Design of Ergonomically Efficient Rose-Pruning Tool
The objective of the following study was to design an ergonomically efficient rose-pruning tool. The project arises from a real need, identified in the companies through studies performed by The “Social Protection Ministry of Colombia and different “Professional risk management mutual companies from Colombia. It is know that the main cause of the development of muscle skeletal diseases from the arm-wrist-hand system is due to the repetitive movements while using tools in mainly manual tasks, especially in the flower industry, one of the most representative export industries. This investigation detected other problems presented by the tools used in this activity including; over - sizing and inadequate posturing for the pruning activity. For the development of the pruning tool, two types of methodology were used: Engineering design from theoretical conception of functionality, focused on analyzing the gathering of anthropometric and dynamometric data; and user-centered design allowing final users to participate actively through the whole designing and development process. The analysis of the rose-pruning activity showed the presence of abuses and over-uses of the different articulations including the arm-wrist -hand compound system. It was evidenced that the wrist was the most affected part, for the “Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS). Due to inadequate work conditions that origin bad posturing, excessive use of strength and movement repetition; these situations made it necessary to evaluate the ergonomic conditions of the work fields, in the rose-pruning activities to prevent illness in the workers. That evaluation results in a rising in the production. Some prototype tools were built and tested in the field with the actual industry workers, including the respective corrections, resulting in the design of the tool with materials and mechanisms requirements. This pruning tool prototype let us show that changing the shape of the device a lot, especially improving the grip, adjusting the dimensions according to the workers′ hands measurements and giving adequate directions of use, the deviations of the arm-wrist-hand system are finally improving the quality in life of the workers and increasing productivity.
Hand tool Carpal Tunnel Syndrome floriculture rose pruning repetitive movements tool design MSD Prevention hand posture bone muscle diseases.
Cordoba Jorge Fajardo Javier Quintana Leonardo Hilarion Alvaro
Department of Industrial Engineering, Javeriana University, Bogota, Colombia Department of Industrial Engineering, Javeriana University, Bogota, Colombia; tel. (57) 1 320 83 20 Department of Industrial Design, Javeriana University, Bogota, Colombia
国际会议
17th World Congress on Ergonomics(第十七届国际人类工效学大会)
北京
英文
1-4
2009-08-09（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）