Biomechanical design of the knockout workstation in cattle slaughter

Abstract

Productive activities with exposure to static load cause many musculoskeletal disorders, this work analyzes and ergonomically structures the cattle slaughter workstation in the humid area of ​​Camal in the Municipality of Ambato, for this it establishes a significance analysis of the variables with BIO-mec computer tool. This research begins with a work study through field observation to identify the activities, tasks, execution times related to the cattle knockout position in the Ambato Municipal Camal in the cattle slaughter area that are related to the management manual loading and the adoption of an uncomfortable posture in its execution that can cause overload of corporal dispositions such as: joints, tendons, tendon sheaths, ligaments, muscles in the worker. Then a significance analysis of the variables determined by the BIO-mec method is carried out considering characteristics: physiological of the worker, weight of the sustained load, critical posture of the worker, duration of the efforts, angles of the body segments and the percentage of the maximum bearable load reached in each joint to establish their importance and modify the job position until complying with the limits established by Ecuadorian legislation. The design result determines a negative impact on the maximum permissible loads of elbow, shoulder, torso, hip, knee and ankle with the use of a platform adjustable to the size of the cattle, improving the posture angles of: 68.6 ° for the ankle, 132 ° for knee, 92 ° hip, 45 ° for L5 / S1, 51 ° for shoulder, 36 ° for wrist. With a suspended load of 4kg. For a worker of 170 cm, 75 kg of weight and of masculine gender.