The assessment of the sawmill noise

Abstract

Noise is a serious and widespread problem in many workplaces like in sawmill. The published data for the year 2010 about the total number of pathologies from work in Italia due to the noise, showed 5222 cases divided by sex, in fact for females there are instances in number of 221 while the male has a number of cases is equal to 4961. The aim of this work was to detect the sound level caused by the use of the machineries in a sawmill. The measurements were carried out through an instrument known as noise level meter, equipped with a microphone and connected to a computer for data processing and analysis of variance to a factor in excel, and able to assess noise levels at any particular point in the mill. The machines were subjected in relief and with several different types of wood materials. Obviously, in our case a fundamental role takes the moisture of wood. The drying operation is intended to obtain that degree of humidity of the wood, generally it must be between 7 and 16%, compatible with the type of glue used and, above all, appropriate to the target structures. The machines that have the highest sound pressure levels were trimmer and profiler, with values ranging between 85 dB(A) and 110 dB(A). Finally, it’s possible conclude that the sound pressure level increases when the aspiration equipment is turned on, the noise of machinery decreases during the processing of wood and that, increasing the thickness, decreased the noise emitted by the machine.