We use various types of 'hand tool' hammers during assembly work. Some are wooden shaft / metal head, some fibreglass shaft / nylon head, some metal shaft / rubber grip / deadblow head etc. We have tried measuring hand arm vibration from hammering tasks the same way we do vibrating electrical or pneumatic hand tools (the standard accelerometer, HAV meter and number crunching approach) and the results are alarmingly high when compared against the vibration regs exposure levels. Some types of hammer have been producing a 'time to reach' the EAV of less than five minutes......

So, firstly, are we wrong to measure hammering in this way? Is a hammer actually classed as a vibrating tool and does it fall within the vibration regs? The HSE guidance pretty much sticks to talking about electric and pneumatic tools which obviously oscillate at much higher frequencies than hand tools would be used at. There is some mention in the guidance of 'impact shock' from hand tools, but is this the same thing as vibration? I am getting very confiused!

If we HAVE been measuring correctly and the data is genuinely high, does anyone know of any other options out there to reduce vibration exposure? Mechanising will not be an option due to the range of tasks (it's a bespoke product), complexity of the hammering positions and fairly precise 'heft' etc required. We have considered job rotation (not keen because it just exposes more people to vibration - albeit less of it!) and gel / foam handle covers (but anecdotal evidence suggests that these are ineffective as the operative just grips harder....).

Any advice would be appreciated!


Stu

Many thanks Ron. That's clairified I was along the right lines in any case. We were indeed having some range issues with the meter, but think we got a reasonable and repeateable result after some tinkering with the settings. I also agree that the meter may be over-egging the pudding, but I guess that data is all we can go on from a survey perspective. I still find it strange that the HSE guidance just doesn't talk about impact from hand tools at all - maybe they aren't sure how to tackle it either :-)

99% of the texts, ACoP etc is written around hand-held power tools with an equal emphasis on provision of meaningful vibration data from suppliers.
There are any number of tasks and industries where the exposure is indirect and not associated with hand-held machines, e.g. metal working, casting work and holding vibrating work pieces (including a fire hose!).

This dearth of information doesn't mean the risk isn't real or less important - just really difficult to quantify!