THE universal device

In recent years, two European Directives aiming at protecting the workforce against "physical agents" entered into force and have subsequently been transposed into national legislation: 2003/10/EC for noise and 2002/44/EC for vibrations.

Trigger values and exposure limits were determined for hand-arm and whole body vibrations in order to ensure protection of the workforce against harmful effects of vibrations.

The vibration stress at the workplace is based on 8 hours as a daily exposure (value) A(8) and is evaluated by comparing with trigger values/exposure limits. The evaluation criterion for hand-arm vibrations is the vibration total value from the frequency-evaluated accelerations of all three directions of vibration, for whole body vibrations the greatest effective value of the frequency-evaluated acceleration 1,4 a_wx, 1,4 a_wy, a_wz (z-direction = direction of the spine).

Measurements must be made using the latest technology. This means that for HAV the standards EN ISO 5349 and for WBV EN 14253 must be applied.