Use of an Artificial Test Track to Declare Field WBV Tractors Data by Manufacturer

As requested by Directive 2002/44/EC the employer have to declare vibration level exposure of his employees. This is a problem never solved related to the field tractor WBV data declaration. Also if for the Italian law the employers may use manufacturers’ WBV data, it must be clarified that these data are only obtained in laboratory, as requested by standards, to guarantee high repeatability and reproducibility values. If manufacturers could use a standard WBV measurement criterion to simulate the field operations, it should be sufficient to measure vibration values with this method and then to write them in the machine instructions. In this way the employer can be reassured for the WBV data declaration, which is mandatory by law, but which is difficult to retrieve correctly because it depends on mass and geometry of the vehicle, speed of travel, pressure of the tires, type of ground, performed operational cycle. In this article the first results of WBV values measured on a agricultural tractor travelling on the artificial test track (ISO 5008) and on the grass are given.