Anthropometry of Korean People and Safety Reach Standards

한국인의 신체특성과 표준 안전간극 및 안전거리

Elimination of dangerous points is the most effective method for safety in mechanical equipments. The next effective method is recognized as isolation and/or safe-guarding of dangerous spots from human beings. With progress of mechanical automation technique such as industrial robots, the need for safe-guard-ins is now being enlarged. It is needless to say that when a machine-guard is designed and installed, a comprechensive understanding of human movement is indispensable. But in this country, there is no scientific for those thems, and no one verifield whether it is valid to apply general guideline such as OSHA's to Korean or not. Further, basic anthropometric items for safety reach standards are neither availble nor included in nation-wide anthropometry project. In this research, human anthropometry data of Korean youngsters are analyzed for safety barrier and safety slit width, and compared with guidelines of other countries-Germany, United Kingdom, Japan, and USA. Though they are standards for safety, since they are based upon their own peoples' data, some of them especially foot reach are not not applicable in this country. It should be notified that careful application of numeric value is very important.