In-Cab Noise Reduction On An Air-Rotary Drill Rig

Details

• Personal Author:
  Yantek, David S. ; Ingram, David K. ; Matetic, R. J.
• Description:
  The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has investigated engineering noise controls to reduce sound levels in cabs on air-rotary drill rigs. A recent investigation revealed that some drillers are exposed to A-weighted sound levels exceeding 85 dB even though a cab is used. NIOSH studied the in-cab sound levels of one such rig. First, preliminary tests were conducted in a controlled environment using accelerometers and microphones with spectral analysis to identify the dominant noise sources for in-cab sound levels. The results indicate that vibration transmitted from multiple hydraulic pumps to the control panel produces a dominant spike in the sound level spectrum in the 400 Hz 1/3-octave band. Next, field tests were performed in a production environment to evaluate noise controls to reduce in-cab sound levels. It was found that utilizing hydraulic noise suppressors reduces the structure-borne noise transmitted to the control panel. Further, using hydraulic noise suppressors and enhancing soundproofing reduced the in-cab A-weighted sound levels by as much as 4 dB.
• Subjects:
  NIOSH
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:4b7c3e9deeabb88989a4e1c62052f9e286a44058d19b0209fdbb0ccd60d4398c
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/8985/cdc_8985_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 3.74 MB ]