Can an exoskeleton really help me? Five lessons you need to nowplastering activities

Let’s say you’re running a small company in the manufacturing or construction industries. Perhaps your employees are exposed to heavy work: day-after-day they handle materials, they carry tools, or they work with their back bent or their arms elevated. They get fatigued, which may limit their productivity, and some workers may even get injured,...

The effectivity of a passive arm support exoskeleton in reducing muscle activation and perceived exertion during plastering activities

The supportive effect of arm-support exoskeletons has been mainly studied for single postures or movements. The aim of this study is to analyse the effect of such an exoskeleton on shoulder muscle activity and perceived exertion, in six tasks of plasterers, each including multiple arm movements. The tasks of ‘applying gypsum’, ‘screeding’ and ...

The amount of support provided by a passive arm support exoskeleton in a range of elevated arm postures

Occupational Applications. Our study quantified the extent of support provided by a passive arm-support exoskeleton throughout a range of postures. Mechanical support generated by the arm-support exoskeleton (SkelEx, Rotterdam, The Netherlands) that we tested clearly reaches its maximum at elevation angles ranging from 60° to 120°, where the...

HARM overview and its application: Some practical examples

The Hand Arm Risk Assessment Method (HARM 1.0) has been developed for occupational health officers to perform risk assessments of developing arm, neck or shoulder pain during hand arm tasks. The tool can also help in finding solutions for risk reduction and estimating their effect on the risk level. In this paper the status of affairs and the...

New risk assessment tools in the Netherlands

In this paper an introduction to and description of the risk assessment tools that are freely available for companies in The Netherlands is given. It is explained in what way the tools can and should be used and how the level I checklist for physical load and the level II instruments are related. The two instruments that -in 2011- made this ...

The effectiveness of participatory ergonomics to prevent low-back and neck pain - results of a cluster randomized controlled trial

Objective The aim of this randomized controlled trial (RCT) was to investigate the effectiveness of the Stay@ Work participatory ergonomics (PE) program to prevent low-back and neck pain. Methods A total of 37 departments were randomly allocated to either the intervention (PE) or control group (no PE). During a six-hour meeting, working groups...

Test-retest reliability and concurrent validity of a web-based questionnaire measuring workstation and individual correlates of work postures during computer work

Introduction: "Ergonomic" questionnaires are widely used in epidemiological field studies to study the association between workstation characteristics, work posture and musculoskeletal disorders among office workers. Findings have been inconsistent regarding the putative adverse effect of work postures. Underestimation of the true association...

Effects of using dynamic office chairs on posture and EMG in standardized office tasks

In the paper a measuring system for the comparative posture and EMG analysis of office chairs is presented. With the system four specific dynamic office chairs that promote dynamic sitting and therefore aim to prevent musculoskeletal disorders (MSD), were analyzed in comparison to a reference chair in two different standardized tasks (intensive...