No matter how hard we try we can never get away from noise. It comes to us in many forms from the kids fighting and screaming in the back of the car to the noisy neighbour drilling a hole through into your kitchen at eight o’clock on a Sunday morning. I’m sure we have all been to a pop concert and come away with ringing in the ears, but it was worth it wasn’t it? It is all about controlling the noise to an acceptable level and type. Some noise sources are no louder than say a radio playing loud music but they annoy us more because of the type of noise they produce.
At Norbar we are pro-active in noise control not only making sure we produce a user-friendly product to sell but also in ensuring we maintain as quiet an environment as possible for our employees.
We work closely to "Noise at Work Regulations" to ensuring our tools are well below the first action level as quoted in the Noise at Work Regulation. This first action level is an "average" personal daily exposure of 85dBA.† On average our "Pneutorque" pistol grip tools produce 81dBA*. Even if the tool is running continuously for an 8 hour period it will not reach this first action level.
If a power tool does exceed this noise level and causes the operator to be exposed to an "average" daily dose of 85dBA, then the operator’s employer is obliged to keep records of noise levels for all employees exposed to these levels and to inform them of the levels and consequences of being exposed to these levels. They must also provide suitable hearing protection if requested. Exposure to these levels of noise can lead to permanent hearing loss. At higher levels still it becomes compulsory to wear hearing protection. This is when the "average" daily exposure reaches 90dBA.
There are many ways of tightening a bolt from using a simple wrench to using a highly sophisticated nutrunner that shuts off when the exact torque level is reached. There is obviously a wide range of alternatives in between and it is all down to price, accuracy and speed. There are few faster or cheaper than an impact gun, but apart from their poor repeatability impact guns suffer from one major fault and that is the noise levels compared to a nutrunner. A typical impact wrench will reach 90 to 98 dBA when idling, and much more when tightening the nut. This can cause operational problems for the company and possible hearing problems for the operator.
This is why we put a great deal of emphasis on lowering the noise levels of our Pneutorque nutrunners to an acceptable level.
* For more information on noise levels of Norbar products please contact our Competent "Workplace Noise Assessment" engineer tbloor@norbar.com
† For more general technical information on noise levels of hand power tools refer to the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health pages http://www.occuphealth.fi/e/dept/u/spteam/tools/en_video.htm#exposure