Abstract
ABSTRACT Studies conducted by the international labor organization have shown that operations involving agricultural machinery are among the three activities with the highest risk of accidents to workers. Among the possible causes, rollover is the most common, accounting for 33% of fatal accidents. Despite this, there are standards that provide for the use of safety devices to ensure the physical integrity of the operator, among these equipment stand out rollover protection structures, which can be foldable or not. In this sense, the objective of this study was to perform an ergonomic study in order to analyze the torque required for lowering and lifting a foldable rollover protection structure attached to an agricultural tractor, developing instrumentation for validation of the efforts required to operate the structure and comparing the results obtained with the values recommended by the Standard (CODE 6 - OECD). When torque values were above those recommended by the standard, a set of torsion springs was used as solution to torque reduction. After further testing, the effectiveness of the solution was verified. Furthermore, it was observed that the angular speed of the bar does not have a significant influence on the torque required to lift the bar.
Highlights
The agricultural tractor is the most important source of power in the agricultural environment, contributing to the development and technological advancement of the Agricultural Production Systems (APS), as the only way to guarantee the gains of scale that are observed in the global Agribusiness
In order to minimize the risk of rollover in agricultural tractors, safety standards were put in place, including safety devices such as rollover protection structure (ROPS) (Myers, 2000; Ayers & Rondelli, 2016; Li et al 2016), which is foreseen in the Brazilian standards, being more common the adoption
Engenharia Agrícola, Jaboticabal, v.38, n.5, p.680-689, sep./oct. 2018. In this sense, assuming that torsion springs can be used as part of a mechanical assist device (Rossi et al, 2015) for operators to handle the foldable rollover protection structure in a more ergonomic way, the objective of this study was to characterize the lifting and lowering of a Foldable Rollover Protection Structure, comparing the results obtained with the values recommended by the standard (CODE 6 - OECD)
Summary
The agricultural tractor is the most important source of power in the agricultural environment, contributing to the development and technological advancement of the Agricultural Production Systems (APS), as the only way to guarantee the gains of scale that are observed in the global Agribusiness. Springfeldt (1996) and Khorsandi et al 2017 reported that within accidents involving agricultural tractors the primary cause is tractor rollover, Murphy & Yoder (1998) mention that rollover accounts for a third of total fatalities involving agricultural workers In this sense, in order to minimize the risk of rollover in agricultural tractors, safety standards were put in place, including safety devices such as rollover protection structure (ROPS) (Myers, 2000; Ayers & Rondelli, 2016; Li et al 2016), which is foreseen in the Brazilian standards, being more common the adoption. In cases where the FROPS torque (force) is too high a mechanical assist mechanism such as a torsion spring, can be designed and installed associated to the to the tractor FROPS
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