2 pieces of advice to improve tire changing working conditions for heavy vehicles.
February 26, 2018
With the right solution, it’s possible to improve both working conditions and quality in the heavy vehicle tire changing industry.
Changing tires on heavy vehicles, such as trucks or buses, can be physically very demanding for operators. When working conditions are not ideal (weight of the tool, noise level, vibration transmission or overall ergonomics), these can impact overall job quality and operators safety. Here are two pieces of advice to improve your operators working conditions:
1. Select ergonomic equipment
Changing tires in the heavy vehicle industry means working in a demanding environment. Therefore, setting up the best working conditions for the operators can help preventing MSDs (Musculoskeletal Disorders), linked to bad posture and unadequate equipments. It also improves significantly the quality of the job. If you are concerned by these topics, we recommend to look at the two following solutions:
- Wheel Dollies: Without a wheel dolly, operators carry and bowl the wheels manually. Designed to bring a sturdy and handy assembly aid for heavy vehicles, the use of wheel dollies allows easy removal and installation of tire/wheel assemblies, and avoids a lot of injuries for the operators.
- Ergonomic seats: Many tire workshops don’t even know about these solutions. However, it brings significant improvement in terms of operator comfort and prevent operators from having bad postures such as knees on the floor. Some specific seats are even improving job quality, thanks to integrated FRLs or tool balancers.
When choosing an ergonomic seat, check the ease of handling, the robustness, the quality and stability of the seat. More advanced solutions, like our CP87029 Ergoseat, are also designed with integrated FRLs, ensuring the right air pressure close to the tool and a tool balancer for more comfort to the operator.
2. Choose nutrunners (or pneumatic torque wrenches)
Did you know that you could use nutrunners, also called pneumatic torque wrenches? Contrary to impact wrenches, nutrunners are specifically designed with a very low (close to zero) vibration transmission and a lower noise level. (Learn more about the benefits and different types of nutrunners here)