Development of a mining machine seat model

Abstract

The paper presents the process of a seat model development for mining machine operators. The lack of availability of such numerical models was the motivation for the authors as the cabin seat with the integrated seat belt is a fundamental safety equipment. The authors dismantled an original operator’s seat and then tested its major components in order to reverse engineer the shape and obtain mechanical properties of the seat. To obtain the CAD model photogrammetric methods based on 3D coordinates measurements of the objects were used. Material properties and the characteristics of the mounting were attained by tension-compression test, performed on a universal testing machine. By combining these methods, the authors elaborated a new, detailed model of the operator’s seat, which has been used in the further research in the mining operator safety.