DOI: 10.5937/jaes18-22694
This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 terms and conditions.
Volume 18 article 690 pages: 284 - 291
Powered hand tools reduce the time spent on tasks; however, they generate vibrations which may pose significant
risk to operators’ health. In this study, the impact of power hand tools on users was considered. Five basic power
hand tools were identified and the impact of vibration was assessed on users. Digital vibration meter was used to
measure the vibration produced on five operators while operating the identified power tools. Values obtained from
each operator were imputed to the hand-arm vibration calculator to determine daily exposure limit and total exposure
point for each of them. Results obtained indicate daily exposure limit of 4.08, 11.64, 21.06, 46.96 and 62.36
m/s2; and average total exposure point of 261, 2242, 7107, 35436, and 63781; for hand milling machine, hand drilling
machine, grinding machine, hand mower, and lawn mower respectively. Among the power tools examined, it is only
the exposure vibration from hand milling machine that was within the recommended acceptable daily exposure limit
of 5 m/s2 and total exposure point of 400. Measures were suggested to lessen the exposure time and vibration magnitude
the operators are exposed to so as to reduce the probability of hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) among
the operators.
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