NIOSHTIC-2 Publications Search

Effectiveness of a transfer function method for evaluating vibration isolation performance of gloves when used with chipping hammers.

Dong RG; McDowell TW; Welcome DE; Rakheja S; Caporali SA; Schopper AW

J Low Freq Noise, Vib Active Control 2002 Jul; 21(3):141-156

http://dx.doi.org/10.1260/026309202321164711

20024152

Anti-vibration gloves have been used as personal protective equipment to reduce the exposure intensity of hand-transmitted vibration. Although a method based upon the measured transfer function has been recently proposed to predict the tool-specific anti-vibration performance of these gloves, its validity for real tool applications has not been sufficiently evaluated. In this study, the effectiveness of the proposed prediction method was examined using two typical vibration-attenuation gloves when used in conjunction with two different pneumatic chipping hammers. Six adult male subjects were employed in the experiments involving measurement of gloves transmissibility while operating the selected tools. A comparison of the measured vibration transmissibility with the predicted values revealed that the transfer function method provides a reasonably good prediction of the vibration isolation performance of the gloves. The differences between the predicted and measured mean values of the weighted transmissibility were surprisingly small. It is concluded that the transfer function method can serve as an effective and convenient approach for estimating the effectiveness of anti-vibration gloves when used with pneumatic chipping hammers. A pneumatic chipping hammer is considered to represent a critical case for the evaluation of the method because they are typical percussive tools that generate impact vibration. It is thus anticipated that the transfer function method may also be widely employed to predict anti-vibration glove performance when used with many other vibrating tools.

Hand-protection; Hand-injuries; Arm-injuries; Vibration-control; Vibration-exposure; Gloves; Occupational-exposure; Tools; Personal-protective-equipment; Personal-protection; Protective-clothing; Protective-equipment; Author Keywords: Hand-arm vibration; Anti-vibration glove; Chipping hammer; Percussive tool; Glove vibration isolation

Engineering and Control Technology Branch, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 1095 Willowdale Road, Morgantown, West Virginia, 26505, USA

20020701

Journal Article

rkd6@cdc.gov

2002

3

0263-0923

HELD

Disease and Injury: Musculoskeletal Disorders of the Upper Extremities

Journal of Low Frequency Noise, Vibration, and Active Control

WV