Design and Development of an Ergonomic Chair for Students in Educational Settings

Abstract

Background: Proper designing of chairs based on ergonomics increases efficiency, promotes quality of education, leads to correct posture in students, and reduces risk of musculoskeletal disorders. Objectives: The aim of this study was to design and develop an ergonomic chair, based on anthropometric data of students in educational settings. Methods: Anthropometric parameters were obtained from a stratified-random sample of 207 students. The data were analyzed using the SPSS 20 software, and the results were extracted as mean, standard deviation, and percentiles. The chair was planned in the CATIA software and developed by a three-dimensional print. Results: In this study, an ergonomic chair was designed based on anthropometric data from students. The seat height, depth, and width of the chair were determined as 44 cm, 42 cm, and 42.15 cm, respectively. The height of the desk was adjustable in 19 to 29 cm, and the depth and length of the desk were considered as 51 cm and 65 cm. The width and height of the backrest were also 54 cm and 44 cm, and the backrest angle was adjustable in 95°to 105°. Conclusions: An ergonomic chair with adjustable parts was designed to achieve a well-match between anthropometric characteristics of students and the furniture. Such chair can reduce musculoskeletal disorders in students. Some ergonomic characteristics of this chair include adjustability of footrest, backrest, armrests, and desk. A chair with such characteristic can be used by many students with different body sizes.

Designing School Tables and Chairs based on Anthropometry of Elementary School Students in Surabaya

“…The mismatch between chair width and buttock popliteal length leads students to have bad contact with backrest, so it causes pain in back and shoulders (Ansari, Nikpay and Varmazyar, 2018). The change of seat width size to be more ergonomic is needed due to the mismatch of chair width with poplitealto-buttock size.…”

“…This is in line with previous research which states that the backrest length is at least more than 95 percentile of the dimension of shoulder width (Pérez-gosende, 2017). Another study in Iran uses 95th percentile of the shoulder width for the backrest length proposed size (Ansari, Nikpay and Varmazyar, 2018). Moreover, research in India suggests a length of 420 mm (Wilson and Desai, 2017).…”

Design of Classroom Furniture for Use at Tertiary Institutions

“…Various studies have shown that the ill-fitted design of classroom furniture have contributed to the high incidence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) among school children (Musa & Ismaila, 2014). Improper design of chairs is one of the reasons of in appropriate sitting positions, which can lead to bad posture, fatigue, severe psychological stress and effects on students' performance (Ansari, et al, 2018). One more study demonstrated that wrongly designed school chairs and tables induce poor postures, leading to operational uneasiness and some musculoskeletal among students (Macedo et al, 2015).…”

Ergonomic Work System Design Using Kansei Engineering Approach

“…One of the research is about designing classroom furniture to reduce the negative impact of poor posture in the classrooms [7]. Another research is about designing an ergonomic chair to reduce musculoskeletal disorders in students [8]. Work system improvement can also be made by changing the layout of facilities and by rearranging work equipment [9].…”