The Assessment of a Two-Handed Pinch Force: Quantifying Different Anthropometric Pinch Grasp Patterns for Males and Females

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-2017

School

Construction and Design

Abstract

In industrial applications, it is essential to describe and estimate the distinctive nature or features of grip force so as to optimize tool, machine grip, and/or handle designs. Most of the industrial machine's handles require two hands pinch grip force exertion, however, most of the existing research focused on one hand pinch grip force. Each different machine handle's design requires definitely different anthropometric grasp types based on the machine handle shape. This study is therefore aims at examining and investigating the influence of pinch grip pattern, pinch grip width, gender, lean body mass (LBM), body mass index (BMI), and hand dimensions on pinch grip forces by conducting two-hand experiment using a custom-designed measuring tool. Three different types of anthropometric pinch grasp patterns were tested, which are: lateral (key), chuck, and pulp-2. Pinch grips were tested for static maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) forces using a two hands in a snap-type action at two different widths (3.8 cm and 6.8 cm) among forty-six volunteers. The two-handed pinch grip force was also quantified by developing regression models for each anthropometric pinch grasp pattern. The results showed that the pinch grip force was affected by: the pinch grasp pattern, pinch grip width, gender, and hand dimensions. Chuck and lateral pinch forces were not significantly different from each other. Pulp-2 pinch had the lowest pinch forces for males and females. Individuals' medical indexes were calculated to study their significance on the pinch grip force. It was noticed that the LBM index has a significant effect on the pinch grip force compared to the BMI.

Publication Title

International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics

Volume

58

First Page

38

Last Page

46

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