Human Factors for the Design, Operation, and Maintenance of Mining Equipment

by Horberry; Tim

• ISBN13: 9781439802311
• ISBN10: 1439802319
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-07-16
• Publisher: CRC Press

Summary

Machines increasingly pervade the mining industry, reducing manual labor and raising production. While the use of new technologies such as remote control, vision enhancement technologies, continuous haulage, and automated equipment has grown, so has the potential for new health and safety risks. Written by leading experts from Australia and North America, Human Factors for the Design, Operation, and Maintenance of Mining Equipment covers the impact of new mining technology on human work performance and safety.Ergonomics experts Tim John Horberry, Robin Burgess-Limerick, and Lisa J. Steiner draw on their personal experience to provide up-to-date research, case studies, and examples, making the book useful, accurate, informative, and easy to read. They set the scene with a general, yet fundamental review of human factors information related to equipment. They then examine the physical environment and the importance of key concerns such as vibration, noise, heat, and dust in maintaining and operating mining equipment. The authors expand their scope by examining wider organizational and task factors related to mining equipment, including the long-standing issues of operator fatigue and stress as well as newer concerns such as distraction and information overload.A synthesis of available human factors knowledge and research, the book describes human factors principles applied to mining equipment from a multidisciplinary perspective and combines it into one volume. The authors combine their in-the-trenches experience and academic expertise to present a treatment that balances breadth with depth. The book supplies a much-needed overview of the human element in the journey to optimal equipment design of mining equipment.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. xiii
Acknowledgements	p. xv
The Authors	p. xvii
What is human factors, and why is it important for mining equipment?	p. 1
What is "human factors"?	p. 1
What are the aims of human factors?	p. 1
But... people differ in shape, size, ability, skill, and motivation	p. 2
And ... adding human factors to the design of a product is often seen as unnecessary	p. 2
Why is it important to consider human factors for mining equipment?	p. 3
Safety and health	p. 3
Productivity and work efficiency	p. 4
History of human factors in mining	p. 5
Human factors and risk management	p. 5
Key current issues, and future challenges with mining equipment	p. 6
Safety versus production	p. 6
Bigger! Stronger! Quicker! Safer! More reliable!	p. 7
Remote control and automation	p. 9
An ageing workforce	p. 9
Gap between mine site ergonomics knowledge and manufacturer human factors design skills	p. 10
Why this book is necessary	p. 11
Structure of the book	p. 12
Equipment design	p. 15
The equipment design process	p. 15
The equipment life cycle	p. 16
Safety in design	p. 18
Hierarchy of control, and control effectiveness	p. 19
Is the actual effectiveness of the controls more important than where they sit on the hierarchy?	p. 22
Equipment usability	p. 22
Who benefits from a user-centred focus?	p. 23
Human factors cost-benefit analysis and the system life cycle	p. 24
Problems with human factors CBA in mining	p. 24
Benefits of using a structured CBA method	p. 25
Equipment standardisation	p. 26
Issues with standards	p. 27
The standards process	p. 27
Potential barriers to using human factors in design	p. 28
Operability and maintainability analysis technique (OMAT)	p. 30
The importance of designing mobile equipment for maintainability and operability	p. 30
The beginning of the Earth Moving Equipment Safety Round Table (EMESRT)	p. 31
Previous techniques for maintainability and operability assessment	p. 33
The scope of OMAT	p. 34
OMAT process	p. 35
It is not just about design: Mining equipment operations and maintenance	p. 39
Elements in the mining system	p. 39
Safety in the operation of mobile equipment	p. 41
Different types of factors involved in mobile equipment incidents	p. 42
Haddon's countermeasure principles	p. 44
Principle 1: Prevent the creation of the hazard	p. 44
Principle 2: Reduce the amount of the hazard	p. 44
Principle 3: Prevent the release of the hazard	p. 45
Principle 4: Modify the rate of release of the hazard from its source	p. 45
Principle 5: Separate the hazard from that which is to be protected in time and space	p. 46
Principle 6: Separate the hazard from that which is to be protected by a physical barrier	p. 46
Principle 7: Modify relevant basic qualities of the hazard	p. 46
Principle 8: Make what is to be protected more resistant to damage from the hazard	p. 47
Principle 9: Begin to counter damage done by the hazard	p. 47
Principle 10	p. 47
Conclusions	p. 47
Manual tasks	p. 49
Introduction	p. 49
Direct manual-task risk factors	p. 53
Force and speed	p. 53
Body posture	p. 54
Movement and repetition	p. 55
Duration	p. 55
Assessing manual-task injury risks	p. 56
The place of "training" in manual-task injury risk management	p. 57
Conclusion	p. 58
Workstation design and anthropometric variability	p. 59
Workstation design: Overview	p. 59
