Evaluation of Seat Designs Relative to Transmitted Vehicle Vibration on Underground Mine Transport Vehicles

Details

• Personal Author:
  Jobes, Christopher C. ; Mayton, Alan G.
• Description:
  The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) researchers have investigated seat design issues for the occupants and operators of underground mine transport vehicles relative to wholebody vibration (WBV) and mechanical shock. Considering the ergonomic and engineering improvements made to underground mine shuttle car seats, this study has focused on reducing injury risk by improving seating on transport vehicles such as scoops, mantrips, personnel carriers, and rail-mounted locomotives. Similarly, proposed seat design improvements included layering of various types of viscoelastic foam padding to isolate vehicle occupants and operators from adverse health effects of jarring/jolting exposure. This paper discusses the results obtained from laboratory vibration testing of new seat padding materials in seven configurations at the NIOSH - Pittsburgh Research Laboratory (PRL) showing that careful use of configuration and materials can reduce the operator's exposure to WBV. In addition, results for four mine transport vehicles are presented from field data collection efforts at a Southwestern Pennsylvania mine showing that a NIOSH based design does reduce the operator's exposure to WBV. Finally, the authors discuss efforts to develop and field test seat padding interventions using new padding materials and configurations based on the laboratory test results. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Engineering Ergonomics Mining Occupational Health Safety Vibration
• Keywords:
  Engineering-controls Equipment-design Injury-prevention Seat-designs Underground-mining Vibration-control
• Series:
  Mining Publications
• ISSN:
  1071-1813
• Publisher:
  Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Proceedings
• Place as Subject:
  California ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 9 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  PRL - Pittsburgh Research Laboratory
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  50
• Issue:
  13
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20031495
• Citation:
  Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 50th Annual Meeting, October 16-20, 2006, San Francisco, California. Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 2006 Oct; 50(13):1416-1420
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2007
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:b24d6b8926a3c3d83f98884c88590103223410f6809c9d89bad15860eab9efba6507dde1bcc0c6dec2405a578a71b3247801669d6a9fe11e77a09021ecf1ff1b
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/226706/cdc_226706_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 283.16 KB ]