• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.125-131
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• 2003

In recent years, the Korean Army made use of fork-lifters or conveyors when loading and/or unloading military material in order to prevent accidents and to promote efficiency of military material handling activities. However, in troops smaller thin battalions, manual material handling activities are still committed for many reasons. In this thesis, a brand new loading/unloading device for efficient military material handling or manual workers was developed, and its validation study was conducted through objective assessment based on electromyography, subjective assessment based on Body-Map technique developed by Corlett and Bishop, and finally work performance comparison. The results of EMG analysis showed that muscular workload improved by 24% when using the device compared to manual work without the device, and complain of each body part was remarkably reduced. In addition, remarkable effectiveness enhancement was observed in the work performance. Consequently, it could be concluded that ergonomic devices like one developed in this research should be studied further in the ergonomic sense as well as in the economical sense.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.18 no.36
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• pp.1-11
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• 1995

Manual lifting, as a part of manual materials handling activities, is recognized by authorities in the fields of occupational health and safety as a major hazards to industrial workers. In order to minimize the injuries caused by manual material handling activities as well as maximize job productivity, it is important to determine the maximum weights. This paper presents the optimal combination of membership functions according to the high lifting frequency and determines the safe maximum acceptable weights in manual lifting activities through the actual experiment.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.819-829
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• 2010

By referring thirty-seven previous studies on manual material handling (MMH), this paper analyzed guidelines and main factors of one-handed tasks. The previous studies concerned main factors of distance, weight, frequency, posture, gender, age, training, direction of force, height of the force exerted, and object shape and size. Based on these factors, the criteria used to understand one-handed tasks were objective measures of maximum strength, reaction force, etc., psychophysical measures of maximum acceptable frequency and weight, etc., and physiological measures of oxygen uptake, heart rate, electromyography, etc. An allowance threshold model regarding quantitative and objective fatigue and workload would be suggested for future research. This study would be expected that it serve to establish and Korean recommendations of one-handed tasks.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.325-341
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• 2017

Objective: The purpose of this study is to suggest the guidelines of operation phases to minimize injuries and musculoskeletal disorders in manual material handling (MMH) tasks through literature reviews. The guidelines are presented as the preparing phase, lifting phase, carrying phase, and lowering phase. Also, we summarized the non-numerical general guidelines for MMH tasks. Background: Manual material handling is still a main cause to musculoskeletal disorders. Method: Procedures of a literature review are classified into database selection, keyword search, title review, abstract review related to literature selection, guideline review and arrangement. A total 48 papers and books were analyzed in detail by title and abstract reviews. Results: In the preparing phase, we suggested the basic conditions in MMH, preparing procedure, clothing and protective equipment, and education. In the lifting and carrying phases, we recommended maximal acceptable weight by frequency and body posture. In the lowering phase, we suggested the lowest weight and safety body postures. Finally, we recommended general guidelines and guideline items for MMH. General guidelines are presented to suggest worker selection, technical education, and work design parts. Conclusion: We suggested the guidelines on the four operation phases of MMH tasks such as preparing, lifting, carrying, and lowering phases. Application: The findings of this study can be utilized as guidelines for proactive recommendations according to workers in MMH tasks.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.1-8
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• 2004

The objective of this study is to identify the effects of material position and physical fatigue on postural stability. Ten male subjects participated in this study. After bicycling exercises, their centers of pressure (COPs) were measured under four material handling positions and four excercise levels. The measured COPs were then utilized to calculate postural sway length in each experimental condition. Subjects' postural stability was quantified using the sway length. Results showed that the effect of different material handling position was significant on the postural sway length in both the posterior-anterior axis and the medio-lateral axis. Results also showed that the postural sway length was increased as physical fatigue accumulated, significantly in subject's posterior-anterior axis. The results imply that bearing a material on the back or front with both hands appeared to cause least sway length and instability.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.313-326
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• 2015

