Musculoskeletal Disorder Risk Assessment in small scale forging Industry by using RULA Method
Jaspreet Singh1, Harvinder Lal2, Gautam Kocher3
1Jaspreet Singh, Department of Mechanical Engineering, CT group of institutions, Jalandhar, India.
2Harvinder Lal, Department of Mechanical Engineering, RIET, Phagwara, India.
3Gautam Kocher, Department of Mechanical Engineering, RIET, Phagwara, India.
Manuscript received on May 17, 2012. | Revised Manuscript received on June 21, 2012. | Manuscript published on June 30, 2012. | PP: 513-518 | Volume-1 Issue-5, June 2012. | Retrieval Number: E0438051512/2012©BEIESP
Open Access | Ethics and Policies | Cite
© The Authors. Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Abstract: Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are common health problem throughout the world. Work related musculoskeletal disorders are group of painful disorders of muscles, tendons and nerves. The low back, or lumber area, serves a number of important functions for the men in working area many occupational tasks in industrial are still associated with strenuous working postures and movement. Combined with a heavy physical workload, they result in a high frequency of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. The present study was aimed to evaluate the musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) of workers engaged in Small scale forging industries. Study was conducted on 102 workers of a forging industry using the posture analysis tool RULA Method. A video showing the different activities of the workers was shot and then images were cropped from it for the analysis. The results of RULA showed that about 20.33% of the workers were under high risk levels and required immediate change. About 45.32% of the workers were at lower risk levels and 34.33% of the workers were at medium risk levels. The present Study recommended the awareness and proper ergonomics training to the workers.
Keywords: Musculoskeletal disorders, men, forging industry, RULA.