Ji Xiaoxu, Eger Tammy R, Dickey James P
Kinesiology/Faculty of Health Sciences, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health, Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.
Appl Ergon. 2017 Mar;59(Pt A):293-301. doi: 10.1016/j.apergo.2016.06.011. Epub 2016 Sep 23.
Seats and cushions can attenuate whole-body vibration (WBV) exposures and minimize health risks for heavy machine operators. We successfully developed neural network (NN) algorithms to identify the vibration attenuation properties for four different seating conditions (seat/cushion combinations), and implemented each of the NN models to predict the equivalent daily exposure A(8) values for various vehicles in the forestry and mining environments. We also evaluated the performance of the new prototype No-Jolt™ air-inflated cushion and the original cushion of each seat with jolt exposures. We observed that the air cushion significantly improved the vibration attenuation properties of the seat that initially had good performance, but not for the seat that had relatively poor vibration attenuation properties. In addition, operator's anthropometrics and sex influenced the performance of the air-inflated cushion when the vibration environment included jolt exposures.
座椅和靠垫可以减轻全身振动（WBV）暴露，并将重型机械操作员的健康风险降至最低。我们成功开发了神经网络（NN）算法，以识别四种不同座椅条件（座椅/靠垫组合）的振动衰减特性，并应用每个NN模型来预测林业和采矿环境中各种车辆的等效日暴露A(8)值。我们还评估了新型No-Jolt™充气靠垫原型和每个座椅原始靠垫在颠簸暴露情况下的性能。我们观察到，气垫显著改善了最初性能良好的座椅的振动衰减特性，但对于振动衰减特性相对较差的座椅则没有效果。此外，当振动环境包括颠簸暴露时，操作员的人体测量学特征和性别会影响充气靠垫的性能。
