Based on a research by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Well being, the publicity of drivers to whole-body vibration and the ensuing well being dangers when shifting excavators will be considerably lowered by utilizing Sleipner dollies as a substitute of driving on the excavator’s personal tracks.
The vibration measurements have been carried out at a Finnish mine on the finish of Might 2023.
The goal of the measurements was to measure the extent of the employees’ publicity to whole-body vibration when driving an excavator from one website to a different on the mine. Vibration measurements have been taken when driving an excavator from one website to a different on tracks and when utilizing the E190 Sleipner E Collection dollies. The excavator used for the check was a Komatsu PC 2000 and, when utilizing dollies, the excavator was pulled with a Komatsu 830 E haul truck. In the course of the measurements – 26 minutes on dollies and 20 minutes on tracks – the driving force and the particular person conducting the measurements have been within the excavator cab.
Ville Hyvärinen, Specialised Occupational Hygienist from the Oulu workplace of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Well being, who carried out the measurements and ready the report, says: “Based on our analysis outcomes, utilizing dollies considerably reduces the employees’ publicity to whole-body vibration and the ensuing well being threat, rising as a wonderful option to mitigate vibration. Decreasing vibration additionally improves work consolation, as does a decrease sensory noise stage within the excavator cab.”
The values obtained from the vibration exams for the excavator are additionally comparable, for instance, when driving a bulldozer and drill on tracks.
When shifting the bulldozer and drill, whole-body vibration will be successfully lowered by utilizing Sleipner’s DB Collection lowboy trailers, in response to the corporate.
The measurements have been carried out on the transport route of the mine’s open pit space. The testing route was saved the identical throughout each exams.
The floor was a gravel street, and its situation had been achieved utilizing a street grader. In the course of the measurements, the climate was clear.
The motion worth for day by day whole-body vibration is 0.5 m/s2 and the restrict worth is 1.15 m/s2. If the day by day publicity of staff exceeds the motion worth, the employer should draw up and implement a vibration prevention programme and usually monitor the well being of staff. If the publicity additionally exceeds the restrict worth, measures to cut back publicity have to be carried out instantly.
When utilizing Sleipner dollies, neither the motion worth nor the restrict worth are exceeded throughout a standard 12-hour working day. When driving on tracks, the motion worth stage is exceeded after simply three hours of publicity.
When driving on Sleipner dollies, the very best common vibration acceleration is 0.23 m/s2, which was measured within the driver’s front-facing course (forwards-backwards course). On the measured stage of vibration acceleration, neither the motion worth nor the restrict worth are exceeded throughout a standard 12-hour working day.
When driving on tracks, the very best common vibration acceleration of 0.82 m/s2 was measured within the driver’s front-facing and lateral instructions. On the measured stage of vibration acceleration, the motion worth stage is exceeded after three hours of publicity. Publicity exceeding the restrict worth requires about 16 hours of driving, which implies that the worth shouldn’t be exceeded throughout a standard 12-hour working day. Nevertheless, 16 hours of publicity to whole-body vibration whereas driving on tracks is already a severe scenario.
Hyvärinen says: “When driving on tracks, the actions directed to the entrance and to the facet are vastly exceeded if pushed for a complete of three hours in the course of the working day. The driving doesn’t even must be steady. When driving on tracks for greater than three hours in the course of the working day, the employer is obliged to take measures to forestall the driving force from being uncovered to extreme vibration. In any other case, the driving force runs the danger of being uncovered to ache and discomfort within the decrease again, hip, musculoskeletal joints and neck space. The dangers are increased particularly for pregnant ladies, for whom vibration publicity needs to be averted to guard the well being of the fetus.”
Utilizing Sleipner’s dollies considerably extends the service lifetime of mining equipment and improves work effectivity. Dollies additionally enhance the occupational security and luxury of drivers.
Vili Tuominen, Product Engineer at Sleipner Finland, who participated within the measurements, says: “In a number of nations, whole-body vibration is already categorized as an occupational illness, and common publicity to vibration has been proven to have clearly detrimental results on well being. The outcomes of the vibration research exceeded even our personal expectations and confirmed important advantages for drivers when utilizing Sleipner dollies. It was nice to get affirmation that utilizing our merchandise can scale back occupational illnesses brought on by whole-body vibration.”
The strategies for measuring whole-body vibration and processing knowledge utilized by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Well being are laid out in customary ISO 2631-1:1997. Vibration publicity A(8) is calculated from the power of the vibration (measurement end result) and estimated publicity instances, as required by Authorities Decree 48/2005. The publicity was decided in proportion to an eight-hour comparability interval, in response to which the motion worth for day by day whole-body vibration A(8) is 0.5 m/s2 and the restrict worth is 1.15 m/s2. One other option to assess the danger is to find out the calculated time after which the measured stage of vibration causes publicity that exceeds the motion worth or restrict worth.
The chance is taken into account important when the day by day publicity exceeds the motion worth (whole-body vibration 0.5 m/s2). On this case, a vibration prevention program and measures to cut back vibration are wanted. If the publicity additionally exceeds the restrict worth (1.15 m/s2), the measures to cut back publicity have to be carried out instantly. The chance is taken into account average when the exposing vibration can exceed the motion worth however the day by day publicity stage doesn’t attain the motion worth (50–99%). The chance is taken into account minor when the publicity is sporadic and/or low (lower than 50% of the motion worth).
