期刊名称：Annals of Agricultural and Environmental Medicine
印刷版ISSN：1232-1966
电子版ISSN：1898-2263
出版年度：2019
卷号：26
期号：3
页码：1-7
DOI：10.26444/aaem/109751
出版社：Institute of Agricultural Medicine in Lublin
摘要：Introduction. Winter pruning is a cultivation practice necessary for maintaining the balance between the vegetative and
the productive activity of plants and requires many working days using hand scissors. This operation involves the subjects
carrying out a series of gestures that are repeated with considerable frequency, which are all musculo-skeletal disorders
risk factors (MSDs) for the hand-wrist area.
Objective. The aim of this study was to investigate the forces applied to pruning tools.
Materials and method. Using a sensor matrix, peak and average forces were measured which are exerted while cutting
branches of 3 different diameters, from 5 wine-grape cultivars. Samples were tested on 8 participants using sensored scissors
to record, in 6 hand areas, the forces necessary to cut.
Results. Results showed that while cutting, the factors which can impact the force employed (peak and average forces)
by the subjects are branch diameter and percentage of branch humidity. Cut duration was inversely related to the size of
the subject’s hand. The middle finger area of the hand recorded the highest force average and peak levels, while the hand
region least affected during the cuts was the farthest from the thumb.
Conclusions. The study enabled the highlighting of which factors influence the forces employed by the operator while
cutting grape branches, and to identify the hand regions where muscle activation is at its most. These findings can be
relevant in preventing MSDs. Further studies need to be conducted with a larger number of subjects.
