Torque force comparison with five hand tool designs

Abstract

Nowadays the work processes are highly automated, however, despite so many advances in the industrial area, a large part of the activities continue to be carried out with the use of hand tools, it is for this reason that an appropriate design is decisive to prevent the presence of musculoskeletal disorders. This is why this work has the objective of determining the torque force exerted with five screwdriver handles with different designs, as well as finding the existence of significant differences in the force exerted with each one. For this work, a sample of 73 students was taken, of which 45 were men and 28 women, using the digital torque analyzer Mountz Torque Analyzer of the EZ-TorQ II 10i model, where results of applied force were obtained for the five mangoes. As results, a force of 3.98 ± 1.54 Nm was obtained in handle A, in handle B; 3.90 ± 1.55 Nm, on handle C; 3.42 ± 1.25 Nm, the D handle; 3.40 ± 1.23 Nm and finally on the E handle; 3.51 ± 1.28 Nm. Through the Analysis of Variance, it was found that there is indeed a significant difference in the application of force with the use of these handle designs, finding that the design that optimizes the application of force is handle A. The results of this research serve as a guide for the design of hand tool handles, it is recommended for future studies to consider other types of anthropometric dimensions of the upper limb, as well as to expand the sample and the age range of the study subjects.