INFLUENCE OF POWER TOOL-RELATED PARAMETERS ON THE RESPONSE OF FINGER FLEXOR MUSCLES

Surface electromyography (EMG) and statistical analysis techniques wer e applied to investigate the response of finger flexor muscles to hand -transmitted vibration in all the three orthogonal directions. The tre nds in measured data were examined to derive the influence of variatio ns in the tool-related parameters. Single-factor and multi-factor stat istical analyses were performed to establish the significance of influ ence of different individual and coupled power tool-related parameters , The analysis of variance (ANOVA) results indicated that the vibratio n direction, acceleration and grip force influence the EMG of finger f lexor muscles in a significant manner (P < 0.001), while the effect of vibration frequency was observed to be insignificant (P > 0.9). The e lectrical activity measured under different vibratory test conditions was observed to be 1.5-6.0 times higher than that measured under the s tatic loads. The increase in electrical activity of the finger flexor muscles with an increase in the grip force was observed to be most sig nificant under static as well as dynamic loading conditions.