Design driven risk mitigation of work related hand-arm vibrations

Abstract

Vibration exposure is a significant problem in the construction industry. However, the consequences remains underappreciated and largely unaddressed because vibration exposure is difficult to measure and the symptoms often appear after decades of exposure. These symptoms, collectively called hand-arm vibrations syndrome, include loss of sensory and motor function in the hands. Prolonged exposure can lead to these symptoms becoming permanent and severely debilitating Avoiding construction workers are often reluctant to report discomfort and are in a weak position of negotiating better work conditions. The companies on the other hand find adhering to the vibration exposure limits difficult because there are no viable means of reducing exposure. In this thesis a protection device is developed that is specifically aimed to alleviate these problems concerning hand-arm vibrations. Special consideration is taken to directly address vibration exposure. To this end, experiments are done to explore and validate a vibration mitigation technology. A prototype is then developed to implement the result towards a useable protection device.