New ergonomic device to improve occupational safety of blasthole drill operators

The relationship between mining companies and the society is not limited to the local communities surrounding the operations. The evaluation of the working conditions of the operators of mining equipment is an important dimension of the relationship with the society. Even with the increasing level of automation, there are equipment and operating procedures that have to be adjusted to meet the employees’ capabilities and requirements. For instance, the bit replacement activity requires significant physical work from the employees involved in rock drilling operations. This means that modifications are required in blasthole drills to address the employee's accessibility to bit holders and toolboxes in the drilling platform. However, only a limited number of recent studies have considered ergonomic issues for mining equipments. This research proposes a new ergonomic device for blasthole drills to reduce the ergonomic risk of the operators without affecting the performance. The methods include simulation tools and ergonomic analysis based on the NIOSH Lifting Equation (NLE). The results of the application of the new ergonomic device in all bit replacement tasks have shown risk indexes below the critical limits established by NIOSH. The results have also indicated a performance improvement, with a 60% reduction in bit replacement time. Keywords: Bit replacement, Drilling operation, Blasthole drills, Ergonomic device for blasthole drills, NIOSH lifting equation, Ergonomic analysis