Influences of Tactile Sensation on Pinch Force under Loaded and Unloaded Conditions
- 1 Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Multimedia University, Malacca, Malaysia
- 2 Department of Manufacturing Management, Faculty of Manufacturing Engineering, Technical University of Malaysia, Malacca, Malaysia
- 3 Department of Radiology, Columbia Asia Hospital, Puchong, Selangor, Malaysia
Abstract
Although researchers have studied various parameters that affect grip force, few studies investigate the effects of tactile sensation on pinch force. This study aims to determine the influences of tactile sensation on pinch force with a special emphasis on screw knobs under loaded and unloaded conditions. The participants included 32 manual workers who were required to pinch and turn the knobs to generate pinch force under reduced and increased sensations simulated using cotton and nitrile gloves. The data were analysed using the analysis of variance via Minitab 16. Results show that the pinch force exerted for reduced sensations is higher than that of increased sensations because the reduced friction increased skin-object slippages, which caused participants to spontaneously increase their force to prevent slippages. This study serves as a guideline to potentially improve the design of objects operated with pinch grips to be safe and suitable for manual, sedentary or general tasks.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3844/ajassp.2015.588.592
Copyright: © 2015 Poh Kiat Ng, Kian Siong Jee, Adi Saptari and Chiew Yean Ng. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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Keywords
- Tactile Sensation
- Pinch Force
- Musculoskeletal Disorders
- Hand-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders
- Hand Injuries
- Load Condition