A psychophysical study to determine maximum acceptable hand impact forces during door trim installation: Effects of hand posture and impact gloves.

摘要

Upper extremity work-related musculoskeletal disorders are significant problems for industrial workers. Previous research has identified possible risk factors for upper extremity disorders, to include repetition, force, and awkward postures. To add to this, the hand is used within trim and assembly plants to impact and seat parts into place which expose the hand to high forces, local stress, and shock. This research investigates the maximal hand forces that people find acceptable for these tasks and examines how these tolerances may change with hand posture (palm vs ulnar and protection (bare hand vs glove). A simulation device (Potvin u26 Chiang, 1998) was used to measure the time-history of the hand impact forces required to insert pushpins during door trim panel installation. Acceleration data was recorded using a modified wrist brace which subjects wore. The findings of the experiment found glove use to increase tolerance and decrease severity with males choosing impact tolerances much higher than females with similar impact severity. Males were also found to benefit more from glove use with females being more conservative. Posture produced some interesting findings, with palmer impacts resulting in higher acceptable force impulses and peak accelerations. The implications of these posture results for impact severity were not clear and require further study. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses u26 Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1999 .M87. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 39-02, page: 0493. Adviser: J. P. Potvin. Thesis (M.H.K.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1999.