Preliminary study on ergonomic posture analysis and environmental stress exposure toward staff in welding bay

In any welding bay or workplace, safety is most important to reduce any risks that can bring harm to the staffs or worker. There are two main objectives of this study which look at any risks related to health in the welding bay. First is the ergonomics postural analysis of the staff or worker. This study focuses on the working postures especially on lifting posture and bending or welding posture. The postures have their own parameters. For lifting posture, it is considered as intermittent while for welding posture is static. There are three staffs are chosen with different Body Mass Index (BMI) in order to find the distinct in the data of their working postures. By assessing these factors using CATIA software, a recommendation can be done to improve the posture of the staffs during working. Second, the environmental stress exposure analysis has been studied. In this study, the environmental stress exposure assessment focuses on heat, noise and air quality in the welding bay. The WBGT and low-cost noise and air quality device has been used to collect the data. For data analysis, the data is presented graphically to observe the pattern on these environmental stressors. Based on the results, the ergonomic posture analysis for three staff were not in good condition with the RULA final score average of 6, further improvement is needed to improve staff working condition. For environmental stress exposure, result shows that afternoon session is having higher heat exposure compared to morning session. While for noise level shows about average of 85 dBA – 95dBA and CO2 gas is the highest gas expose with average of 2700ppm but not exceed the PEL OSHA. Therefore, this study will raise the awareness regarding safety in the welding bay among staffs and further improvement should be taken in future.