Wireless Whole-Body Vibration Meter & Analyser in a Seat Pad Launched

Svantek (UK) has launched a wireless whole-body vibration exposure meter & analyser in a seat-pad. The innovative SV 100A automatically detects the operator and is capable of taking unattended whole-body measurements in line with ISO 8041 requirements.

Designed for the estimation of the effects of vibration on workers’ health, comfort, perception and motion sickness, Svantek’s easy to operate SV 100A can take measurements both on a vehicle’s seat-pad and seat-back. It is equipped with four push buttons and a small OLED colour display that allows basic configuration in the field.

The bluetooth interface allows current results to be previewed on a smartphone or tablet using Svantek’s Assistant Android Application. The smartphone app can also signal an alarm when set vibration limits are exceeded.

The SV 100A enables the automatic detection of an operator in the workplace. By default, the instrument is configured for seat measurements in a horizontal direction but this setting can be easily changed.

When changing the orientation of the Svantek SV 100A to the vertical, the direction of axes and weighting filters are automatically adjusted in accordance with ISO 2631-1. The device incorporates both RMS and RMQ detectors which allows the calculation of daily vibration exposure based on RMS and VDV simultaneously.

All measurement results are stored in a large 8GB internal memory which allows continuous recording over long periods. The standard 2.0 USB interface allows fast data download and is also used for battery recharging.

For advanced users, the SV 100A offers frequency analysis in 1/1 or 1/3 octaves and time signal recording to wave format for ISO 2631-5 that is compatible with popular recalculation software.

The SV 100A is fully configurable with Svantek’s Supervisor software and can be quickly and easily set up with the weighting filters required by ISO standards for the estimation of the effects of vibration on health, comfort, perception and motion sickness. The dedicated Whole-Body Vibration Exposure panel within Supervisor software makes reporting extremely easy.

Paul Rubens, Svantek’s General Manager comments: “Detailed guidelines on the measurement of whole-body vibration as described in standard ISO2631-1 implies that it is desirable for measurements to include frequency content and information about changes in conditions over time. However, practice shows that the vibration exposure values are often estimated on the basis of measurement in reference conditions without taking into consideration additional factors such as vehicle speed or road quality. This might lead to underestimation or overestimation of the vibration exposure values.

He adds: “The development of Svantek’s new SV 100A whole-body vibration exposure level meter enables correlation of GPS data with the vibration. It is capable of plotting them on a map as a coloured route where a colour indicates vibration magnitudes. This provides a powerful tool for projecting the vibration exposure in relation to the speed and route.

“The use of GPS location and speed data enables more accurate evaluation of whole-body vibration exposure risk in moving vehicles,” Paul concludes.