Good Evening Ladies and Gents As they say two heads are better than one and this case I suspect the more input the better. I have a guy on our workshop floor who does a lot of grinding. We have bought a HAVi meter which is fairly compact but the feedback I am getting is that it interferes with his grip on the tool (Metabo 4.5" grinder) therefore he does not put it on. He does have a bigger grinder but uses the smaller one more regularly. I have explained the reasons why we need the data A to protect him from exceeding the limits and B to restructure his workload as required. I am still getting resistance and am concerned that by not getting the message through the company is leaving themselves wide open for a potential claim and that this guy will suffer as well. Any ideas/thoughts/suggestions please? Thank you Vicki

I am happy to be wrong, even shot down, but. I would suggest that while there is a requirement to assess an individual's exposure to vibration, which obviously requires at some point evaluation of the vibration level and the length of exposure, there is no requirement to constantly monitor the vibration exposure. I remain to be convinced of the necessity or value of having some gadget attached to every piece of equipment all the time. It sounds like something if an expensive luxury to me. Have you considered other methods of monitoring your assessment findings?

Got to agree with canopener on this one. You should only need to monitor the vibration level for a limited period. This will give you an idea of how long the grinders can be safely used in any given period. Then you will need to ensure that these limits are not exceeded. You should not need to use the HAvi meter constantly.

I also agree with Canopener and PL53, there is no need to constantly use a meter. 2 things, 1) The meter will help to show what level of vibration a particular tool produces during different scenarios, eg. grinding wheel or cutting disc etc. 2) It can show a patern of use over a period of time so the work can be better managed. Depending on the device used, the operator wouldn't necessarily be able to look at it and determine how much exposure they have had anyway as some devices have cards that need to be downloaded.

I believe that a HAVi meter measures triggertimes and not vibration so the equipment just needs to be attached to the tool. Regards Yul

I agree with #3 and #4 as well, no need to monitor all the time. My comment was based on the fact they seem to have already bought this gismo and so the cost benefit evaluation had already taken place and they wanted this level of monitoring. A previous company I worked for had these devices and were not cheap, so I doubt the decision was made lightly. However we had a lot of people using equipment and we felt that the benefit of the continual monitoring would be to never expose the employees beyond what we should and sadly to also defend claims (it does not take many to warrant the cost). We never had any usability issues in terms of interference with use by the operator. The Gizmo we had also gave the operator a count down of points, so they also knew when to stop. Ours was just the type measuring trigger time. I find it hard to believe that if the device has been put on the tool properly there would be a usability issue ( otherwise they would not sell many). All the best with resolving the issue, still feel it is probably a perceived issue the operator has. Chris