Ergonomic evaluation of a sugarcane harvesting machine

The objective of this work was to evaluate a sugarcane harvesting machine, operating in a sugarcane plant located at Barra Bonita, State of Sao Paulo, in January 2007, which presented the best performance during the 2006/2007 crop season. The ergonomic evaluation was accomplished dased at the recommendations of the "Ergonomic Guidelines for Forest Machines" (Skogforsk, 1999), which grades each item into five classes: A, B, C, D or 0 (zero). The best ergonomic rate was achieved by the following items: wide visibility, operator seat and temperature control in work post. The items work post, illumination, commands and instruments, noise level and operator's manual were ranked as C. Gas exhaustion was classified as D. The visibility of the stem base was the worst ranked item, classified as 0 (zero). Therefore, the machine obtained an overall ergonomic classification as C, which indicates the possibility of a productive work if a few structure items are adjusted.