Applied Ergonomics 32 (2001) 271}279

A system for the measurement of grip forces and applied

moments during hand tool use夽
Raymond W. McGorry*
Liberty Mutual Research Center for Safety and Health, 71 Frankland Road, Hopkinton, MA 01748, USA
Accepted 9 September 2000

Abstract

Quanti"cation of the forces applied with or by hand tools can be a di$cult but important component of an ergonomic evaluation.
This paper describes a device for measuring gripping forces and the moments generated by a hand tool. Laboratory characterization
indicated that the device had good linearity (r"0.999) with minimal hysteresis or creep. The working range exceeds 700 N for
gripping forces, and 28 and 16 Nm for the two applied moment axes. The device, con"gured as a boning knife, was sensitive to
di!erences in grip forces and applied moments in a simulated meat cutting task requiring distinct levels of precision. Signi"cant
individual variation in the `e$ciencya of grip force was also observed. The system design is #exible, allowing for additional tool
con"gurations.  2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Grip force; Hand tools; Exposure

1. Introduction primary factors assessed at the workplace. Direct obser-

Hand tools were involved in 9% of compensable
work-related injuries in 1984, of which the upper extremi-
ties were the body parts injured in greater than half the
cases (Mital, 1991). In industries such as poultry process-
ing and automobile upholstering, where hand tools are
used extensively, the incidence of upper extremity mus-
culoskeletal disorders (UEMSDs) can be much greater
than the average (US Department of Labor, 1996). The
etiology of UEMSDs is not completely de"ned and
a quantitative dose-response relationship to risk factors
has not been de"nitively established; however, there is
su$cient knowledge of the primary physical risk factors
to guide assessment and design of tasks assumed to pose
excessive risk. This leads to a focus on reducing exposure
to risk factors rather than on achieving a threshold limit
(Dempsey et al., 2000B). Force, posture, and temporal
characteristics (i.e., frequency, rest breaks) are the
夽
All funding was provided by the Liberty Mutual Research Center
for Safety and Health, a department of the Liberty Mutual Insurance
Company.
*Tel.: #1-508-435-9061 x308; fax: #1-508-435-8136.
E-mail address: raymond.mcgorry@libertymutual.com
(R.W. McGorry).
vation can be used to capture the postural and temporal
demands of work, but quantitative assessment of force is
only possible through direct measurement.
An ergonomic evaluation should include estimates of
the force requirements and the repetitiveness of the task
being analyzed (Silverstein et al., 1986). One approach
has been to instrument the workpiece, or place the work-
piece or operator on a force plate (Freivalds and Eklund,
1993; Kihlberg et al., 1993; Lindqvist, 1993). This tech-
nique is appropriate for a stationary workpiece and
a well-constrained work area, but may be less than ideal
when the workpiece is non-stationary, inconsistent in
nature, or does not lend itself to instrumentation. An-
other approach has been the direct instrumentation of
hand tools such as plate shears, knives, pliers, and screw-
drivers (Kilbom et al., 1993; McGorry et al., 2000;
Murphy et al., 2000; Stoy and Aspen, 1999; Dempsey
et al., 2000A). This approach is not limited to a speci"c
workpiece or work station, but utility can be limited by
tool speci"city.
The techniques described above provide data about
the forces acting at the tool}workpiece interface, but
provide no information about the nature of the
hand}tool interface. Handle features, such as diameter,
length, shape, and surface texture (Kadefors et al.,
1993; Freivalds, 1996) or the presence of contaminants,

