This article is a summary of Dr Mario Walther's doctoral thesis
(see sources below in German).
Assembly forces applied in production can represent risk factors and
contribute to the development of health disorders. This risk increases
considerably with age and can therefore increase absenteeism due to
illness. In addition, companies that do not implement ergonomic measures
must also pay the high costs.
It is therefore important to give priority to people and their health by
recognizing and eliminating risk factors at an early stage!
In order to measure these assembly forces in a practical way with human
influence and to perform effective measurements, the intervention of
ergonomists in the workplace with force measuring instruments is
recommended. These measures provide objective, detailed and accurate
results of the human body's stress variables. To do this, ergonomists
need the most accurate measuring instruments.
High forces applied by hand
It is in production and more specifically in the assembly area that the greatest number of actions involving manual force are carried out. The assembly of quick couplings, connectors and coatings is associated with repetitive and high hand and finger forces and represents a fairly high risk for installers. High assembly forces, poor posture and insufficient rest periods can be harmful to health. The dimensions and material of the joints also play a decisive role in the application of force.Why does the assembly force not correspond to the impact force?
It is important to distinguish the joining force from the impact force.
The assembly force is the force required to assemble a component. The
force exerted by the assembler after insertion is the impact force or
holding force. Due to the short time available to a fitter for his task,
it is often impossible for him to reduce his efforts sufficiently. When
the force exerted approaches the force to be exerted, the work is
performed efficiently. Otherwise, the effort may lead to the assembler's
illness.
If a force gauge is used for ergonomic measurement, which only measures
the maximum, it is not the assembly force but the impact force that is
determined. The assembly forces involve high-frequency vibrations in the
order of 250 Hz: a measurement frequency that is too low does not allow
the difference between the assembly force and the impact force to be
determined due to the rapid assembly method. This leads to a lack of
feedback on the assembly process and can lead to the application of
greater force.
The solution: the force gauge Centor Touch
The force gauge Centor Touch from Andilog is a flexible and sophisticated solution for practical measurements in production areas. This economical, robust and highly accurate force gauge is equipped with strain gauges and allows fast measurements without disrupting work processes.Results of measurements with the Centor Touch
Conclusion
Source: Mario Walther, 2015, "Development and evaluation of a systematic procedure for recording action forces in automobile production", Entwicklung und Evaluierung eines systematischen Vorgehens zur Erfassung von Aktionskräften in der Automobilproduktion, genehmigte Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Doktor-Ingenieur, Fakultät für Maschinenbau der Technischen Universität Chemnitz
Document available in german on the website qucosa.
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