Optimum Position of Handlesin A Box Forlifting It from Floor Height To Shoulder Height In Manual Material Handling

Abstract

Handle plays a very important role in lifting a box in manual lifting. Without handlelifting a box become difficult, as compare to, lifting a box with handle. Whereas, position of the handle also have big role to play on the safe lifting task. Whereas some people used to pick a box from the upper handleof the box and some prefer middleposition of handle. To know the exact position of handle for small and big boxes we conducted a study on experienced workers. Six parameters such as handle, size of box, and worker, Time of experiment, weight and horizontal position were chosen to determine the manual lifting process. Vertical distance was fixes as floor to shoulder. We took three different size boxes with two different position of handles on each box first on the top and second at the center. The heart rate during the lifting task of subject was recorded as response parameters to compare the effect of two different position of handles for the different size of boxes. It was found that the middleposition of handle was most preferred position for the lifting from the floor to shoulder in case of big box. Same can be seen in small box but in small box its effect was less as compare to big box. So according to the heart rate data middle position of the handle is more preferred position from the floor to shoulder lifting than upperposition of handle.