Ergonomics and Cable Testing

Safety in the workplace means more than just identifying and eliminating hazards. Maintaining good employee health is important to company morale and production. An employee bent over testing cables for hours or leaning across a table to thread a wire through a harness could experience chronic pain not easily alleviated. Addressing problems that cause employees to become unhealthy will result in a more comfortable workplace and better production.

What is the cure?

Sometimes the solution to chronic muscle pain can be something as simple as changing the angle of a table or the setup of some equipment. The following options may help give you ideas for improving the ergonomics of your work environment.

Find an Angle

Have you ever walked through an art festival? If you have, you may have noticed painters hard at work on their projects. But not every artist uses the same technique. Some have their canvases tilted on easels. Others lay their canvases flat on a table. Each artist has a preferred method that allows them to work for long periods of time without getting tired or sore, or losing focus.

Employees at a cable shop can use similar techniques to help relieve stress and pain as they build and test cables. For example, Cirris sells tilt stands that allow test technicians to use the tester at an angle. Other shops have preferred to mount their testers at eye level or even cut holes in a table and fix the tester so it lies flush with the surface.

The position and angle of the tester can make employees more comfortable as they are working. You may have to experiment in order to find the best position possible for your tester and equipment.

Keep it Clean

A clean work environment can eliminate stress and decrease chances for injury. Cleanliness can mean everything from removing clutter from workspaces to organizing equipment. Certain tools are available to help accomplish this task.

For companies that test large, complex harnesses, the equipment can easily become cumbersome. Employees may have to work with fixturing stretched across long distances or with an unmanageable number of test points.  For scenarios like these, the solution may lie with custom products. For example, the Cirris Customs Team has created racks, carts, and other custom products to help organize complex projects. Testers stacked neatly in carts are much more manageable than having to deal with each tester at a time.

For smaller projects, items such as Cirris Frame Mount Stands and Cards give test technicians an alternate way of connecting adapters to the tester. These stands can create space for the wires and other fixturing needed to use certain adapters, thereby cleaning up the space normally cluttered on a desktop.

Complete Ergonomic Facility

Not only should those who test cables feel safe and comfortable, but those who build the cables should also know that their health and security is taken care of. Companies like Pro-Line build products to help.

Like the tilt stand, a proper wire harness bench can relieve muscle tension and aching. The workstations built by Pro-Line were made specifically to be incorporated for a more ergonomic-friendly shop. The wire harness benches can tilt so they lay at the perfect angle for the employee.

Improve Your Shop

Making employees feel safe and comfortable at work may sound like a daunting task, but the right tools can help improve any situation. For information on any of the products listed in this article, contact your Cirris Representative.