Evaluation of Whole Body Vibration of Heavy Earth Moving Machinery Operators

Operators of Heavy Earth Moving Machinery (HEMM) performing routine tasks in surface mines are highly vulnerable to whole body vibration (WBV) due to their continuous exposure to vibration. In the present study seventeen types of machinery were considered for the evaluation of the operator’s exposure to WBV. The measurements were made by placing the triaxial seat pad accelerometer on operator’s seat-surface as well as at the seat-back. Among these machinery one shovel, two front-end loaders, three drills, one grader and one water sprinkler were found to have RMS values in the severe zone as per ISO2631-1:1997 standards for seat-surface measurements. Similarly, for the seat-back measurements, one front-end loader, two drills, one grader and one water sprinkler were experienced the highest RMS value. For both seat-surface and seat-back measurements, Z-axis (i.e. vertical direction) was found to be a prominent axis for most of the machinery.