• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.49-57
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• 2008

This study aims to investigate the effect of handle angles of pliers on performance, wrist motion and subjective rating of satisfaction. An experiment was conducted, in which handle angle of pliers was used as independent variable and 14 subjects participated. Based on the literature survey, plier handles angled at 0$^{\circ}$, 10$^{\circ}$, 20$^{\circ}$, 30$^{\circ}$ and 40$^{\circ}$ were adopted in the experiment. The subjects were instructed to bend iron plates by 90$^{\circ}$ and to cut wires as soon as possible. The results revealed that 1) handle angles of pliers have significant effect on wrist motion and satisfaction(p<0.0001); 2) handle angles of pliers did not affect performance of completing tasks irrespective of types of tasks done in the study; 3) in the initial stage of windup, plier with handle angled at 20$^{\circ}$ produced the least wrist motion of deviation in task of bending iron plates, while plier with handle angled at 40$^{\circ}$ did in task of cutting wires; 4) degree of satisfaction was maximized when handle of pliers was bent by 20$^{\circ}$ in both tasks. On the basis of the results, it is recommended that handle of pliers be bent by 20-30$^{\circ}$ for reducing musculoskeletal disorders related to pliers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.51-56
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• 2008

This study aims to investigate the effect of handle angles of pliers on performances of task completion time and the number of errors, and subjective ratings of preference. For doing this, an experiment was conducted, where 14 subjects of 11 college-age male and three female students participated. In the experiment, plier handles angled at $0^{\circ}$, $10^{\circ}$, $20^{\circ}$, $30^{\circ}$, and $40^{\circ}$ were used as independent variable, and the task completion time and the number of errors, and subjective ratings of preference as dependent variables. The subjects were instructed to do two tasks of bending an iron plate by $90^{\circ}$ and cutting wires. The results revealed that while the performances of task completion time and the number of errors were not statistically different depending upon the handle angles of pliers, the subjective ratings of preference were significantly different. Based on the results, it is recommended that the pliers with handles bent by $20^{\circ}$ be used in real situations.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.85-90
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• 2007

This study shows a way to develop ergonomic design of a plier through quality function deployment (QFD) approach. User needs for pliers, as well as the engineering characteristics which have influence on the ergonomic quality of pliers were determined from the interviews and questionnaires with various user groups. This information was entered in the house of quality, and the results show that the handle is the most important quality factor. A new model was proposed in which ergonomic and gender aspects were considered. QFD is considered a suitable method especially for the manufacturing and/or design fields where biomechanical or physiological background is not present.