Survey of technical preventative measures to reduce whole-body vibration effects when designing mobile machinery

Engineering solutions to minimize the effects on operators of vibrating mobile machinery can be conveniently grouped into three areas: (1) Reduction of vibration at source by improvement of the quality of terrain, careful selection of vehicle or machine, correct loading, proper maintenance, etc. (2) Reduction of vibration transmission by incorporating suspension systems (tyres, vehicle suspensions, suspension cab and seat) between the operator and the source of vibration. (3) Improvement of cab ergonomics and seat profiles to optimize operator posture. These paper reviews the different techniques and problems linked to categories (2) and (3). According to epidemiological studies, the main health risk with whole-body vibration exposure would appear to be lower back pain. When designing new mobile machinery, all factors which may contribute to back injury should be considered in order to reduce risk. For example, optimized seat suspension is useless if the suspension seat cannot be correctly and easily adjusted to the driver's weight or if the driver is forced to drive in a bent position to avoid his head striking the ceiling due to the spatial requirement of the suspension seat. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.