ISO/TC 108/WG 33 - Human response to vibration - Measuring instrumentation

This document specifies minimum requirements for personal vibration exposure meters (PVEM). This document is applicable to instruments designed for measurements of whole-body vibration in the context of industrial hygiene applications (according to ISO 2631-1, ISO 2631-2 and ISO 2631-4) and/or hand-arm vibration (according to ISO 5349-1) together with the associated exposure times. This document provides specified design goals and permitted tolerances that define the minimum performance capabilities and functional requirements of instruments designed to measure personal daily vibration exposure. This document does not apply to instruments designed to measure or log exposure times without also performing vibration measurement. Instrumentation of this type is described in ISO/TR 19664.

The assessment of human exposure to vibration, to both the hand-arm system and the whole body, at the workplace relies on the combined evaluation of both vibration magnitudes and exposure times. Determining these values can employ various instrumentation types and data sources. ISO/TR 19664:2017 provides guidance and explanation of concepts used for the following: - measurement processes; - instrumentation types; - vibration magnitude source.

ISO 8041-1:2017 specifies the performance specifications and tolerance limits for instruments designed to measure vibration values, for the purpose of assessing human response to vibration. It includes requirements for pattern evaluation, or validation, periodic verification and in situ checks, and the specification of vibration calibrators for in situ checks. Vibration instruments specified in this document can be single instruments, combinations of instrumentation or computer-based acquisition and analysis systems. Vibration instruments specified in this document are intended to measure vibration for one or more applications, such as the following: - hand-transmitted vibration (see ISO 5349‑1); - whole-body vibration (see ISO 2631‑1, ISO 2631‑2 and ISO 2631‑4); - low-frequency whole-body vibration in the frequency range from 0,1 Hz to 0,5 Hz (see ISO 2631‑1). Vibration instruments can be designed for measurement according to one or more of the frequency weightings defined within each of these applications. Three levels of performance testing are defined in this document: a) pattern evaluation or validation: pattern evaluation, i.e. a full test of the instrument against the specifications defined in this document; validation of one-off instruments, i.e. a limited set of tests of an individual vibration measuring system against the relevant specifications defined in this document; b) periodic verification, i.e. an intermediate set of tests designed to ensure that an instrument remains within the required performance specification; c) in situ checks, i.e. a minimum level of testing required to indicate that an instrument is likely to be functioning within the required performance specification.