Development of a finger adapter method for testing and evaluating vibration-reducing gloves and materials.

Area of Science:

• Biomechanics
• Occupational Health
• Materials Science

Background:

• Vibration exposure from hand-held tools poses risks to workers.
• Evaluating the effectiveness of vibration-reducing (VR) gloves and materials is crucial for occupational safety.
• Existing methods for testing VR gloves may not adequately assess finger-level protection.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a convenient and reliable adapter method for testing VR gloves and materials specifically at the fingers.
• To establish general requirements and technical specifications for a finger-level vibration measurement adapter.
• To assess the vibration transmissibility of VR gloves using the developed adapter method.

Main Methods:

• Fabricated lightweight, 3-D printed adapters (2-3 mm thickness) with integrated accelerometers.
• Developed a two-fingers-held adapter system for measuring glove vibration transmissibility.
• Conducted experiments to measure transmissibility of typical VR gloves and VR materials.
• Compared adapter resonant frequencies with gloved finger-handle system frequencies.

Main Results:

• The adapter method demonstrated high repeatability across test conditions.
• The adapter's resonant frequency (≥800 Hz) exceeded that of the gloved finger-handle system (≤300 Hz).
• Measured vibration transmissibility aligned with theoretical biodynamic predictions for the hand-arm system.

Conclusions:

• Vibration-reducing gloves are most effective at reducing high-frequency vibrations.
• Optimizing VR effectiveness can be achieved by adjusting finger contact force.
• The finger adapter method is compatible with standardized palm testing, enhancing overall test efficiency.