Design guidelines and evaluation of an ergonomic chair feature capable of providing support to forward-leaning postures
| dc.contributor | Congleton, Jerome | |
| dc.creator | Stevens, Edward Martin | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2005-02-17T20:59:50Z | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2017-04-07T19:49:24Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2005-02-17T20:59:50Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2017-04-07T19:49:24Z | |
| dc.date.created | 2004-12 | |
| dc.date.issued | 2005-02-17 | |
| dc.description.abstract | This research investigated the need, design, and evaluation of a product capable of providing support to forward-leaning postures. Due to the high occurrence of low-back pain in industry potentially due to workers performing their tasks while assuming forward-leaning postures, along with the biological plausibility of these postures causing low-back pain, the need was established for a product that provides forward-leaning support. An envelope was quantified, ranging from the 5th percentile female to the 95th percentile male, to establish the range of potential forward-leaning postures. The design of a Support-Arm for use with current ergonomic chairs was discussed and design feature specifications were then provided. A Latin Square statistical design was employed to evaluate a Support-Arm model alongside 8 other commonly used chairs over 3 different postures. Subjects, overall, had lower peak pressures for the buttock-thigh region, increased productivity, higher comfort levels, and higher buttock-thigh contact areas when seated in the Support-Arm model chair as compared to the other chairs. Subjects, overall, also ranked this chair first over the other chairs for preferred use after having sitting experience in all 9 chairs. In an additional part of the evaluation, subjects chose their own set-up of the Support-Arm model chair. Eleven of the 18 subjects chose to use the Support-Arm when their workstation was located 36? above the floor. Subjects confirmed the need to design a Support-Arm capable of providing forward leaning support to the entire envelope of forward-leaning postures. Statistical evaluation revealed several significant differences between the chairs. The results gave no indication that the use of a Support-Arm for forward-leaning support may cause detrimental effects to users or overall chair ergonomics. Future research could track workers? use of a Support-Arm in industry and compare their occurrence of low-back pain to a control group. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/1374 | |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | |
| dc.publisher | Texas A&M University | |
| dc.subject | design | |
| dc.subject | evaluation | |
| dc.subject | ergonomics | |
| dc.subject | chair design | |
| dc.subject | forward-leaning | |
| dc.title | Design guidelines and evaluation of an ergonomic chair feature capable of providing support to forward-leaning postures | |
| dc.type | Book | |
| dc.type | Thesis |