Tool report highlights vibration risk
December 1st 2005 Pneumatic impact wrenches such as those typically used for commercial vehicle wheel bolting could prove hazardous to health if operated for more than a few minutes a day, reports Norbar Torque Tools.
The company commissioned the Industrial Noise & Vibration Centre to carry out an assessment in which a typical pneumatic impact wrench was compared with Norbar's Pneutorque torque wrench.
The report found that users of impact wrenches could reach their daily vibration exposure limit is as little as 34min of use.
To measure the effects of vibration in a realistic work environment, the researchers used an accelerometer attached to a typical pneumatic impact wrench, as close as possible to the position of the operator's hand. All measurements were made in accordance with BS EN ISO 5349.
Tests were carried out using an impact wrench and a Pneutorque tool to tighten 10 truck wheel nuts to 600Nm. Averaged over the 10 bolts, the total vibration measured for the impact wrench, the vector sum, was 18.8m/s2. The Pneutorque registered only 1.4m/s2.
While a user of the impact wrench would reach their daily exposure action value (EAV) in 8min, the Pneutorque operator could perform the same task continuously for more than 24h without breaching the EAV. More articles from Norbar Torque Tools Limited: | 
