Abstract
In a labour intensive sector, some of the factors in the work environment which impact the health of vehicle operators include: Whole-Body Vibration (WBV) and Hand-Arm Vibration (HAV). The vibrations transferred from the dumpers are harmful to the operators; hence a study was carried out to measure the vibration from dumpers and its effect on operators in Indian opencast mines. Dumper is a vehicle designed to transport bulk material and used extensively in the construction and mining industries. For the measurement, dumpers with the different capacities were selected from the opencast mines. Vibration measurements were carried out in accordance with ISO 5349-1 for the measurement of HAV and ISO 2631-1 for the measurement of WBV. The obtained WBV exposure result shows that the problem of musculoskeletal disorder was significantly higher with respect to VDV(8) (69 %) in the exposed population as compared to A(8) r.m.s. acceleration (46 %). Moreover different capacity dumper vehicle hand transmitted vibration through steering wheel, A(8) r.m.s. acceleration observed in the range of 1.91 m/s2-4.28 m/s2. As per EU DIRECTIVE 2002/44/EC, specified Exposure Action Value (EAV) 71 % measured A(8) value falls within EAV limit. However, despite of the result operator experience problem of hand arm vibration syndrome. Hence there is a need of ergonometric deign enhancement on dumpers vehicle’s seat and steering wheel.
Highlights
Ever increasing demand for energy resources in India warrants for productivity enhancement in the mining sector. This often results in prolonged working hours for operators of machines and equipment’s causes health-related issues due to whole body vibration (WBV) and Hand Arm Vibration (HAV)
The present study investigates the relationship between induced vibration levels from different capacity dumper in Indian terrain
Operators health risk evaluation as per ISO 2631-1 [6] suggests that the dominant axis method is acceptable unless two or more axes are of similar magnitude where the multi-axis vector sum is recommended
Summary
Ever increasing demand for energy resources in India warrants for productivity enhancement in the mining sector This often results in prolonged working hours for operators of machines and equipment’s causes health-related issues due to whole body vibration (WBV) and Hand Arm Vibration (HAV). Numerous epidemiological studies were carried out and documented the effects of high vibration exposure among the operators of Load haul dumper, Front end loader, Dozer, Excavator and Dumper [1,2,3,4,5] In this regard many international standards have been established to investigate the occupational health and safety issues to regulate the human vibration measurement procedure and reporting. This type of HAV exposure negatively impacts the productivity and efficiency of the operator In this respect, the present study investigates the relationship between induced vibration levels from different capacity dumper in Indian terrain. Based on vibration severity useful recommendations for dumper operator are suggested
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