| Abstrakt: |
Kalaburagi in North Karnataka is a cluster for pulse processing units locally called as 'dal mills'. Most of the units are small scale employing about 20-30 workers and about 300 plus industries are located. Pulse processing is carried out by machines, but many of the activities like loading, unloading, material handling, drying in sun, filling the bags etc. is carried out manually. The study focuses on the awkward working postures of workers and design of hand tools for spreading, and filling the pulses. The tools presently used are studied and the compatibility with operators noted down. The tools used known as 'rake' and 'rake hoe', but locally called as 'raghawal', raghawal patti and chata are designed in CATIA considering the anthropometric measurements of the workers. A modification is done and the tools raghawal and raghwal patti are redesigned and combined, thus saving the costs. RULA and REBA analysis is done on selected postures which indicate high risks (about 48% and 53%) in most of the postures and need corrective action. Another improvement is shown at the mixing workstation, where the risk is high due to unnatural postures. The workstation is designed in CATIA showing improvements in working posture and reducing the risks of musculoskeletal disorders. The findings also revealed prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders, excessive noise, poor awareness and usage of personnel protection devices like masks, ear plug, shoes etc. Several suggestions and recommendations are made to improve the working conditions to reduce the risks of MSDs, better design of tools and encourage the use of PPEs in the dal mills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
