Abstract

Antivibration portable tools, as well as the antivibration gloves, resilient materials and bracelets available on the market, are still not well known and their effectiveness has not been clearly established for reducing hand-arm vibration exposure. The aim of the present study was to provide information collected from research centres and companies and from published documentation on the antivibration properties of these products and to develop laboratory test set-ups to assess their effectiveness. Test benches were developed to evaluate the vibration attenuation performance of gloves, bracelets and resilient materials. A test bench was also designed to evaluate the vibration emission values of chipping hammers. A model combining this type of tool and the hand-arm system was developed and validated on the basis of the vibration measurements performed while operating this tool. The model thus defined was used to develop some design criteria that would contribute to the development of low vibration emission tools of this type.