Effect of pipette design on musculoskeletal loading on hand

Manual pipetting is still the main task laboratory technicians in the areas of chemistry, biology, and medicine perform daily. Prolonged manual pipetting may lead to Repetitive Stress Disorders (RSDs), Cumulative Trauma Disorders (CTDs), or other musculoskeletal injuries due to force, repetitive movements, and awkward postures of the fingers and wrist. The purpose of this study is to evaluate different types of manual pipettes based on muscle activities and subjective discomforts. Specifically, thumb-push and finger-push pipettes are compared in several pipetting tasks. Digital Human Modeling (DHM) was also utilized to compare the two pipette designs. The results from both experimental analysis and DHM showed that the finger-push design is more ergonomically-friendly and can reduce reduced muscle activities and discomfort in hand, arm and shoulder. We expect that the application of this study will contribute to the reduction of pain associated with pipetting by improving pipette design guidelines.