0003-6870/01/$ - see front matter  2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 0 0 3 - 6 8 7 0 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 0 6 2 - 4
272 R.W. McGorry / Applied Ergonomics 32 (2001) 271}279
vibration, and gloves may alter the hand/tool interface
and thus the grip force required to maintain equilibrium.
In order to maintain equilibrium of the handle within the
hand, the gripping force must be su$cient to counteract
the reactive moments or forces. The minimum grip force
necessary to maintain equilibrium is equal to the grip
force component normal to the handle surface, multi-
plied by the coe$cient of static friction between the
handle material and the hand (and any contaminants).
The safety margin, the di!erence between the actual and
theoretical minimum grip force, represents the `bu!era
used to protect against unexpected perturbations (West-
ling and Johansson, 1984). While an adequate safety
margin is important for safe use of the tool, excessive grip
forces, particularly during highly repetitive motions,
could potentially lead to musculoskeletal injury (Lowe
and Freivalds, 1999).
Several approaches to the measurement of grip force
have been reported, each with its advantages and disad-
vantages. Force-sensitive resistors (FSRs) and pressure-
sensitive materials have been used to measure force and
pressure distributions at the hand}handle interface (Fel-
lows and Freivalds, 1989; Yun et al., 1992; Hall, 1997).
Though the sensors are relatively inexpensive and easy to
apply, an array of sensors generally must be used and
individually calibrated. The interposition of the sensor
material may also alter the properties of the hand}handle
interface. FSRs and pressure-sensitive materials may be
well suited for the evaluation of the force or pressure
distributions associated with di!erent handle shapes and
textures, but are less than ideal for capturing real-time
grip force data during hand tool use.
Electromyography (EMG) has been used to estimate
grip forces during tool use (Duque et al., 1995; Grant and
Habes, 1997). This approach is complicated by the fact
that EMG to force ratios vary with wrist and upper
extremity posture and grip type (Grant and Habes, 1997).
While EMG has great potential, there are many technical
challenges to its use for estimation of grip force during
dynamic tasks in the workplace.
Direct instrumentation of an actual or simulated tool
handle has typically involved splitting the handle into
opposing sections (Radwin and Oh, 1992; Grant, 1994;
Kinoshita et al., 1996; Lowe and Freivalds, 1999).
A split-handle design is appropriate when the force ap-
plication is normal to the opposing handle sections, such
as with a simple pinch grip task. However, this criterion
"ts only a small minority of potential tool handle and
gripping style conditions, and thus has limited applica-
tion in the workplace.
Clearly, knowledge of applied moments and grip forces
associated with hand tool use is important in the identi-
"cation of high-risk techniques or task elements. This
information is also important in the analysis of the rela-
tionship between force exposure and injury, and variabil-
ity of individual responses to exposures (Burdo! and van
der Beek, 1999). Yet, as Duque et al. (1995) noted, the
measurement of grip force needs further development in
order to be of practical use in the workplace. The focus of
this paper is on the development of a system that can
simultaneously resolve grip forces and applied moments
produced using non-powered, single-handled tools, and
an evaluation of the utility of the proposed device under
simulated working conditions.
2. Method
2.1. Hardware
Several design criteria were proposed for the grip sen-
sor. The device should:
(1) be small enough to "t within a wide array of tool
handles;
(2) resolve grip forces for a wide array of hand place-
ments or gripping techniques;
(3) measure throughout the operating range of a variety
of hand tools;
(4) be robust enough to withstand the rigors of "eld and
laboratory use;
(5) accept a wide array of end e!ectors (i.e. knife blades,
hammerheads, screw driver blades).
Several other factors were considered in the design
process. The location, distribution, and direction of ap-
plication of gripping forces can vary due to the shape and
diameter of the handle, the type of grip employed, the
task requirements, and individual di!erences. When the
handle is cylindrical in shape, a more radial-oriented
force distribution might be anticipated. A power grip
