Ann. occup. Hyg., Vol. 46, No. 3, pp. 309-315, 2002
© 2002 British Occupational Hygiene Society
Published by Oxford University Press
A Method for Reducing Adaptor Misalignment when Testing Gloves Using ISO 10819
Engineering and Control Technology Branch, Health Effects Laboratory Division, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Morgantown, WV 26505, USA
Received 11 June 2001; ; in final form 17 October 2001;
Objectives: International standard ISO 10819 was established in order to quantify the vibration attenuation characteristics of anti-vibration gloves. One problem that exists with the standard is possible misalignment of the palm adaptor that is placed underneath the test glove. If the adaptor becomes misaligned, the measured glove transmissibility will be lower than the actual value. A tri-axial accelerometer was installed in the adaptor and was used as the basis for providing visual feedback of the adaptor alignment to the test subjects. The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that adaptor misalignment could be reduced by providing feedback to the test subjects.
Methods: Eight male volunteers (mean age 24.8 yr) were used in the study. Each subject performed two sets of tests: the standard ISO 10819 glove test and the modified version. Three different anti-vibration gloves were tested. Glove transmissibility and adaptor misalignment were calculated for each glove. A three-way analysis of variance was used to analyze the results.
Results: A comparison of the two testing methods showed that the modified glove testing method did reduce misalignment significantly, which, in turn, resulted in an increase in the measured glove transmissibility.
Conclusions: The proposed method greatly improved the standard deviation of transmissibility and made the test results more consistent.
Keywords: vibration; glove testing; vibration exposure