ǂThe ǂeffect of feedstock, knife wear and work station on the exposure to noise and vibrations in wood chipping operations

Anton Poje (Author), Raffaele Spinelli (Author), Natascia Magagnotti (Author), Matevž Mihelič (Author)

Abstract

Industrial chipping is becoming increasingly popular, as the result of a growing demand for woody biomass. Industrial chippers are large, powerful machines that generate much noise and vibration. This study explored some factors that may affect exposure to noise and vibration, namely: feedstock type (branches vs. logs), work station characteristics (truck cab vs. separate cab) and knife wear (new knives vs. blunt knives). Exposure to noise was significantly affected by all three factors, and it was higher for branch feedstock, separate cabs and blunt knives. The higher exposure levels recorded for the separate cab were especially insidious, because they were below and above the hearing threshold and would elude immediate perception. Exposure to whole-body vibration (WBV) was significantly higher for branch feedstock and for the separate cab. Knife wear seemed to determine an increase in WBV, but this effect had no statistical significance and the result could not be taken as conclusive. Among the three factors studied, work station characteristics had the strongest effect. Further studies may extend the comparison to a wider range of options, as well as explore the use of exposure variation for machine diagnostics.

Keywords

biomass;fuelwood;ergonomics;safety;biomasa;lesna goriva;sekalnik;tresenje;

Data

Language:	English
Year of publishing:	2018
Typology:	1.01 - Original Scientific Article
Organization:	UL BF - Biotechnical Faculty
UDC:	630*83
COBISS:	5071526
ISSN:	2242-4075
Views:	476
Downloads:	200
Average score:	0 (0 votes)
Metadata:

Other data

Secondary language:	English
Pages:	14 str.
Volume:	ǂVol. ǂ52
Issue:	ǂno. ǂ1
Chronology:	10. Jan. 2018
DOI:	10.14214/sf.7003
ID:	11411869