Incorporating anthropometric data in workstation design	p. 59
Types of anthropometric data	p. 59
Sources of anthropometric data	p. 60
Use of anthropometric data in design	p. 61
Issues with the use of percentiles: The myth of the 50th percentile person	p. 62
General principles of workstation design	p. 62
Clearance requirements	p. 62
Access and egress, and fall prevention during operation and maintenance	p. 63
Location and arrangement of workstation controls and displays	p. 67
Visibility	p. 72
Seating	p. 74
Digital tools for workstation design	p. 75
Conclusion	p. 75
Physical environment and climate	p. 77
co-written with Robert Randolph
co-written zuith James Rider
co-written with Janet Torma-Krajewski
co-written with Tammy Eger
Sound and hearing	p. 78
What is sound?	p. 78
Hearing and age	p. 79
Variables of noise exposure	p. 79
Noise protection strategies	p. 80
Noise: Summary	p. 80
Dust	p. 82
Breathing and dust	p. 82
Dust control in mining	p. 84
Respiratory protection and other personal protective equipment	p. 86
Heat, cold, and climate control	p. 87
Extent of the issue	p. 87
Overview of environmental heat stress	p. 88
Environmental heat stress in mining	p. 90
Physiological responses to heat stress	p. 91
Heat stress indices and thermal limits	p. 91
Controls: General	p. 92
Controls: Specific to mining	p. 94
Cold stress	p. 95
Summury	p. 96
Vibration	p. 96
What is vibration?	p. 97
Consequences of vibration	p. 98
Motion sickness	p. 98
Visuo-motor performance	p. 99
Health effects: Peripheral vibration	p. 99
Health effects: Whole-body vibration	p. 100
Controlling whole-body vibration risks associated with mining equipment	p. 102
Vision, visibility, and lighting Co-written with Tammy Eger	p. 105
Vision and lighting	p. 106
Illumination and vision performance	p. 108
Standards for mine lighting	p. 110
Recommended lighting levels	p. 110
Lighting used in underground mines	p. 111
LED cap lamp	p. 113
Visual warning system (VWS)	p. 113
Wireless visual warning system (VWS)	p. 114
LED area lighting	p. 114
Visibility and equipment design	p. 114
Accident statistics	p. 115
Strategies to improve line of sight from mobile equipment	p. 116
Cameras	p. 116
Other visual aids	p. 116
Controls and displays	p. 119
Controls and displays: Overview	p. 119
Control design principles	p. 119
Control resistance	p. 121
Control sensitivity	p. 121
Control order	p. 121
Reducing control errors: Guarding, feedback, mode errors, coding, and directional control-response relationships	p. 122
Inadvertent control operation	p. 122
Mode errors	p. 123
Operation of incorrect controls	p. 123
Direction errors	p. 131
Display principles	p. 139
The importance of visual information	p. 139
Types of visual information	p. 140
Warnings and alarms	p. 140
Key display design principles	p. 141
Case Study: The EMESRT controls and displays design philosophy	p. 144
Automation and new technologies	p. 145
Why are new mining technologies and automation being developed and deployed?	p. 145
Levels of automation	p. 147
The importance of considering human-machine interaction in automated mining equipment	p. 148
Why consider the human?	p. 148
Approaches and lessons from other domains	p. 149
Some of the "ironies" of automation	p. 150
Automation and human factors issues	p. 151
Case study: Collision detection and proximity-warning systems	p. 153
Uses of collision detection and proximity-warning systems	p. 154
Types of detection technologies	p. 155
Example 1: Underground mining	p. 156
Example 2: Surface mining	p. 156
Human factors issues	p. 156
Mining automation and people: What can we conclude?	p. 158
Organisational and task factors	p. 161
Fatigue, shiftwork, and ruining equipment	p. 161
What is fatigue?	p. 161
Fatigue measurement and impacts	p. 162
Working hours in mining	p. 163
Nightwork	p. 164
Strategies to combat operator fatigue	p. 165
Naps and coffee	p. 165
Fatigue management	p. 165
Rest breaks	p. 166
Fatigue detection technologies	p. 167
Mental workload	p. 168
Levels of mental workload	p. 168
Mental workload as an interaction of person, task, environment, and equipment	p. 169
How to measure it?	p. 169
Mental workload and new technology	p. 170
Occupational stress	p. 170
Is a little stress a good thing?	p. 170
Effects of stress	p. 170
Who are affected most by stress, and what helps?	p. 171
Stress measurement	p. 172
Distraction	p. 172
The importance of driver distraction	p. 172
Definitions of driver distraction	p. 174
Internal or external distraction	p. 174
Distraction minimisation	p. 175
Conclusion	p. 175
Training Co-written with Jennifer G. Tichon	p. 177
Why train?	p. 177
Human factors in the design of training	p. 177
Expertise and training	p. 179
Sensation and perception differences	p. 180
Decision-making differences	p. 181
Action differences	p. 181
Attention differences	p. 181
Issues associated with training	p. 182
Use of simulation in training	p. 182
VR simulation training in mining	p. 184
Conclusion	p. 187
Conclusions	p. 189
Summary	p. 189
Future general trends in mining human factors	p. 190
Future human-related trends in mining equipment design, operation, and maintenance	p. 191
The need for better human factors design and procurement tools	p. 191
Error-tolerant equipment	p. 192
Design maturity	p. 194
Refrencea	p. 197
Index	p. 213
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