Effects of Hand-Tool Coupling Conditions on the Isolation Effectiveness of Air Bladder Anti-Vibration Gloves

The goals of this study were to determine the vibration isolation effectiveness of a typical (air bladder) anti-vibration glove as a function of vibration frequency, and to investigate the effects of hand-tool coupling action and applied force level on the effectiveness. Six male volunteers were used in the study. A palm adapter method similar to that recommended in the current ISO standard for anti-vibration glove testing (ISO-10819, 1996) was used to measure the transmissibility of the glove. Three different handgrip actions (grip-only, push-only and combined grip and push), three force levels (50, 75 and 100 N), and a broad-band random spectrum were used in the experiment. This study found that the effectiveness of the glove generally increased with an increase in vibration frequency, while the glove did not provide any effective vibration isolation at frequencies less than or equal to 25 Hz. Under the same force level, the push-only action produced the greatest vibration attenuation while the grip-only action resulted in the lowest glove performance among the three actions. Increasing the force tended to increase vibration transmissibility at low frequencies (< 31.5 Hz), while transmissibility decreased at the middle frequencies (63 – 250 Hz). The knowledge generated by this study can be used to augment vibration exposure risk assessments and to promote the appropriate application of anti-vibration gloves at workplaces.