Posted By John Lewis Rob After a couple of heavy pay outs a few years ago my employer bagan doing vibration testing. When I started i kept this up and as a result we have quite extensive records going back to 2000. The materials we polish are primarily Titanium, Cobalt chrome and stainless steel. These are much harder materials than you are using. A simple polishing job on a ball shaped item has recently revealed figures of 2.69ms-2 with a hard brush for 1min31sec; 2.75ms-2 with a new cord brush for 1min9sec and 1.78ms-2 for 33 secs with a soft sewn cotton stitch mop. These give equivalent vibration levels of .16, .13 and .06 respectively. These figures may be of some help to you in making your rough calculations. In the long run you might be better getting a specialist in to do some testing for you. I can point you in the right direction if you want. In our case there were significant issues with centring wheels and bad technique. We do not work to a bonus scheme on throughput, yet some people were applying massive and unnecessary pressure to the work piece a few years ago. Particularly on linishing operations we have successfully reduced vibration levels from 7.2ms-2 to 1.75ms-2. 3M are very helpful in providing belts and contact wheels with less vibration. Interestingly we have two plants and only one has had VWF claims. The only significant difference between the two is that one set of workers stands to work and the others sit and have no incidence of VWF. Best Regards John

Posted By John Lewis Smurfer It is a strange one. The big problems seem to be behind us now and the vibration differences between the two sites are very similar, regardless of the posture of the operative. I have offered stools to all the operatives who normally stand and they reckon you cannot do the job sitting. Instead, I have obtained some anti fatigue matting which seems to have been well accepted. As a by-product the issues with dust on the floor and the consequent slip hazards has been reduced significantly. Best Regards John