Browse > Article

A Study of the Effects of the Trunk Angles and the Upper Ann Angles on Workloads in the Lifting Work  

Chang, Seong-Rok (Division of Safety Engineering, Pukyong University)
Park, Hyung-Gu (Department of Safety Engineering, Pukyong University)
Publication Information
Journal of the Korean Society of Safety / v.24, no.2, 2009 , pp. 69-75 More about this Journal
Abstract
It is well-known that lifting capacity of a worker is influenced by body posture during the task. When a task analyst make use of RULA and REBA Trunk and upper arm angles are recorded in a separate item. It means that the interaction between the angles of two body segments may be ignored in a final score. The NLE(NIOSH Lifting Equation) has been used to supplement this problem. However, there is no study to validate the result of RWL (Recommended Workload Limit) under the existence of interactions between trunk and upper arm angles. The goal of this study was to assess the effect of the interaction between trunk and upper arm angles. Three responses, including NMVC(normalized maximum voluntary contraction), RWL(Recommended Weight Limit) and subjective judgment in psychophysical method (Borg's scale), were recorded according to the combinations of three trunk angles and nine upper arm angles. The results showed that lifting capacity is highly influenced by interaction of two body segments(trunk and upper arm). It means that the task workload has to be analyzed along with the interaction of trunk angles and upper arm angles when the task analyst assesses potential risk factors on the postures. This study may be able to be a fundamental study to develop an assessment method for lifting task analyses according to body postures.
Keywords
lifting capacity; MVC; RWL; trunk angle; upper arm angle; borg's scale;
Citations & Related Records
Times Cited By KSCI : 1  (Citation Analysis)
연도 인용수 순위
1 McAtammey L. and E.N. Corlett, 'RULA : a survey method for the investigation of work-related upper limb disorders', Applied Ergonomics, Vol. 24, pp. 91-99,1993   DOI   ScienceOn
2 Hignett and L. McAtammey, S., 'Rapid Entire Body Assessment(REBA)', Applied Ergonomics, Vol. 31, pp. 201-205, 2000   DOI   ScienceOn
3 Stackhouse, S.K., lE. Stevens, S.C. Lee, K.M. Pearce, L. Snyder-Mackler, and S.A. Binder-Macleod, 'Maximum Voluntary Activation in Nonfatigued and Fatigued Muscle of Young and Elderly Individuals', Physical Therapy, Vol. 81, No 5, 2001
4 A.F. Huxley, 'Muscular contraction', Journal of Physiology, Vol.243, No.1, 1977
5 Bystrom, lU., G.A. Hansson, L. Rylander, K. Ohlsson, G. Kallrot, and S. Skerfving, 'Physical workload in neck and upper limb using two CAD applications', Applied Ergonomics, Vol. 33, pp. 63-74,2002   DOI   ScienceOn
6 Waters, T.R., V. Putz-Anderson, and A. Garg, 'Applications Manual for the Revised NIOSH lifting equation', Cincinati, OH: DHHS(NIOSH), pp. 4-35, 1994
7 Bhattacharya A. and DJ McGlothlin, 'Occupational Ergonomics-Theory and Applications', Marcel Dekker, Inc., pp. 137-164, 1996
8 Hazard Evaluation System and Information Service, 'A physician's Guide to the California ergonomics standard', Hazard Evaluation System and Information, 2001
9 DOL, 'Industrial Accidents Analysis,' 2001-2007
10 D.B. Chaffin, G.BJ. Andersson, and BJ. Martin, Occupational Biomechanics. 3rd ed., 1999
11 Chang S.R. and D.C. Bae, 'A study on the coupling effect during lifting', J of the KIIS, Vol. 18, No.2, pp. 119-124,2003
12 D.C. Montgomery, Design and Analysis of Experiments, fifth ed. John Wiley and Sons, Inc, New York. 2001
13 Forsman, M., R. Kadefors, Q. Zhang, L. Birch, and G. Palmerud, 'Motor-unit recruitment in the trapezius muscle during arm movements and in VDU precision work', International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, Vol. 24, pp. 619-630, 1999   DOI   ScienceOn