Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea (대한인간공학회지)

Ergonomics Society of Korea (대한인간공학회)
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Research of Grip Forces and Subjective Preferences for Various Individual Finger Grip Spans by using an

MFFM System을 이용한 손가락 별 파지 폭들의 변화에 따른 악력 및 개인 선호도에 대한 연구

  • Kim, Dae-Min (Department of Systems Management Engineering Sungkyunkwan University) ;
  • Kong, Yong-Ku (Department of Systems Management Engineering Sungkyunkwan University)
  • 김대민 (성균관대학교 시스템경영공학과) ;
  • 공용구 (성균관대학교 시스템경영공학과)
  • Published : 2008.09.01
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Abstract

Individual finger/total grip forces, and subjective preferences for various individual finger grip spans (i.e., four fingers had identical grip spans or different grip spans) were evaluated by using an "Adjustable Multi-Finger Force Measurement (MFFM) System". In this study, three grip spans were defined as follows: a 'favorite grip span' which is the span with the highest subjective preference; a 'maximum grip span' which is the span with the highest total grip force; a 'maximum finger grip span' which is a set of four grip spans that had maximum finger grip forces associated with the index, middle, ring, and little fingers, respectively. Ten males were recruited from university population for this study. In experiment I, each participant tested the maximum grip force with five grip spans (45 to 65mm) to investigate grip forces and subjective preferences for three types of grip spans. Results showed that subjective preferences for grip spans were not coincidence with the performance of total grip forces. It was noted that the 'favorite grip span' represented the lowest total grip force, whereas the 'maximum finger grip span' showed the lowest subjective preferences. The individual finger forces and the average percentage contribution to the total finger force were also investigated in this study. The findings of this study might be valuable information for designing ergonomics hand-tools to reduce finger/hand stress as well as to improve tool users' preferences and performance.

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References

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