about an elliptical or rectangular handle cross section
might be expected to generate the greatest forces along
the major axis. When the tool is used to produce a mo-
ment about the long axis, such as with a screwdriver,
a large tangential or shearing force component might be
expected at the hand}handle interface. Finally, gripping
forces may not be evenly distributed along the long axis
of the tool.
Several design options were considered. A split-handle
design involving two opposing beams was rejected due to
the limited range of application. An orthogonal con"g-
uration of four beams, potentially capable of resolving
radial-directed grip forces, was rejected because shear
forces applied to two beams oriented 1803 apart would
not be detected. A symmetrical arrangement of three
beams (oriented at 1203 about the center) was selected
because with this con"guration, radial forces applied at
any point of the tool handle could be resolved. Thin foil
strain gauges were selected for this application, because
they can provide the necessary sensitivity and linearity, in
a con"ned space, for a reasonable cost. A full Wheatstone
bridge of four strain gauges sensitive only to strain in
 R.W. McGorry / Applied Ergonomics 32 (2001) 271}279
bending in the long axis of the beam, was mounted at
each end of the three beams. This con"guration allows
resolution of the location of radial-directed forces ap-
plication and estimation of moments acting on the long
axis of the handle. The outputs from the six strain gauges
can be averaged to obtain a measure of the average or
`overalla grip force associated with a task, or can be used
independently in a static analysis to provide more de-
tailed information about the magnitude and location of
the resultant grip force vector acting on the handle.
The proposed hand tool analysis system is composed
of four major component groups: an end e!ector; a sen-
sor for measuring reactive moments applied at the end
e!ector; a grip force sensing core (grip core); and
a handle. Handles of various sizes and shapes can be
mounted to the grip core. The moment sensing end of the
handle has a "tting to accept various end e!ectors.
Fig. 1 is a perspective drawing of the grip core.
The grip core was fabricated from 15.6 mm hexagonal
bar stock (14-4 stainless steel), which was milled to create
three beams, supported at both ends, and suspended
about a hollow center. Thin foil `bendinga strain gauges
are "xed to each end of the three beams. The tool end of
the grip core has a threaded hole capable of receiving end
e!ectors such as knife blades, screwdriver bits, or even
hammer shafts and heads. A rectangular cross section
was milled into the core, between the tool end "tting and
the three suspended beams of the handle. Strain gauges
were applied to the four surfaces (one pair for moments in
the horizontal plane, one pair for moments in the vertical
Fig. 1. The perspective view illustrates the location of the six grip force
strain gauges (four visible), and four applied torque strain gauges (one
horizontal and one vertical visible). The end view demonstrates the
method of attachment of the three handle segments.
273
plane). The wires from the applied moment gauges and
from the grip force gauges on the suspended beams were
routed through the hollow center, and exit through
a hole at the `butta of the grip core.
Handles can be fabricated in one of several ways: the
actual tool handle can be bored out to accept the grip
core; the handle with simple cross sections can be milled
from solid stock; or castings can be made from molds of
handles with more complex shapes. After fabrication, the
replicate handle is split into three sections. Each handle
section can then be attached to one of the grip core
beams with screws.
2.2. System characterization
To evaluate the linearity and hysteresis of the grip
core, cyclic loading and unloading of the three beams was
performed with 12 calibrated weights (0.45}72.8 kg). To
evaluate the ability to localize the point of force applica-
tion along the longitudinal axis of the grip core the
procedure was repeated with loads applied 1.9 cm out-
board from the handle center. Creep was evaluated by
loading with a 23 kg weight for 5 min. Linearity and
hysteresis of the vertical and horizontal axes of the ap-
plied moment sensor were independently assessed by
cyclic loading and unloading with six moments
(0.65}14.35 N m). Creep was evaluated by applying
a 7.5 N m moment for 5 min in each axis. Crosstalk be-
tween the horizontal and vertical axes was evaluated and
