REPETITIVE MOTION AND POSTURAL ANALYSIS OF MACHINE OPERATORS IN MECHANIZED WOOD HARVESTING OPERATIONS

Anderson De Costa Paini,Amaury Paulo De Souza,Eduardo Da Silva Lopes,Carla Krulikowski Rodrigues,Felipe Martins De Oliveira

doi:10.1590/01047760201925022617

Anderson De Costa Paini, Amaury Paulo De Souza + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/01047760201925022617

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Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate operators’ posture and repetitive motions in the mechanized wood harvesting operations, aiming comfort, safety, and health of forest operators. The study was carried out in the clearcutting of pine stands located in Parana State, Brazil. Data were obtained in tree cutting operations with feller buncher and wood processing with harvesters, in which three operators in each machine were filmed during their workday. The typical postures were evaluated by Rapid Whole-Body Assessment (REBA) and Rapid Upper-Limb Assessment (RULA) methods, while repetitive motions were evaluated by Latko, Silverstein and Strain Index (SI) methods. The results showed the feller buncher operators remained long period seated in static position, with fists turning outside the neutral line and without pauses for recovery, although REBA and RULA methods had identified low postural risk. In wood processing operation, the spinal column and neck were the most affected body parts, presenting medium postural risk and the need for investigations and quickly changes by REBA and RULA methods, respectively. Besides that, wood harvesting operations with feller buncher and harvester were classified as high repeatability, showing more than 30 thousand repetitive motions in a workday, indicating high risk of Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSIs) and Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) in the operators. Therefore, it is concluded the ergonomic measures are necessary to improve operators’ comfort and health.

Highlights

The planted trees sector is of great importance to Brazilian society, being responsible for supplying raw material for a wide wood products variety, as well as contributing to job creation and environmental sustainability (IBÁ, 2017)
Even with the latest machine and equipment technologies applied in wood harvesting operations, the forestry sector continues to demand a large contingent of labor, with a direct dependence on the human to perform forest operations
A feller buncher performed the felling and formation of bunches of trees, in which this bunches were skidded to the roadside by a skidder, where a harvester cut the trees into logs of different assortments, as demanded by the consumer market

Summary

Introduction

The planted trees sector is of great importance to Brazilian society, being responsible for supplying raw material for a wide wood products variety, as well as contributing to job creation and environmental sustainability (IBÁ, 2017). In this context, wood harvesting and transportation are the important stages in the forest production process, which represent the major part of wood final cost, besides being activities with risks to health and safety of the workers (Machado et al, 2014). Despite technological advances and improvements in working conditions, ergonomic problems are still common in forest machines (Phairah et al, 2016). The industry has been working for improving ergonomic designs of forestry machines and equipment to reduce physical effort and occupational accident (Gerasimov and Sokolov, 2009)

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