Foldable Rollover Protective Structures: Universal Lift-Assist Design

Details

• Personal Author:
  Ayers PD ; Hilliard CT ; Khorsandi FK ; Poland MJ
• Description:
  The numbers of agricultural tractor rollover fatalities occurring with foldable rollover protective structures (FROPS) in their lowered position are significant. Raising and lowering the FROPS is a time consuming and strenuous process, and operators often leave the FROPS in the folded-down position providing no protection during a rollover. The purpose of this project is to design, manufacture, and test a lift-assist mechanism to raise and lower the FROPS from the operator's seat. The lift-assist design is based on the FROPS actuation forces, FROPS and tractor dimensions, and ergonomics engineering standards [SAE J898/ISO 6682 and SAE J1814]. The design considered can be retrofitted and will not modify or compromise the FROPS structure. A universal lift-assist lever design has been constructed and successfully tested for three FROPS of different sizes meeting appropriate ergonomics engineering standards. The operator actuation forces were less than the 75 N allowable maximum, and within the zones of comfort and reach for the operator. The lift-assist design uses an energy absorbing torsional spring to accommodate heavier FROPS designs. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Agriculture Engineering Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Actuation Force Agricultural Machinery Agricultural Safety Author Keywords: Folding Equipment Design Handle Force Rollover Protective Structures ROPS Torsion Spring Tractors
• ISSN:
  1537-5110
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement ; Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  California ; Colorado ; OSHA Region 4 ; OSHA Region 8 ; OSHA Region 9 ; Tennessee
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  116-125
• Volume:
  185
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20059852
• Citation:
  Biosyst Eng 2019 Sep; 185:116-125
• Contact Point Address:
  Paul D. Ayers, 2506 E. J. Chapman Drive, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA
• Email:
  ayers@utk.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2019
• NORA Priority Area:
  Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• Performing Organization:
  Colorado State University - Ft. Collins
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20030915
• Source Full Name:
  Biosystems Engineering
• End Date:
  20270914
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:ae9b08ac6ba7617d37d5bbcffd42e91302cb2582458f9580178ed3decb94f03317284fa81172928fb93537b2564d36bd04fb892e6bf97abb54b2d6adba4c44f9
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/223917/cdc_223917_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.36 MB ]