reported as a percentage of full scale of the primary axis.
The strain gauge outputs were passed to an A/D conver-
ter which sampled the signals at 50 Hz and sent the data
to storage on the hard drive of a PC.
2.3. Experimental design
A simulation of a meat cutting task was conducted to
evaluate the performance of the device, con"gured as
a knife, see Fig. 2. The objectives of the experiment were
to determine if the system can: distinguish di!erences in
grip force and applied moment under similar, yet slightly
varying conditions; detect individual di!erences in the
performance of a task; and, provide new or novel in-
formation about a hand tool task. To this end, an experi-
mental protocol was designed to test the hypothesis that
tasks with greater precision demands, but similar applied
force requirements, would have signi"cantly di!erent
grip force requirements. A 2;2 factorial design was
used, with two levels of task precision (high and low),
and two material thickness levels (thick * 1.9 cm, and
thin * 1.25 cm). Modeling clay was selected to simulate
red meat for the cutting task. In preliminary testing, the
clay required a cutting force similar to that of sirloin and
London broil cuts of beef. Five female and "ve male
subjects between the ages of 18 and 65 yr of age con-
sented to participate in the study.
274 R.W. McGorry / Applied Ergonomics 32 (2001) 271}279
Fig. 2. Photograph of the device con"gured as the knife used in the clay cutting task.
The knife blade was thoroughly sharpened prior to the
test session. A wooden cutting board was placed at a 153
presentation toward the subject. The work stand was
adjusted so that the clay was 20 cm below the lateral
epicondyle of the subject's preferred arm. The subject was
asked to practice cutting thick and thin clays until com-
fortable with the experimental protocol. Next, a thick or
thin clay slab was randomly selected, and the subject was
instructed to make four vertical cuts entirely through the
slab (10 cm wide), pausing brie#y between cuts. The pro-
cedure was repeated for the alternate clay thickness level.
Next the subject was randomly presented with a thick or
thin clay, approximately 15 cm in width. Two horizontal
lines were marked on the clay, 10 cm apart. The subject
was instructed to make four vertical cuts completely
through the clay, but was instructed to cut precisely
between the two horizontal lines. The procedure was
repeated using the alternate thickness level. No instruc-
tions regarding the speed of task were given. The knife
blade was brie#y sharpened between each of the 10 test
sessions. Data for each trial (four cuts) were sampled for
30 s at 100 Hz and stored in computer memory.
2.4. Data analysis
Pearson correlation coe$cients were calculated to de-
termine the strength of the correspondence between the
grip forces used to the knife handle and the reactive
moment between the knife blade for all 40 trials (10
subjects;2 task precision levels;2 clay thickness levels).
Next, data for each trial were displayed on the computer
screen, and the time of the start and end of the applied
vertical moment was determined for each of the four
cutting repetitions. The six grip force channels were aver-
aged to determine the `overalla grip force at each data
point. The next analysis was to test for di!erences in grip
force and cutting moment under the two levels of task
precision. The di!erence was expected to be greatest at
the beginning of the cut, where the subject would have to
carefully insert the blade in the clay precisely at the top
line during the high-precision trials, as opposed to the
minimal care required for the low-precision trials. Fol-
lowing the initial cut, little di!erence was anticipated
between the two task levels. The initial 25% of each
cutting trial was selected for comparison for the e!ect of
task precision. The mean overall grip force and applied
vertical moment were calculated for the initial segments
of each cut. Di!erences in grip force and cutting moment
due to the main e!ects of task precision, and clay thick-
ness, were analyzed using a single factor ANOVA.
Lowe and Freivalds (1999) calculated the ratio of grip
force and required force for a pinch grip task to evaluate
individual di!erences in pinch grip `e$ciencya or coord-
ination. This approach was adopted to evaluate indi-
vidual di!erences in knife gripping e$ciency. The ratio of
the grip force to the applied moment (grip}moment ratio)
 R.W. McGorry / Applied Ergonomics 32 (2001) 271}279 275

