-4878
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/annhyg/meu091