Practical Application of a Partial Cab to Reduce the A-Weighted Sound Level at the Operator’s Station on Surface Drill Rigs

Details

• Personal Author:
  Ingram D ; Jurovcik P Jr. ; Yantek D
• Description:
  The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) identified hearing loss as the most common job-related disease in the United States in its 1996 National Occupational Research Agenda. Previous studies by NIOSH have shown operators of surface drill rigs without cabs are commonly exposed to A-weighted sound levels exceeding 90 dB. During hammer-drilling, A-weighted sound levels exceeding 100 dB were recorded at the operator station. NIOSH collaborated with a local drilling company to design and install a partial cab between the operator and the drill steel in an effort to reduce the sound level at the operator station. Sound level measurements in the field show the partial cab reduces the A-weighted sound level by 5-9 dB at the operator's left ear and 2-5 dB at the operator's right ear while hammer-drilling. This paper will briefly discuss the preliminary design of a cab and the testing of materials for construction of the prototype. Explanation of the ideas behind the prototype design and fabrication will be covered. Finally, the field test method and results will be discussed in detail. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Mining Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Control-technology Engineering-controls Mining-industry Noise Noise-analysis Noise-exposure Noise-levels Noise-sources Sound Underground-mining
• Series:
  Mining Publications
• Publisher:
  Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, Inc.
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Proceedings
• Place as Subject:
  Colorado ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 8 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  PRL - Pittsburgh Research Laboratory
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-10
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20031656
• Citation:
  2007 SME Annual Meeting and Exhibit, February 25-28, Denver Colorado, Preprint 07-016. Littleton, CO: Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, Inc., 2007 Feb; :1-10
• Contact Point Address:
  NIOSH Pittsburgh Research Laboratory, P.O. Box 18070, Pittsburgh, PA 15236
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2007
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  2007 SME Annual Meeting and Exhibit, February 25-28, Denver Colorado, Preprint 07-016
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:d2c16f42b8fac8f6f6bb5bbbdff5e38eda6ff67faad99044734f3d25f69d7e5225e8c218f9baa1cf082620ddedb45228d1bfd9f9cec4f9bbafc3fd777a59fc6b
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/226727/cdc_226727_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 833.57 KB ]