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District PioneeringGourse
ln Conjunctionwith the Nat'lPioneering
InstructorCourse

S E L F RE A D T N G
1:

ERGONOMIGS PRINCIPLES
ANDSTABILITY IN PIONEERING

INTRODUCTION

Do you wonderwhy sometimeswhile buildingPioneeringprojectsduring

meetings,we hadto spenda periodof time underthe sunyet the end resultto
the projectis not of satisfactory?With that,we had to re-tiedthe lashingsor
even mademodifications the designedproject.

A question may raised, ' Why must time be wasted to the buildingof
PioneeringProjects?'. The answerto the questionlied in this self written
topic basedon the autho/sexperiences.

ErgonomicsandStabilityPrinciplesIn Pioneeringis not of somethingstrange,

it is actuallypractisedusuallywhilewe are buildingprojects.Forthistopic,
you willtaughton tl'ieknowledgeof DesignErgonomics andsimpteStability
Designof Structures,

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Ergonomics Design'Of Structures )

What is Ergonomics? Ergonomics in technicaltermsis defineas the studyof

conditionsin whichpeoplework mosteffectively.ln simplifiedterms,it is the
study of people's behaviourto the objects,that is, the designof the objects
allow them to feel at ease, to stand or sit at a comfortablemanner,etc.
Examplesof commonobjectswill be likechair,ladder,andtable,etc.

One simpleexampleto practisethe ergonomicsdesignis when scoutsare

buildingthe Fireman'sLadder(see FigureA ). The ladderis basicallyusedto
practiseour agility,to do that, we had to climb up the stepsin the zig zag
manner,uponreachingthe top, we had to turn our bodyto get over,and the
do the samewayof howwe get up to get down.

But do you askyourselfone questionbeforeyou startto climb,' Are thesteps

too low or too high for me to reach? To solvethe question,then ergonomics
must be takencare of beforeyou startto tied all the lashingsfor the erection
of the particularstructure.
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From my experiences,.l had comeup with a proposedergonomics designto

the FirernanLadder,( see FigureB below). The first stepabovethe ground
should be of about3 ft becausethe heightis quitecomfortable for us to get
down,fromthere,the heightto the secondand thirdstepshouldbe of about4
ft, ( our chestto our feet is also about4 ft ), so that we can feel comfortably
while climbingto the nextstep. So the overallheightof the ladderis about
2.5mto 3m,andshouldnotexceed3m becauseof the instability of structure.

PC-PIG' Page26
 District Pioneering Course j
In conjunction wiirr the Nat'f Pioneering
fnstructor course

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 ' r,..j
1:

District PioneeringCourse
ln Conjunctionwith the Nat'lPioneeringlnstructorCourse

Simple Structure Stability Design

No matterhowgooda Scoutcanbe as a Pioneer,thatis,tyinga goodlashing

to projects,the projectbuiltsuchas the StiltTowerwill not be stableif he did
not considerthe fact of bracingthe jointsof the tower! Youmayask, ' Why
shouldmoreworkbe donewhenthe lashingsltied doesnot slipoff '?. Once
a scouthappensto climbontoa particular projectthat is notstable,in the next
secondstherewill be unforseen accidentwhichmay leoparised the safetyof
the Scout

Althoughthe projectmaybe wellpegged,the structure willstillcollapsedueto

loading(weight)imposedon the unstableproject. That is why, it is of an
importancefor us, as scouts;to learn how to stabiliseprojectswe built for
purposeof safety.

To beginwith, it is not easyto understandwhy projectsyou may seen on

PioneeringBooks are braced in differentways, but I had extractedout
commondesignof projectssuch as the TresUe,Stilt Towerto explainhow
theseprojectsare stabilised.

The Trestle:
The designof trestle.canbe foundin many pioneeringprojects,such.as the
platformof a towbr,dborway,or hs a lightframefor a chariotrace. Th6 trestle
'. mainlyconsistsof a squareframe,and.twodiagonalsparsacrossthe frame(
Figure 1 ). You may ask, ' Why shouldtherebe a need to tied fwo spars
acrossthe frame,therecanbe manyother waysto makethe framesfabi/ise'.

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As what I had mentioned earlier,thereare manybracingmethodspractised.

For example, the trestleitselfis usefulin manywaysas mentioned,
but the,
commonbracingmethodwill be bracingacrossthe frame,the reasonbeing
diagonalbracingproveto be one of the strongestbracingmethodsfor the
stabilityof structures.

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District PioneeringGourse : I
In Gonjunctionwith the Nat'l PioneeringInstructorCourse

Now let'sus considerwhy bracingis needed,( see Figure2 ), afthe frameis

not braced,the joints of the frame can be movedeasilyeven thoughthe
lashingsare tight when load is appliedat any part of the frame. The
movementsof jointswill affectthe tightnessof lashings,thus in no time,the
lashingstiedto the framewill be loosened!

But if we had brace acrossthe frame,the effectof the load appliedto the
framewill be minimised( see Figure3 ). The movementof jointswill nowbe
reduced,and the stress appliedto the tied lashingswilt atso be lesser.
Technically,why the movementand lashingsstressesare greatlyreduceis
due to a processcalled' LoadTransferring'.

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 J-r
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PC-PlC Page 30
District PioneeringCourse I
In Gonjunctionwith the Nat'l PioneeringInstructorGourse

The Stilt Tower:

The designof the Stilt Toweris actuallya cantileverstructure. 'Whatis a
cantileverstructure?',you may asked. Cantileverstructureconsistsof a
structureprotrudingout fromthe main framestructure,this type of structure
designfor stabilitymust be thoroughlydealtwith due to variousengineering
factorsaffectingits stability.

Oneof the mainfactoris 'Moment',as you boyshadlearnin Science,Momenl

is known as the turning effect of a objects at a point, and Momentis
by the formulabelow:
calculated

Moment= Force* Distancemoveat right angleto a point

Forthis particularproject,I willonlytouchon the platformtiedto the main

frame( see Figurel ) as thisplatformplaysthe importance of
to the stability
the wholeproject.

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In orderto stabilisedthe platformprotrudingoutfromthe mainframe,the

platformmustbe braceddiagonally below( seeFigure2 ). The reasonis to
reducethe tumingeffector moment,

Of all parts,why shouldwe bracedbelownotat the top ( SeeFigure3 )? We

hadto considerthe pointof loadapplication.In thiscase,the loadappliedare
fromweightof the scoutsgoingup the tower,be it standingor sittingdownon
the platform

PC - PlC' P a g e3 1
DistrictPioneeringGourse
In Conjunctionwiih the Nat'tPioneeringInstructorGourse

Thus if there is no bracingbelowthe platformto the mainframe,the whole

structurewill not be suitableto hold the weight of the scoutsas the structure
will be movingand shakingat all the partstied'

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PC-PlC' Page 32
 DistrictPioneering
Course
In conjunction
withthe Nat'tpioneering
Instructor
course

The'Triangleprinciples'

All Pioneering projectsthatuselashingsmustbe safeand steady.To

this,theyshouldhavetrianglesbuiltiniotheirdes'n;. ensure
A squarewillwobbtein
all directions.Triangresmakea structuresturdy.tiee Figure4
).
Lastly,letsus notforgetthatwe hadto put whathad been
taughtintouse,we
can then deepenour skillsand knowledge.The steps
to
pioneeris to get your handsworkingby lrtowingyourserr becomea good
to be exposedto
experiences.

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