Heaven’s Light is Our Guide

RAJSHAHI UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

DEPERTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING

Course No: IPE 4104

Course Title: Ergonomics and Safety Management Lab

Experiment No: 05
Experiment Name: Study of manual lifting operation and determination of the recommended
weight limit using NOISH lifting equation.
Submitted To

Md. Ariful Islam Nusrath Zahan

Associate Professor Lecturer
Department of Industrial & Production Department of Industrial & Production
Engineering, RUET. Engineering, RUET.

Submitted By
Md. Limon Mia [1605054]
4th year, odd semester
Department of Industrial & Production
Engineering, RUET.

Date of Submission: 10.08.2021

Name of the Experiment:
Study of manual lifting operation and determination of the recommended weight limit using
NOISH lifting equation.
Introduction:
"Manual handling" means using your body to exert force to handle, support or restrain any
object, and includes not only lifting and carrying but also repetitive tasks. A manual handling
task that has the potential to cause injury is a "hazardous manual handling task". The term
manual handling covers a wide variety of activities including lifting, lowering, pushing, pulling
and carrying. If any of these tasks are not carried out appropriately there is a risk of injury.
Ergonomics is sometimes described as “fitting the job to the person rather than the person to
the job”. The ergonomic approach, therefore, looks at manual handling as a whole. It takes into
account a range of relevant factors including the nature of the task, the load, and the work
environment. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is
responsible for conducting research and making recommendations for the prevention of work-
related injury and illness. The NIOSH Lifting Equation is a tool used by occupational health
and safety professionals to assess the manual material handling risks associated with lifting and
lowering tasks in the workplace.
Objective:
• To study of manual lifting operation.
• determination of the recommended weight limit by using NOISH lifting equation.
Recommended Weight Limit (RWL):
Recommended Weight Limit (RWL) as the weight of the load that nearly all healthy workers
can lift over a substantial period of time (e.g., eight hours) without an increased risk of
developing lower back pain. The maximum weight to be lifted with two hands, under ideal
conditions, is 51 pounds. A recommended weight limit (RWL), within the NIOSH lifting
equation, is a measure used to define the maximum safe weight for specific lifting tasks.
Adhering to the RWL is intended to prevent the risk of back injuries for most employees.
The RWL is defined by the following equation:
RWL = LC x HM x VM x DM x AM x FM x CM
Where:
LC Load Constant = 23 kg, HM = Horizontal Multiplier, VM =Vertical Multiplier, DM
=Distance Multiplier, AM =Asymmetric Multiplier, FM = Frequency Multiplier, CM =
Coupling Multiplier
The term multipliers refer to the reduction coefficients that serve to decrease the load constant.

Lifting Index (LI):

The Lifting Index (LI) is a term that provides a relative estimate of the level of physical stress
associated with a particular manual lifting task.
The Lifting Index is defined by the following equation:
LI = Load Weight (L)/ Recommended Weight Limit (RWL)
Load Weight (L) = weight of the object lifted.
It is believed that nearly all workers will be at an increased risk of a work-related injury when
performing highly stressful lifting tasks (lifting tasks that would exceed a LI of 3.0).
Therefore, the goal should be to design all lifting jobs to achieve a LI of 3.0 or less. A Lifting
Index value of 1.0 or less indicates a nominal risk to healthy employees. A Lifting Index greater
than 1.0 denotes that the task is high risk for some fraction of the population. So, using the LI,
injury risk of two or more job designs could be compared.

