Among various manual materials handling tasks, pushing/pulling was known to be one of the risk factors for the low back and shoulder musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). This study was conducted to find out an optimal solution set of the handle height and distance for 4-wheel cart with two vertical handles. Ten male college students participated in the pushing force measurement experiment. The face-centered cube design, one of the central composite designs, was applied for the experiment, and the isometric voluntary pushing force was measured in 9 treatment conditions. The second order response surface model was predicted by using the pushing strength as a response variable, and the handle height and distance as independent factors. According to the 2nd order response model, the handle height and distance showed nonlinear relationship with the isometric pushing strength. To maximize the 2nd order response model (pushing force), the handle height and distance were optimized. The optimal handle height was 'xyphoid process height - stature’, and the optimal handle distance was ‘1.25*shoulder width’. When calculated using the anthropometric data of the subjects of this study, the optimal handle height was 115.4 ± 3.4 cm, slightly higher than the elbow height, and the handle distance was 52.9 ± 2.3 cm.

• 송영웅(대구가톨릭대학교 산업보건학과) | Young Woong Song Corresponding Author