ErgoCenter and Stanley, Inc.
STANLEY, Inc. uses the Ergonomics Technology Center at UConn Health Center to help develop scientifically grounded standards to minimize physical stress and fatigue
Many hand tool manufacturers claim their products work better and reduce or prevent injury, but few back up the brag with hard evidence.
STANLEY, Inc., a worldwide supplier of tools, hardware and other products located in New Britain, Connecticut, is working to make sure there's solid science behind its claims. The company turned to the Ergonomics Technology Center at the UConn Health Center to develop scientifically grounded standards and tests for ergonomic tools, i.e., tools that minimize physical stress and fatigue to improve job performance.
"Our work with Stanley had 2 parts," said Timothy F. Morse, Ph.D., Occupational/Environmental Medicine, who is the project coordinator for the study. "First, we helped develop some scientifically grounded standards for what's ergonomic," he said. The standards are part of a model for a Hand Tool Ergonomic Data Sheet to inform tool users about the ergonomic strengths and weaknesses of a particular hand tool. "There's a Material Safety Data Sheet for chemicals, but no one has ever developed it for hand tools," said Morse. More information about the Ergonomic Data Sheets can be found in a publication by Morse, "The Use of Ergonomic Data Sheets for Hazard Communication of Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders" in Applied Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, July, 2001.
The second part, was actual product testing of different brands of hammers. "Our tests are designed to objectively compare their performance ergonomically," said Morse. "Our goal is to see if any reduce the risk for cumulative trauma."
To conduct the tests, 10 volunteers from the Carpenters Union came to the Ergo Center lab for real, hands-on testing. One by one, each carpenter pounded in three nails with tiny sensors attached to the joints on their fingers, and to their wrists and arms. Their work was photographed with a special infrared video camera which can take 60 photos per second. "We tracked their complete motion while they were striking the nails," said Morse.
Then they measured how much vibration was transferred to the arm, how much muscle force it took to hold and to grip the hammer, and how much the wrist deviated from neutral while hammering.
That data was used by Stanley's industrial design team to improve the ergonomic design of their tools, as well as to inform consumers about the advantages of ergonomically designed tools.
"We recognize that vibration from a hammer to the body or joints can be a major occupational hazard for people. We've long had some basic knowledge about ergonomics that we kept in mind while developing our hand tools. We'd test them to see if we had succeeded in what we were trying to do," said Gary van Deursen, director of industrial design at Stanley. "Our work with the Ergo Center is aimed at incorporating ergonomics into the design of the tools. It's a whole lot easier to change something while the tool is still in the design stage," he added. "It's a smarter way of doing business."
Contact Information
- Timothy F. Morse, PhD
Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
University of Connecticut Health Center
270 Farmington Avenue, MC 6210
Farmington, CT 06030-6210
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