Aerospace Standard 6228 Developed to Support Improved Productivity and Reduce Occupational Disease Among Powered Hand Tool Operators

A joint US Department of Defense (DOD), General Services Administration (GSA) and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) project initially addressing procurement criteria for powered hand tools stimulated involvement of the SAE EG1-B Hand Tools committee and affiliated industry participants, producers of powered hand tools. It became apparent of the need to develop a standard that addresses occupational disease, productivity, life-cycle cost in the selection of Hand Power Tools. Committee efforts focused upon development of an SAE International Standard that considers productivity hand-arm vibration, noise, other safety and health factors and life-cycle costs in procurement criteria for powered hand tools. Aerospace Standard, AS 6228 Safety Requirements for Procurement, Maintenance and Use of Hand-held Powered Tools, was published in September 2014. Concurrently, a new committee, EG1-B1, Powered hand tools, productivity, Ergonomics and Safety, evolved from the EG1-B subcommittee initially formed to address this topic. The standard provides a process for semi-quantitative assessment and comparative weighting of factors including life-cycle cost, vibration, ergonomics and noise into the evaluation and procurement decision. GSA has adapted the standard in evaluation of powered hand tools and is currently making approximately 140 lower vibration/ergonomic tools available to Federal users and Aerospace Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM's), while identifying new products based on customers supply support requests. Current efforts are focused on outreach to industry and DOD; development of a technical report describing application of the AS 6228 standard and extending the processes described here to other commodities and industrial processes.