Problem 1:
Step 1: Measured and Record Task Variable
Horizontal
Body to Hand Distance= (50+60) cm=110cm
Total Vertical Lift = Dest.- Origin = (90-20) = 70cm

Object Hand Location Vert Angle Freq. Times Object

Weight Origin Dest dist. Origin Dest Lifts/min HRS coupling
Avg. Max H V H V D A A F C
10 10 50 90 110 20 90 0 45 1 4 0.95

Step 2: Determine Multipliers and Compute RWL

Origin of lift:

Load constant, LC=23 kg

Horizontal Multiplier, HM=25/H= 25/50 = 0.5
Vertical Multiplier, VM= 1-(.003|V-75|) =1-(.003|20-75|) = 0.835
Distance Multiplier, DM= .82 + (4.5/D) = .82 + (4.5/70) = 0.885
Asymmetric Multiplier, AM= 1-.0032A= 1 – 0=1
Frequency Multiplier, FM= 0.76 (VM<30 and F = 1 lift/min)
Coupling Multiplier, CM= 0.95
Recommended Weight Limit, RWL= LC*HM*VM*DM*AM*FM*CM
=23*0.5*.949*1*0.885*0.76*0.95
=6.973

Destination of lift:

Load Constant, LC=23 Kg

Horizontal Multiplier, HM= 25/110= 0.2273
Vertical Multiplier, VM= 1-(.003|V-75|) = 0.844
Distance Multiplier,
DM=.82+(4.5/D)=.82+(4.5/70)=0.855
Asymmetric Multiplier, AM= 1-.0032A= 1-.0032(0.785) =0.9975
Frequency Multiplier, FM= (VM<30 and F = 1 lift/min) =.76
Coupling Multiplier, CM= 0.95
Recommended Weight Limit, RWL = LC*HM*VM*DM*AM*FM*CM
=23*0.2273*.8444*1*0.885*0.76*0.95
=2.821

Step 3: Compute the Lifting Index

Origin Lifting Index, LI = L/RWL = 1.43 (L=10 kg)
Destination Lifting Index, LI = L/RWL = 3.544 (L=10 kg) s

Conclusion
• Origin: The start of the lift is acceptable and safe since LI <3.
• Destination: The end of the lift is dangerous since LI>3. This could be the point where serious
low back injury will occur.

Problem 02:
Step 1: Measures and Record Task Variable
Horizontal Total Vertical Lift
Body to Hand Distance = Dest.- Origin
= (35+50) cm = 100cm-30cm
=85 cm = 70 cm

Object Hand Location Vert Angle Freq. Times Object

Weight Origin Dest dist. Origin Dest Lifts/min HRS coupling
Avg. Max H V H V D A A F C
15 15 35 100 85 30 70 0 30 3 3 0.90
Step 2: Determine Multipliers and Compute RWL.

Origin of Lift:
Load Constant, LC=23 Kg
Horizontal Multiplier, HM= 25/H = 0.714
Vertical Multiplier, VM= 1-(.003|V-75|) = 0.925
Distance Multiplier, DM= .82 + (4.5/D) = 0.884
Asymmetric Multiplier, AM= 1-.0032A=1
Frequency Multiplier, FM= 0.55 (V>75 And 3 Lift/Min)
Coupling Multiplier, CM= 0.90
Recommended Weight Limit, RWL= LC*HM*VM*DM*AM*FM*CM= 6.647
Destination of lift:
Load Constant, LC=23 Kg
Horizontal Multiplier, HM= 25/H = 25/85 = 0.294
Vertical Multiplier, VM= 1-(.003|V-75|) = 0.865
Distance Multiplier, DM= .82 + (4.5/D) = 0.884
Asymmetric Multiplier, AM= 1-.0032A=0.99
Frequency Multiplier, FM= 0.55 (V<75 And 3 Lift/Min)
Coupling Multiplier, CM= 0.90
Recommended Weight Limit, RWL= LC*HM*VM*DM*AM*FM*CM= 2.53
Step 3: Compute the Lifting Index
Origin Lifting Index, LI= L/RWL= 2.26 (L= 15kg)
Destination Lifting index, LI= L/RWL= 5.93 (L= 15kg)

Conclusion
• Origin: The start of the lift is acceptable and safe since LI <3.
• Destination: The end of the lift is dangerous since LI>3. This could be the point where serious
low back injury will occur.