Chapter 4

Static work:
Design for standing and
seated workers
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025 "
 Introduction
 Most animals stands on 4 that gives more stability
 Animals with 2 legs have anatomical adaptation to over
come stability
 In humans, the stability is achieved by the lumbar
lordosis that minimize energy
 Standing is the most efficient energy posture for human

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 Introduction
 Standing can be uncomfortable if wrong posture or not
enough rest periods provided
 See table 4-1 for advantages of standing
 Standstill is not accepted, people tend to move in
stationary point
 If jobs needed long stand, it should be redesign to
provide external support or frequent movements, or a
combination of standing and seating.
 See figure 4-2 for Some behaviours characteristic of
unconstrained standing
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 An Ergonomic Approach to Workstation
Design
 Ergonomic workstation design encourages good
posture.
 Figure 4.4 presents a framework for posture.
 It emphasizes the role of three classes of (Table 4.3).
 Clearly, ‘ergonomically designed’ furniture cannot be
bought off the shelf.
 Decisions about the appropriateness and relative
advantages of different designs can only be made after
considering the characteristics of users and the
requirements of their jobs
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 Characteristics of users and
workspace/equipment design
 One of the most basic considerations in workstation design is the
anthropometric fit between users and furniture (Figure 4.6).
 Designers typically design to ensure that 90% of users will be
accommodated.
 Problems can therefore occur with extremely tall, short or obese
individuals and special arrangements may need to be made to
accommodate them.
 Much office furniture is designed around a desk height of
approximately 73 cm and assumes provision of a height-adjustable
chair.

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 Characteristics of users and
workspace/equipment design
 This ensures, within limits, that
•Short users can raise their chair heights such that the desk
height approximates their sitting elbow height.
•The desk is not so high that the chair height exceeds the
popliteal height of a short person in order to achieve the above.
•The desk is high enough that tall users can approximate desk
and elbow heights and still have space under the desk for their
legs (i.e. they do not have to lower their chairs too much).

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Critical user and furniture dimensions

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 Health hazards and
anthropometric mismatches
 In case of missing anthropometric data, trials can be used for
best fit.
 In the absence of anthropometric data, engineers, designers and
facilities personnel can avoid anthropometric mismatches by
means of a participative approach.
 Anthropometric mismatches can have serious consequences for
health and efficiency because of the way they increase the
postural load on the body (Figure 4.7).
 Short users, for example, may have to raise seat heights beyond
popliteal height in order to gain access to the desk.

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 Health hazards and anthropometric
mismatches
 Lack of foot space may also be a problem for tall workers.
 Mandal has called for an increase in desk heights to
overcome these problems and to account for the
increasing height of the population.
 Short users can be given footrests as standard equipment
to ensure anthropometric fit.
 This is similar to the industrial practice of designing high
benches to suit taller standing workers and providing
raised platforms for those of lesser height.

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 Health hazards and anthropometric
mismatches
 Height-adjustable desks have been proposed for use with
height-adjustable chairs in order to increase the range of
users accommodated by a workstation.
 The correct way to adjust one of these workstations is as
follows
• 1. First adjust the chair height so that the feet are resting firmly on
the floor.
• 2. Adjust the work surface height for comfortable access to the
desktop or keyboard.

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 Task requirements
 All tasks have three sets of requirements that
influence workspace design:
• Visual requirements
• Postural (effector) requirements
• Temporal requirements

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 Task requirements
 Visual requirements
• Position of head
• Angle of vision is about 30 degrees downward
• Displays shouldn’t be above the eye height
• Lateral vision sensitive to stimuli 95 degrees left and right
• Optimum 15 degrees to put displays sideways
• Considering employee eyesight

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 Task requirements
 Postural requirements
• Position of hands arms and feet
• The working area of a desk or bench should always be close
to its front edge and with relatively unobstructed access
• Avoid excessive reach (Tasks should be designed to be
performable in the zone of optimum reach).
 Temporal requirements
• Time to perform task is important.
• Postural constrained vs. unconstrained
• Work design flexibility might solve the problem

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 Design For Standing Workers
 As a rule of thumb, all objects that are to be used by
standing workers should be placed between hip and
shoulder height to minimize postural stress caused by
stooping or working with the hands and arms elevated
 For fine work use work surfaces higher than elbow
height (reduces visual distance)
 Heavy work use lower work surface to permit the worker
to apply large vertical forces by transmitting part of the
body weight through the arms

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Height of bench based on workload

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 Work Surface Height

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 Some Workspace Design Faults
 Some workspace design faults that increase postural stress
in standing workers can be summarized as follows:
• Working with the hands too high and/or too far away: compensatory
lumbar lordosis.
• Work surface too low: trunk flexion and back muscle strain.
• Constrained foot position due to lack of clearance: worker stands
too far away.
• Working at the corner of the bench: constrained foot position, toes
turned out too much.
• Standing with a twisted spine having to work at the side rather than
directly ahead.

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 Alternate standing and seating
1. Postural constraint in standing
workers can be relieved by
providing stools to enable
workers to rest during quiet
periods or to alternate between
sitting and standing.
2. Adequate space for the feet
should be provided to permit
workers to change the position
of their feet at will.

