Abstract. In aerospace industry, many tasks required manufacturing workers to perform their works in awkward posture. Awkward posture is a practical working posture when joints are not in neutral position such as lifting heavy products, reaching materials, bending forward their back when doing jobs, and pushing or pulling excessive loads because those tasks require a stable position and large degree of freedom. If the workers perform the jobs continuously in awkward posture throughout the working hours, they may be experience muscle fatigue. The objective of this study is to measure the myoelectric level (µV) exerted by the right and left thoracolumbar fascia muscles while workers perform the lay-up process in aerospace industry. The myoelectric level in the muscles was measured using surface Electromyography (sEMG) measurement. Six production workers from aerospace industry participated as subjects. The muscle fatigue of the subjects was measured during beginning until finish of lay-up process. This measuring activity has been doing from Wednesday to Friday. Highest results of myoelectric level for right thoracolumbar fascia is when the workers make the lay-up process for ply seven until ply eleven. Different with the results of myoelectric level for left thoracolumbar fascia which is; three of the workers got highest result when they are making the lay-up process for ply seven until ply eleven, but the other three of the workers got highest result when they are making the lay-up process for ply twelve. Nevertheless, after averaging both of the results, a mean result for each worker shows the highest myoelectric level is when the workers make the lay-up process for ply seven until ply eleven. According to the mean, a percentage of worse tasks are projected. Based on this study, the authors concluded that muscle fatigue of the lay-up workers in aerospace industry was influenced by the work load, work activity and duration of awkward posture.

Abstract. In reality, people who worked with power vibrating tools exposed with the vibrated syndrome that effect their normal life especially who involved for long time period. Hand-arm vibration (HAV) is a widespread hazard in many industries and occupations involving the use of handheld power tools or hand-fed machines. This paper describes a research and observation on the vibrating hand tool. The objective of this study is to measure and compare the grip strength and hand arm vibration before and after using the Ready-Reckoned standard for industrial workers. Continually, an analysis is conducted due to the pain and discomfort experience that face by the workers. This research also do the analysis about the effects of the vibration to the worker's hand depend on the duration of handling the power hand tool. Hundred respondent was involved which 50 men and 50 women who had been identified as an industrial worker and working with power hand tools or machinery. The respondents were interviewed and answer Q-Survey that directly conducted at their workplace after doing the test. As the result, worker who works 8 hours per day, the exposure limit value (ELV) is 5m/s, it can cause fatal effects. Most of workers suffered with fingers that gone white on cold exposure and weakness in hand grip.

Abstract. In industry, manual lifting still a prevalent choice even though mechanized and automated equipment are provided. Mismatch between workers' capability and lifting height, twist angle, and load mass in manual lifting can contribute to occupational injuries such as back pain. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of lifting height, twist angle, and load mass on psychophysical experience, muscle activity, and heart rate while performing manual lifting activities. Subjective method associated with Likert Scale was applied to assess the psychophysical experience. Meanwhile, surface Electromyography and heart rate monitor were utilized to measure the muscle activity and heart rate respectively. Main findings of this study show that the rating of psychophysical experience, muscle activity, and heart rate increased when the lifting height and load mass increased. This study concluded that the psychophysical experience and muscle activity were affected when the lifting height, twist angle, and load mass were set at maximum level.

Upper body discomfort has become one of the issues to drivers nowadays. In this modern era, majority of Malaysian workers drive to work daily. This paper aims to find the most uncomfortable upper body part, as well as the effect of time, body mass index (BMI) and length of arm towards upper body discomfort for drivers. Sixteen volunteers were requested to complete the questionnaire soon after they completed driving the car simulator for three duration of times (30 minutes, 60 minutes and 90 minutes). Time is proven to be the main factor affecting the upper body comfort level, with the upper arm and lower arm being the most affected part during driving, [F(2,237) =14.37, p<0.01] compared to BMI and length of arm. It can be concluded that the upper body discomfort can be caused by driving for a long time. Nevertheless, the BMI and length of arm is not the issue for upper body discomfort.

Abstract. Nowadays, back pain has contributed huge percentage to Malaysian drivers during driving. Bad or awkward sitting posture may cause fatigue and musculoskeletal pain to the driver due to long distance driving or maintained for a long time. Therefore, it is essential to do the survey on the impact of these elements for the driver based on our Malaysian road conditions. The objective of this paper is to investigate the relationship between different physical categories (age, height, weight and gender) and psychophysical experience on focusing with the degree of comfort ability drivers on Malaysian road condition. The survey should be conducted in random by taking sample from difference categories of drivers in order to get fair result. The experiment has been conducted to define the effect factors of level comfort during thirty minutes driving on the actual road. The result show, aging is one of the factors have significantly higher absolute discomfort for drivers aging from 43 to 53-54 years old with driving in the descending road. In the other hand it is shows that the discomfort ability of drivers can be influences by the driving experience, weight, height and gender of the drivers. Thus, it can be conclude, Malaysian drivers mostly feel discomfort when driving at the descending road and winding road compare to two others road.