Foreseeable errors in the use of foot controls on industrial machines.

Details

• Personal Author:
  Etherton, John R. ; Trump, Thomas R.
• Description:
  Industrial machines which use vertical reciprocating motions in repetitive tasks are often operated by foot controls. Included among these machines are mechanical power presses, resistance welders, press brakes, sheet metal shears and riveting machines. A high percentage of machine operator injuries occur when a foot control is inadvertently depressed while the operator is reaching into a danger point to reposition a workpiece or to adjust the equipment. Using occupational injury statistics, workplace observations and a review of selected literature, a model of inadvertent use of foot controls is proposed and presented with the aid of two diagrams. One of the diagrams shows the operators foot movement coordinated with the hand movement, the other represents a sequence when coordination between hand and foot movement is interrupted. The proposed model was used for conducting machine safety simulation experiments in a metal products manufacturing establishment. It was found that the primary causes for inadvertent actuation of foot controls were: unmediated hand movements in response to workpiece or machine problems, mental slips associated with the normal task rhythm, and loss of operator balance. The authors suggest that to avoid injury, automated or hand control devices could be considered in lieu of foot controls. Alternatively, if foot control is selected, safeguarding devices which are difficult to circumvent could be used at the point of danger. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accidents, Occupational Behavior Manufacturing And Industrial Facilities Metal Workers Musculoskeletal System Occupational Health Safety Workplace
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Analytical-models Behavior-patterns Body-protection Control-equipment Equipment-design Hand-injuries Industrial-safety Machine-guarding Machine-operators Metalworking-industry NIOSH-Author Simulation-methods Workplace-studies

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• ISSN:
  0003-6870
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSR - Division of Safety Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  103-111
• Volume:
  16
• Issue:
  2
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00179380
• Citation:
  Appl Ergon 1985 Jun; 16(2):103-111
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1985
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  Applied Ergonomics
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:c1a887c9746e88e05b16b468ae93fd0d7f032540949ad4df9e808072b6bf78028e94008aa240dba8ae93b70c1a56070879fcdeb7726c4a60bd45f7198966c853
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/185507/cdc_185507_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.16 MB ]