Evaluation of Work Posture and Postural Stresses of Welders: A Report

Suman Das; Debamalya Banerjee; Shankarashis Mukherjee

Suman Das Department of Mechanical Engineering, Swami Vivekananda Institute of Science & Technology, Kolkata, India
Debamalya Banerjee Department of Production Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India
Shankarashis Mukherjee Department of Physiology, University College of Science and Technology, Kolkata, India

Keywords: Musculoskeletal disorders, OWAS, RULA, Von-Mises stress, Welding

Abstract

Work related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSD) are very common health problem in manufacturing sectors in all over India. Welding is one of the most important activities in manufacturing sector in our country. Higher risk of MSD occurs due to working in long period of time. A large number of workers are involved in welding units and also work in very bad work postures. Prolonged working hours and manual work in the working places are major causes of musculoskeletal disorders and other occupational health dieses among welders. In most of the cases Ergonomic principles are not applied while working in the small scale welding units in India. MSD risk is very high in most of the welding units. Productivities in these units are highly associated with the workers’ health and safety. There is a necessity to adopt Ergonomic guidelines to reduce as well as prevent musculoskeletal injuries of the welding workers. The objective of this research work is to obtain distribution of intensity of stresses and Von- Mises stresses in the different joints and muscles during welding operation. A three-dimensional (3D) CAD model developed by Solid Works software was used here. It is clearly shown that there is a lack of Ergonomic planning in small scale welding units in our country. ANSYS R-17.0 Software was used for analysis of body stresses. This analysis shown that the intensity of stresses and maximum Von-Mises stresses were good injury indicators for the body muscles and bones with high cortical indices, independent of directions of load.

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