Seat Bolster Design and Discomfort in Agricultural Equipment

Recorded on September 16, 2020

With the NC Occupational Safety and Health Education and Research Center

Webinar Navigation

Seat Bolster Design and Discomfort in Agricultural Equipment

About the Webinar:

This webinar will examine discomfort related to the design of seat bolsters in agricultural machinery and the scope of an upcoming research study on this topic. This is an under served segment, with little research quantifying the impact of seat bolsters. Learners will explore background information, study design, subjective measurements including the Automotive Seating Discomfort Questionnaire (ASDQ) and the Nordic Questionnaire, and objective measurements including pressure mean and max taken from a seat pan pressure map, and pressure gradient data.

Learning Objectives

  1. Describe how seat bolster height and size may affect subjective user discomfort and pressure distribution
  2. Recognize how bolster height and size may change response variables in people of different anthropometry
  3. Discuss how rear-ward facing and angled driving situations may affect subjective user discomfort and pressure distributions
  4. Identify the efficacy of pressure rating in predicting subjective comfort among users

Instructor: Clayton Hutmacher

Clayton Hutmacher graduated from North Carolina State University with a Bachelor’s of Science in Industrial Engineering in December 2018. He is currently a NIOSH Trainee and MSIE student in Human Systems in Engineering at North Carolina State University. His interest in agricultural machinery and seating is derived from an internship with John Deere and their ergonomics staff.

NC Occupational Safety and Health Education and Research Center