Design and Analysis of an Ergonomic-Automated Adjustable Drafting Table

Abstract

Most of the students in engineering departments, especially architecture department, spend a lot of time while working on the drafting tables. As a result, they suffer from discomfort, back and neck pain because of the fixed dimension of the tables, which make it incompatible with their body dimensions. The present study is aimed to design an ergonomic-automated adjustable drafting table based on the anthropometric data of a randomly sample of 60 engineering students; 30 males and 30 females from engineering’s college in Applied Science Private University, Jordan. The recommended drafting table’s dimensions were the following: adjustable table height is 67 ± 8 cm, adjustable table width is 152 ± 15 cm, table depth is 84 cm and adjustable desktop angle is 0-45 ºand. Then an automated drafting table with three flexible joints was designed, constructed and operated based on mechanical design of power screws and electrical design circuits. A survey was conducted to test and validate the proposed drafting table by using a six-question questionnaire on a sample of 40 engineering students. Hypothesis testing, one sample T-test was used to analyze the data by using Minitab 16 statistical software. As a result, students prefer the proposed design which has adjustable height, width and desk top inclination with automated mechanism more than the current fixed one. So the musculoskeletal disorder in the affected parts of the body will be decreased.