A New Test Bench System for Hammer Drills: Validation for Handle Vibration.

Area of Science:

• Occupational health and safety
• Mechanical engineering
• Ergonomics

Background:

• Hammer drills can expose workers to high hand-arm vibration levels, potentially causing hand-arm vibration syndrome.
• Existing methods for evaluating vibration reduction interventions are not systematically assessed.
• Standardized testing for drill handle vibration often relies on human operators, introducing variability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a robotic test bench for measuring drill handle vibration.
• To compare the effects of different drill designs, power sources, bit designs, and drilling methods on vibration.
• To validate the robotic system against established ISO methods.

Main Methods:

• A robotic test bench system was designed to perform repetitive drilling into concrete blocks under force control.
• Productivity and handle vibration were measured during robotic drilling operations.
• The robotic system's performance was compared against the ISO 28927-10 standard, which uses human operators.

Main Results:

• The robotic test bench system successfully measured handle vibration during drilling.
• Vibration levels recorded using the robotic system were comparable to those obtained using ISO methods.
• The system demonstrated dynamic properties similar to human drilling, validating its efficacy.

Conclusions:

• A novel robotic test bench provides a reliable and repeatable method for measuring drill handle vibration.
• This system offers a viable alternative to human testing for evaluating vibration reduction strategies.
• The validated robotic system can aid in the development of safer drilling tools and practices to mitigate hand-arm vibration syndrome risk.