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 Evaluation of Standing Aids
 Stresses can be reduced by sitting, standing aids, and hip
flexing
 Foot rest decrease the stress on the lumbopelvic area (100
mm foot rest)
 Mats provide less stress and less accidents
 Don’t stand for long time
• Decreases the blood flow
• Feet swelling
• Increase stress on the lower back vertebra
• Take rest to avoid these problems
 Read pages 103-106 in your text book

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 Foot releasing stress

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 Alternate standing and seating

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 Typical standing station

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 Design for seated workers
 Seat should provide flexibility (forward upright, and
recline)
 Table 4-5 recommend different work surface for
sedentary workers
 When working with keyboards, the worksurface is
often 3 – 6 cm lower than a writing worksurface to
allow for the thickness of the keyboard.
 Space must be provided for the sitter’s legs.

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Work Surface for Sedentary Workers

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 Office Chairs
 Some important features of office chairs are
summarized in Table 4.6.
• Provide erect trunk
• Provide less posterior pelvic tilting
• Preserve the natural lumber lordosis (contour chairs)

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 Office Chairs
1. Seats should swivel and have heights adjustable between
38 and 54 cm. Footrests should be provided for short users.
2. Free space for the legs must be provided both underneath
the seat to allow the user to flex the knees by 90 degrees or
more and underneath the work surface to allow knee
extension when reclining.
3. A 5-point base is recommended for stability if the chair
has castors.
4. The function of the backrest is to stabilize the trunk. A
backrest height of approximately 50 cm above the seat is
required to provide both lumbar and partial thoracic
support.
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 Office Chairs
5. If the backrest reclines, it should do so independently of
the seat to provide trunk–thigh angle variation and
consequent variation in the distribution of forces acting
on the lumbar–pelvic region.
6. Lumbar support can be achieved either by using extra
cushioning to form a lumbar pad, or by contouring the
backrest. In either case, there must be open space between
the lumbar support and the seat pan vertically below it to
allow for posterior protrusion of the buttocks.

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 Office Chairs
7. The seat pan must have a slight hollow in the buttock
area to prevent the user’s pelvis from sliding forwards.
This keeps the lower back in contact with the backrest
when reclining. The leading edge of the seat should
curl downwards to reduce underthigh pressure.
8. Arm rests should be high enough to support the
forearms when the user is sitting erect. They should
also end well short of the leading edge of the seat so as
not to contact the front edge of the desk. If the armrests
support the weight of the arms, less load is placed on
the lumbar spine.

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 Office Chairs
9. Modern chairs tend to have a thin layer of high-density
padding. Layers of thick foam tend to destabilise the
sitter. The foam can collapse after constant use.
10. Cloth upholstery provides friction to enhance the
stability of the sitter.

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 Tilted Chair Seat
 A number of researchers have suggested that chairs
should be designed with forward-tilted seats (Figure
4.13).
 These chairs should permit a user to sit with an erect
trunk and less posterior pelvic tilting and flattening of the
lumbar curve because the tilt of the seat increases the
trunk–thigh angle.
 Comparisons of lumbar angles of people sitting on
conventional and forward sloping chairs indicate that this
is the case

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 lumbar supports stabilize the pelvis and
reduce posterior pelvic tilting

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 Examples of Seated Workers
1. Computer users
2. Telephone operators
3. Students
4. Authors - draftsmen - artists
5. Civil Servants - secretaries
6. Self-employment occupations (doctor,
pharmacist, architect, lawyer etc.)
7. Others (tailor, designer, stylist etc.)

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 Dynamics of sitting
 Dynamics of sitting is the approach to design
a chair for several different working and
resting positions

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 Work Surface Design
 Design tilt angle to desktop that can reduce visual angle
and provide more upright position
 Tilt angle reduces neck flexion
 The desk should be in front of body to minimize twisting of
trunk
 Twisting increase intervertebral disk injury
 Jobs involve asymmetric twisting is considered hazard
(Supermarket checkout)
 Sudden twisting in seated position have high risk of injury

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 Visual Display Terminals (VDT)
 It becomes very important because of the multi use
 Fixed posture and CTD are the most musculoskeletal
disorder in theses stations
 Seating and posture of offices

• Seat adjustability
• Lumbar and foot support
• Space for postural change
• forearms approximately horizontal
• Minimal extension or flexion or deviation of wrist
• Screen height allows comfortable head position
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 VDT Continue
 VDT work is dominated by equipment locations
 VDT impose posture fixity that is considered hazardous (
8 hour continuous work)
 Static posture enforce isometric muscle contraction that
eventually deplete local supply of blood which leads to
fatigue
 Static posture prevent the nutrition mechanism (pumping
through daily activities) of intervertebral disks
 VDT hazard exists even when good design is adopted
because of posture fixity

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 VDT Continue
 VDT has so many different applications, designers
should take this into considerations
 Detachable keyboard, adjustable screen tilt, document
holder, and swivel are things to consider
 Cost and need can be used to decide which feature is
most important
 Table 4-7 summarize the features
 Rule of Thumb: No correct posture for 8 hours a day

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 keyboard

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 Good computer station design
1. use a good chair with a dynamic chair back
and sit back in this
2. top of monitor casing 2-3" (5-8 cm) above
eye level
3. no glare on screen, use an optical glass anti-
glare filter where needed
4. sit at arms length from monitor
5. feet on floor or stable footrest
6. use a document holder, preferably in-line
with the computer screen
7. wrists flat and straight in relation to forearms
to use keyboard/mouse/input device
8. arms and elbows relaxed close to body
9. center monitor and keyboard in front of you
10. use a negative tilt keyboard tray with an
upper mouse platform or downward tiltable
platform adjacent to keyboard
11. use a stable work surface and stable (no
bounce) keyboard tray
12. take frequent short breaks (microbreaks

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 Software for computer reducing injury
reminding you to take rest
 Vistit:http://www.magnitude.com/

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