Functional design method for improving safety and ergonomics of mechanical products

Abstract

In order to help companies to improve their compete-tiveness, it is important to develop new design metho-dologies. In this framework, a Functional And Ro-bust Design (FARD) methodology dedicated to rou-tine design of " highly productive " modular product ranges is proposed including principles of functional analysis, Design For Assembly (DFA), and techniques of modelling and simulation for ergonomics consi-deration. This paper focuses on the application of this original method applied to mechanical vibration and ergonomics problems of a scraper. Including biome-chanical aspect in the design methodology, it is possi-ble to identify the impact of a vibration tool on its users using numerical models of the tool coupled to a finite element model of the human hand. This method can proactively warn very early, in the design process, the risks of causing musculoskeletal disorders and facilitate an optimization of the mechanical tool. This study is a first step in a context of human-centered design.