The Magic Development of Ergonomic Office Chairs

The development and evolution of the office form makes the occupational health of office workers face increasingly serious tests, which puts forward higher requirements for the design of office equipment. Ordinary computer chairs can no longer meet our needs. Ergonomic office chairs have gradually appeared in our lives.

 

 

The research on the ergonomic design of the office chair has gone through three stages of development: primary, development, and maturity, and gradually matured, achieving the transition from "person adapts to the seat" to "seat fits the human".

 

With the advancement of science and technology and the development of society, changes in work patterns make the occupational health of office workers continue to face new challenges. Ergonomics takes the "human-machine-environment" in the office system as the overall consideration. In addition to studying how to improve labor efficiency so that people can complete their work tasks in a short period of time, it also emphasizes the comfort, safety and health of the labor subject, so that all kinds of work itself will not affect people's health for a long time, and the risk of accidents will be kept to a minimum.

 

Ergonomic office chair and office health in the primary stage

 

From the early 1960s to the early 1980s, it was the primary stage of ergonomic office chair design research. The characteristics of this stage were as follows: through anthropometric and experimental research, the static and dynamic scales of the supporting structure of the office chair were determined. Make the human body maintain a reasonable and comfortable body pressure distribution during work to ensure the health of office workers.

 

Ergonomic office chair and office health in the development stage

 

The mid-1980s to the mid-1990s were the development stage of ergonomic office chair design research. During this period, the continuous improvement of the computer network communication system has gradually increased the degree of informatization of indoor office, and the work content has become increasingly complex and tense, and the physiological conditions of the staff have withstood a greater test. Due to the etiological studies of the health problems of office workers' low back, cervical spine, muscles, bones, etc., it has been continuously confirmed that it has a close relationship with the office work in the new office form. For example, Silverstein proved that there is a preliminary exposure-effect relationship between the wrist musculoskeletal injury and frequent activities; Schoen-markin pointed out in the biomechanical model of the wrist joint that the acceleration of the wrist can significantly increase its force on the muscle bond when passing through the carpal tunnel, and this force can make the sheath degenerate. Sexual degeneration and inflammation, causing sphingitis or compression of the median nerve, causing carpal tunnel syndrome. Therefore, the problem of occupational health puts forward higher requirements for the humanized design of office equipment.

 

Based on the understanding of pathology related to sitting work, the physical engineering at this stage emphasizes "the diversity of sitting postures and the adjustability of the seat". This concept takes into account the diversification of the nature of work and the differentiation of individuals to a certain extent. Compared with the traditional sitting posture theory, it is a big improvement, but this human-computer interaction method is slightly passive with the change of work form.

 

Ergonomic office chairs and office health at the mature stage

 

The end of the 1990s has been the mature stage of ergonomic office chairs. In this stage, information office is becoming more and more popular. According to a Swedish report in 2002, 68% of men and 63% of women use computers in their daily work. Compared with traditional office, this increases the efficiency of information transmission between humans and machines, reduces the workload of workers, but also makes related occupational health problems increasingly prominent. Such as: musculoskeletal injuries, repetitive sports injuries and eye tension injuries.

 

For half a century, ergonomics has played an irreplaceable role in constructing a preventive mechanism for office workers’ labor hygiene. It enables the design of office chairs to change from "fitting people to seats" to "making seats suitable for people". The transformation of "humanized design" has continuously received new interpretations. However, there are still some shortcomings in the design and research of ergonomic office chairs. Office chairs with humanized interactive functions are often at the expense of high research and development costs, and the mid-to-high-end market positioning often keeps them away from ordinary office workers. Enabling ergonomics to serve the health office is only one element in the system for improving the occupational health of office workers. To solve the occupational health problem of workers in the information office environment, it also requires the common attention of the whole society, the care of employees by enterprises and institutions, and the care of employees. The self-protection consciousness of workers needs to further promote the ergonomics "human-material-environment" system design idea.