Industrial Engineering Reseach Paper

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING

PGDIE-42

Industrial Engineering

Presented By: -

Srajan Shrivastava

Roll NO.97

 

 Ergonomic Design of Forklift

Bo yang

University of China

Abstract

Ergonomics, form design and color design are the important constitute of forklift design. Based on the analysis of current status of international and domestic forklift form design, using industrial design theory and methodology and aiming to the three parts, there are respectively some analysis and studies. It also gives some reasonable and concrete design ways. Some ways are also certain references to other type of engineering machines.

Introduction

Forklift is a kind of engineering vehicle to take, transport and heap goods. Forklift has some characters of small body, light weight, tight structure and flexible operation, which can be work in the narrow space. With the continuous development of industrial design, the direction of design turned from taking technique to customer as the design of center. For the design of forklift, besides functions and technique levels, the comfortable operation interface, original shape, moderate color visual effect and safety are also the important constitutes ofthe forklift design.

The application of ergonomics on forklift

On the basis of person's physiology and mental characteristics and the system engineering standpoint, the design of ergonomics research the mutual function of the person and machine, the person and environment, the machine and environment. The best design of engineering system should be operated simply, comfortably and safely. A few principles of the design of forklift can be referred as follows:

1)        Manipulation area of function integration

Relative to driver seat, the position of forklift's manipulation role and the arrangement of various control components are fixed, which make driver operate forklift with ease.

The basic factors of control panel's design as follows:

·       It should hinder the visual field of driver and the operation to pedal

·       Driver can easily observe the designation of control panel and not to change the head position

·       Driver can easily and directly read meters through the steer device

For extending the visual field of driver, the research can be carry through simulating the indoor visual field of operator and analyzing the influence factors of visual field at driver's upward, front, bottom and back direction. the influence of upward visual field for the driver is mainly the design of head-protection shelf. The influence of downward visual field is mainly the design of control panel.

2)        The design of driver's chair

Should satisfy the demand of different driver's body size. The fore-and-aft adjustment of driver's chair of t in this thesis can reach to 150MM. can be verified though numerical figures by Pro/engineer. The numerical figures are respectively established by 5 percentage and 95 percentage size of human body. By simulating calculation of comfortable drive, the numerical figures basically adapt to all drivers of different stature.

3)               The design of steer device

    If the diameter of steer devices be reduced it reduces the left leg fatigue of the driver.

Summary

ERGONOMIC DESIGN OF A FORKLIFT

Ergonomic design of a forklift includes both, it’s Ergonomic form design and colour design.  Ergonomic design of forklift is very important to allow the worker to do his task with least efforts and hence will continue to do his work for a longer time before getting tired. the factors we have considered include:

Manipulation of area of integration

The visual field of driver will be significantly improved by lowering the height of control panel and change the shape of waterspout of head-protection shelf.

The design of driver’s chair

Different body sizes taken into account will designing a seat , this will mean there should be some adjustable arrangement .

The surface color design of forklift

·         Satisfy environment:  mainly used in outdoor environment

·         Satisfy function: All kinds of buttons, keystrokes and operation pieces that can be coded or classified by colors should be assured the fast feedback and accuracy of operation while working.

Conclusion

The same concept of ergonomic design can be applied to any general engineering machine