Objective: The objective of this research is to quantitatively analyze muscle activities of arm and shoulder, according to direction in various types of one-handed manual material handling, based on surface electromyography. Background: Workers in industrial sites frequently carry out one-handed manual material handling using arm and shoulder muscles. Therefore, chronic load and accumulated fatigue occur to arm and shoulder muscles, which becomes a main cause of upper arm and shoulder musculoskeletal disorders. The shoulder muscles have widely range of motion, and complex interactions take place among various muscles including rotator cuff muscles. In this regard, research on interactions among should muscles, according to such various dynamic motions, is required. Method: Ten male subjects in their 20s participated in this research. This research considered upward, downward, leftward, rightward, forward and backward directions and fourteen muscles around arm and shoulder (biceps brachii and trapezius, etc.) as independent variables. The mean muscle activity was set as the dependent variable. This research extracted $4^{th}{\sim}7^{th}$ repetition signals according to ten times of repetitive muscle contraction, and analyzed the muscle activity concerned using the envelope detection technique. Results: The mean muscle activity of upward direction was analyzed highly statistically significant. The reason is that the effect of gravity works to arm and shoulder muscles. Also, it is conjectured that deformation of coracoacromial ligament was caused, and its contact pressure increased, due mainly to the shoulder flexion, and therefore load was analyzed high. Muscle activity was analyzed significantly low, according to concentric ballistic motion used in the concentric contraction phase by storing elastic energy in the eccentric contraction phase with a motion to bring the weight to the front of subject's body as to downward, leftward and backward directions. Because, elbow joint's flexion-extension motions mainly occurred, biceps brachii was analyzed high muscle activity as the prime mover. Conclusion: The information on the quantitative load of muscles can be applied to ergonomic work design for one-handed manual material handling to minimize muscle load. Application: This research has effectively identified muscle activity according to dynamic contraction by applying an envelope detection technique. The results can be used for ergonomic work design to minimize muscle load during the one-handed manual material handling, according to each direction. The research results are expected to be used for musculoskeletal disorder prevention and physiotherapy in the rehabilitation medical field, based on the muscle load of arm and shoulder in various directions.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.85-93
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• 2013

Modern fire fighting jobs have been expanded to include areas of rescue, emergency medical service as well as conventional fire suppression, so that load for fire fighting jobs has been increased. Specifically, musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) such as low back injury have been considered as one of major industrial hazards in heavy manual material handling during fire fighting jobs. This study tried to evaluate risk levels and to prepare background for reducing risk levels associated with heavy manual material handling during fire fighting jobs. This study applied two major tools in evaluating heavy manual material handling jobs which were NLE (NIOSH Lifting Equation) and 3DSSPP (3D Static Strength Prediction Program). A risk index in terms of heavy manual material handling during fire fighting jobs was identified. This index consisted of seven risk levels ranged from nine points (the first level) to three points (the seventh level). There was no job associated with the first level (the highest risk level) of index. There was only one job (life saving job) belonging to the second level (the second highest risk level) of index. The third level had jobs such as usage of destruction equipment and lifting patient. A total of basic eighteen jobs was categorized into six different levels (2nd-7th levels) of index. The outcome of the study could provide a good basis for conducting job intervention, preparing good equipment and developing good education program in order to prevent and reduce MSDs including low back injury of fire fighting jobs.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.22 no.50
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• pp.65-73
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• 1999

Most psychophysical studies in manual material handling (MMH) have paid more attention to two-handed MMH activities than to one-handed MMH activities. Also, studies are involved only with single MMH activities - lifting, lowering, carrying, holding, pushing or pulling. Very few studies are reported on the determination of workers' capacities for combinations of one-handed MMH activities (lifting a box, then carrying the box, and lowering the box). The objective of this study was to find the psychophysical and physiological responses of human subjects from a simulated industrial task involving one-handed and two-handed combined tasks. The capacities that were determined as the maximum acceptable weight workloads for 1 hr work period for one-handed and two-handed combined tasks - lifting a box from floor to knuckle height, carrying the box for 4.3 m, and lowering the box from knuckle to floor height - were determined psychophysically under three frequencies: six handlings per minute, one handling per minute and one handling per five minutes. In addition to maximum acceptable weight, heart rate and RPE values on wholebody, back, and arm were also measured as responses.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.144-144
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• 2000

Air balance hoists are widely used in handling of heavy materials in industry. Currently used air balance hoists adopt manual switches for vertical motion, thus the operator has a difficulty in operating of the switches and handling of material simultaneously. To overcome this difficulty, this study develops a weightless air-balance-hoist system using compressed air. This system memorizes the weight of material in terms of pneumatic pressure with a pneumatic circuit. Such memory of the material weight is used for achieving weightless handling of materials. Through a series of experiments, handling forces and the response of the system for various material weights are analyzed. The results show that the developed system can be used for weightless handling o( heavy materials.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.17-31
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• 2003

Many risk factors with the onset of Low Back Pain(LBP) have been identified, however, lifting out of Manual Material Handling(MMH) was the most important factor to the LBP. Injuries due to lifting took account for 34.0%(227,291) out of the total overexertion in MMH(668,084). The weight, vertical location, twist angle, lifting frequency, and lifting posture were reviewed in this study. Technical information for using the revised lifting equation to evaluate a variety of two - handled manual material handling tasks was suggested. To measure worker's fatigue in lifting task, Lifting Index Simulator(LIS) was create under the revised NIOSH(National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) lifting equation. For the implementation of the LIS, data was collected in A company manufactures various paints in Si-Wha industrial complex, Kyunggi-Do. The results of the Lifting Index(LI) were analyzed by MANOVA to find the relation with lifting variables collected. It was found that horizontal distance, vertical distance, travelling distance and frequency were significant at the 0.01 level and weight was significant at the 0.05 level. The purpose of this paper is to reduce the chronical low back pain for the manual material handlers.