A method for assessing the effectiveness of anti-vibration gloves using biodynamic responses of the hand–arm system

Abstract

Anti-vibration gloves are widely used to help minimize hand–arm vibration exposure. In this study, an alternative method is proposed to assess the vibration isolation effectiveness of these gloves using the biodynamic responses of the bare- and gloved-hand–arm system exposed to vibration. The laboratory experiments were performed with a total of five human subjects using a typical anti-vibration air bladder glove subjected to a broad-band random vibration spectrum in conjunction with a specially designed instrumented handle. The measured data were analyzed to derive the biodynamic responses of the bare as well as gloved human hand–arm system in terms of the apparent mass and the mechanical impedance. The two biodynamic responses were applied to estimate the vibration isolation effectiveness of the glove. The validity of the proposed concept was examined by comparing the estimated vibration transmissibility magnitudes of the glove with those obtained using a palm adapter method. The comparison of the results suggests that the proposed method offers a good alternative for estimating glove vibration transmissibility. The measured data and the proposed method based upon the biodynamic responses were further used to investigate the effect of the palm adapter on the vibration transmissibility of the glove. The results suggest that the presence of the palm adapter between the subject's palm and the glove may not alter the basic trends in the transmissibility response, but it would affect the transmissibility magnitudes in the middle- and high-frequency ranges. A distinct advantage of the proposed method is that it eliminates the use of an adapter in assessing the vibration isolation effectiveness of the gloves.