Open access publications in the SLU publication database

Abstract

This report describes a study of the biomechanical load when working with manually handled shaft tools. The tools studied are shovels, rakes and push hoes. The most comprehensive measurements study the effects of varying shovel design. Especially the load on the muscles in the back and the compression and shear forces directly on the spine are studied. The mounting angle and length of the shovel shaft are varied. The effects of using a tool with a higher and bent shaft are also studied, just as the effects of varying operator anthropometry. One conclusion of the results is that the spine forces can be decreased if an alternatively designed shovel is used. Another conclusion is that the anthropometry of the operator has major effects on the load levels. The method used for the analysis of the biomechanical load uses optoelectronic measurement data of body positions as input to an computerized biomechanical analysis model. The external forces acting on each hand are simultaneously measured. The measurement procedure is standardized and the transfer of data from the optoelectronic measurements to the biomechanical model is computerized in order to increase the accuracy and also to enable analysis of measurement time series with reasonable time consumption.