Design and Simulation Ergonomically Sewing Chair for Garment Manufacturing Workers

Abstract

In garment-making industries, workers have to work for more than eight hours continually either by sitting or by standing in one position. Therefore, stress is developed in their bodies, which might lead to musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). The purposed of this paper is to explain the design and simulation of an ergonomic sewing chair workstation for workers at garments manufacturing, Rivatex East Africa Limited (REAL), Eldoret, Kenya. The SOLIDWORKS 2023 software (design and simulation tool), was used to develop an ergonomic design of the sewing chair workstation based on the worker’s anthropometric data. The model of an ergonomically sewing chair was simulated using SOLIDWORKS software based on Finite Element Analysis (FEA) test with a deformation scale of 30,050.2 to check its ability to withstand the weight of the human body. The loads applied were 800 N on the base seat and 150 N on the backrest of the seat. The aluminium alloy 1060 was selected for FEA test with a yield strength of 2.757e + 01 N/mm² and tensile strength of 6.893e + 01 N/mm². The FEA criteria included stress, displacement, strain and Factor of Safety (FOS). The FEA results showed that the aluminium model passed the test satisfactorily, due to the many criteria: the maximum stress is 7.175e-01 N/mm² and does not exceed the yield strength of the material, which was acceptable; the maximum displacement was 3.209e–03 mm, thus, the maximum deformation becomes 0.03209 mm, which was below the assigned safety level; the maximum strain established from the results was 6.258e-06 which was can be considered within the range for the material, which meant that the model would not break or fail due the applied loads. It was also established from the results that there was a minimum FOS distribution value of 3 from the model analysis. This implied that the model needs 3 times of loads applied to deform the selected material, which could be considered within the range safety limits. This research study can be extended by fabricating and manufacturing the proposed sewing chair model and validating the sewing chair design by experimental study.

Keywords: Sewing chair, Ergonomic design, Simulation, FEA, SOLIDWORKS Simulation.

DOI: 10.7176/ISDE/14-1-07

Publication date: September 30^th 2024