Agricultural activities have always been associated with hazards and injuries. Most common injuries experienced by workers are health, safety and ergonomic injuries. It stems from many causes, such as the use of manual tools, incorrect working position, inadequate rest and overloading. This paper aims to reveal the daily hazardous work task of oil palm plantation workers with highlighting the ergonomics problems and risk of injury they faced. Observations of work tasks and distribution of Modified Nordic Questionnaire (MNQ) were performed for every work unit. Worker’s activities and posture while performing work tasks were recorded extensively using camera and video recordings for ergonomics analysis. Results from the observation and questionnaire survey conducted, showed that oil palm plantation workers are exposed to the risk of dangerous work every day. Fresh fruit bunches cutter and loose fruit collectors were having highest body pain complaints and almost from them are having low back pain problems. Therefore, it is necessary for an immediate action from the management in order to determine the current prevalence of ergonomic injuries. Using of manual tools should be avoided and plantation workers should be provided with ergonomics machines that can help them reduce their workload and injuries.
The main purpose of this study was to establish the comfort zone for bus drivers in a seated position. In addition, this study is to investigate the seated pressure distribution among Malaysian bus drivers. The study consists of 10 bus drivers randomly selected to be a part of this study. The FSA pressure mat was utilized in order to investigate the force distribution of buttock to the seat pan of the drivers’ seat. This device is placed on the driver seat and backrest. Later, the subject would sit on for several minute. The finding reveals that most of the bus drivers feel discomfort by having low back pain and musculoskeletal disorder. The seat pressure distribution of Malaysian busses indicated that the seat not able to absorb high pressure generated from buttock that later may cause the discomfort and restricted the performance of drivers.
Proses penyahikatan pelarut telah diterima dengan meluas dalam proses pengacuanan suntikan logam (MIM) berdasarkan kemampuannya meningkatkan proses penyahikatan. Bahan pengikat boleh larut yang dikeluarkan dari jasad anum akan menghasilkan liang-liang yang akan membantu meningkatkan kadar penyahikatan terma. Kertas ini membentangkan pengoptimuman proses penyahikatan pelarut dengan menggunakan kaedah Taguchi. Pengaruh pembolehubah penyahikatan pelarut seperti suhu pelarut, taburan saiz partikel, beban serbuk dan tekanan penyuntikan juga dibincangkan. Dua jenis serbuk SS316L digunakan dalam kajian ini iaitu serbuk pengatoman gas dan pengatoman air. Kajian ini mendapati bahawa suhu pelarut memainkan peranan yang sangat penting dalam proses penyahikatan
pelarut dan menyumbang sebanyak 91.602% (bagi serbuk pengatoman gas) dan 84.978% (bagi serbuk pengatoman air) terhadap kadar pengeluaran bahan pengikat. Bagaimanapun, taburan saiz partikel serbuk hanya menyumbangkan sebanyak 6.638% dan 12.228% bagi serbuk pengatoman gas dan pengatoman air masing-masing terhadap kadar pengeluaran bahan pengikat. Suhu pelarut menunjukkan tahap signifikan yang sangat tinggi iaitu α = 0.005 bagi kedua-dua jenis serbuk tersebut. Walau bagaimanapun, taburan saiz partikel serbuk SS316L menunjukkan tahap signifikan yang sederhana iaitu α = 0.025 dan α = 0.01 bagi kedua-dua padatan serbuk tersebut.