Ergonomic Assessment of Excavator Seat

This study investigated the factors that affect sitting discomfort of excavator seat. There were 20 male professional excavator operators served as the subjects. Firstly, they were asked to assess the static features of the two seats. Secondly, there were two body part discomfort questionnaires to be filled out. One is at the beginning and the other is at the end of an operation period of 3 hours. During the 3 hours operation period, subjects were asked to dig a gutter on ground and then to fill in the gutter repeatedly. The results showed that seat type did significantly affect mean body part discomfort and mean subjective preference score. Seat C resulted in lower body part discomfort and better subjective preference score than that of seat K. In summary, greater adjustment range of seat features and better adjustment mechanism of seat can meet operators’ more requirements and then decrease body part discomfort and increase subjective preference.