Ergonomics links the interrelationships, coordination and humanization among people, research objects and the environment, with the aim of achieving the optimization of safety, health, comfort and work efficiency. Its main purposes are threep: First, to make people work more effectively; Second, it makes people work more safely; Third, it makes people work more comfortably. Ergonomics originated in Europe and was developed in the United States. It is also known as human ergonomics or human-machine engineering. It is a marginal science that comprehensively applies knowledge from physiology, psychology, hygiene, anthropometry and other related fields to study the interaction among people, machines and the environment in production systems. Through the research on human body functions, energy consumption, fatigue levels, and the relationship between the environment and efficiency during work, it scientifically designs the working environment, facilities and tools, and determines reasonable operation methods, thereby improving work efficiency.
Although the study of work efficiency falls within the realm of management engineering, it should also be given sufficient attention in the design processes of mechanical and electrical engineering. A good human-machine-environment system helps to reduce the objective factors of operator errors and is conducive to preventing and reducing errors caused by subjective or social factors.
The Application of Ergonomics in the Design Process of Electronic Weighing Instruments
In the actual design process of electronic weighing instruments, as most designers focus on the functionality and processability of the products, while paying less attention to the operability and maintainability of the products in the later stage, it results in the need for operation and maintenance personnel to adapt to some unreasonable designs of the products during use, which greatly affects the user experience. It even affected the actual usage effect of the product. Therefore, in the design process of electronic weighing instruments, if the relevant knowledge of ergonomics can be fully considered, and the design of people, the working site environment, hardware (tools, equipment and workplace) can be linked to people's physical strength, body shape and operating habits, electronic weighing instruments can be made more suitable for operators, easier to produce, manufacture, operate and maintain, and reduce operational errors and harm to health. Enhance safety, reliability and work efficiency, and extend the service life of equipment.
The following elaborates on the specific application of ergonomics theory in the product design process from three aspects.
1.1 Bearing Design
1.1.1 Installation Positions of load cells and limit devices, etc. During the design and production process of the load cell, in addition to considering the strength and the processability of production and processing, from an ergonomic perspective, the installation positions of load cells, limit devices and connection devices should be easy to install, observe, maintain, adjust and replace parts. For instance, in the early design of truck scales, the installation positions of the load cells and limit devices were inside the load-bearing units. It was necessary to open the cover plate on the load-bearing panel to carry out relevant operations, which was very unfavorable for the use and maintenance of truck scales. In recent years, the installation positions of load cells and limit devices have mostly been changed to external designs. The load-bearing panel no longer needs to be drilled, and it is convenient for observation and maintenance.
1.1.2 Prevent the generation of air pollutants
During the operation of weighing instruments (especially some specialized weighing instruments, such as quantitative packaging scales and non-continuous cumulative scales, etc.), it is necessary to prevent the generation of air pollutants such as dust and hazardous gases. Therefore, the dust removal and sealing of the load-bearing devices (especially the connection parts of each component) are particularly important