Table 1
Grip and applied torque sensor characterization

Grip force Applied torque

units units Lateral Cutting

Linearity r '0.99 r '0.99 '0.99

Working range N 712 Nm 9.60 19.60
Theoretical limit N 1113 Nm 16.95 28.25
Hysteresis % FS 0.15 % FS 1.59 0.70
Creep @ 5 min % FS (0.1% % FS 0.17 0.15
Crosstalk N/A % FS 0.86 0.47
(of cutting) (of lateral)

% FS"percent of full scale.

for the initial segment of the means of the four repetitions

of cutting was calculated for all trials. Higher grip}mo-
ment ratios suggest a less e$cient use of grip force.
A three-way ANOVA was performed to test for the
e!ects of subject, task precision, clay thickness, and the
skill;thickness interaction term. The criterion selected
for statistical signi"cance was p(0.05.

3. Results

3.1. System characterization

The results of characterization of the grip force and

applied moment calibration are presented in Table 1.
Estimation of the point of load application indicated that
the error in localization decayed exponentially with in-
creasing load. Errors of 3 mm or less were observed with
Fig. 3. A graph of the estimate error of the point of load application on
loads exceeding 25 N. A graph of the error in load local- the long axis of the grip core, as a function of load magnitude.
ization is presented in Fig. 3.

3.2. Meat cutting simulation
The Pearson correlation coe$cient calculated between
the grip force and the applied cutting moment ranged
between 0.961 and 0.989 for the 10 subjects, with a mean
value of 0.979. The results of the general linear model
analysis indicated that grip force and applied moment
were signi"cantly greater for the high- precision than for
the low- precision tasks during the initial phase (25%) of
the cutting replications at both the thick and thin levels
of clay thickness . Representative graphs of grip force and
applied moment for the cutting task produced under
high- and low-precision conditions are presented in Fig.
4. The results of these analyses are presented in Table 2.
Analysis of the e!ect of material thickness in trials match-
ed by task precision revealed slightly higher, though not
signi"cantly di!erent grip force or applied moment for
the thick level.
The three-way ANOVA of the grip}moment ratio in-
dicated that there were signi"cant individual di!erences
between subjects ( p(0.0001) in the grip force used to
apply the cutting moment. A Duncan' multiple range test
indicated that the subjects could be assigned to four
groups. Group assignment was based on signi"cant dif-
ferences in magnitude of the grip}moment ratios. The
ratios and subject grouping are presented in Fig. 5.
4. Discussion
The system, as con"gured and described in this report,
provided a reasonable simulation of a knife in a meat
cutting task. The alterations to the handle surface neces-
sitated by the design were fairly unobtrusive. The edges
of the knife handle segments were smoothed, and the
gaps between segments (0.75 mm wide), were barely per-
ceptible to touch. The screw holes were carefully counter-
sunk so as to locate the screw head just below the handle
surface. As a general consideration, care should be taken
to avoid locating gaps or screw holes in areas of the
276 R.W. McGorry / Applied Ergonomics 32 (2001) 271}279

Fig. 4. Graphs of the low- and high-precision trials for a 1.9 cm thick clay for one subject (four cuts/trial). Note the higher grip force and applied
moments during the initial phase of the cut of the high-precision task.

handle where the greatest contact pressures would be
anticipated. The weight of the instrumented tool was
another area of concern. The stainless steel grip core will
generally increase the weight of all but the heavier hand
tools. The increase in weight, however, is distributed
relatively uniformly about the long axis of the handle. As
such, the moment resulting from the additional weight
should be minimal. In the performance evaluation, the
instrumented knife was 59 g heavier than the actual knife.
The increase in weight may be a more signi"cant factor
with lighter tools used in precision tasks, where gripping
forces are small. In tasks where reactive moments are
great enough to be of concern, or with larger, heavier
tools such as a hammer, the increase in tool weight
generally would not be expected to alter performance
signi"cantly. The use of lighter materials, such as tita-
nium or magnesium alloys, as well as further weight
reduction through design optimization will be the focus
of future development.
The integrity of the measurement system was veri"ed
by characterization in a controlled laboratory environ-
ment. The response to progressive loading proved to be
 R.W. McGorry / Applied Ergonomics 32 (2001) 271}279
Table 2
Mean, standard deviation, and p values for grip force and applied moment during the initial phase of low- and high-precision cutting tasks, for thick
and thin materials
Thick
Mean (Std. Dev.)
Grip Force
High precision 43.3 (17.6)
Low precision 23.3 (11.9)
Applied torque
High precision 1.11 (0.3)
Low precision 0.66 (0.3)
Bold type indicates statistically signi"cant di!erences.
Fig. 5. Histograms of means of the ratio of grip force to applied
moment (with a one standard deviation bar) for 10 subjects. The letters
under each bar indicate group designation based on statistically signi"-
cant individual di!erences in grip}moment ratio.
very linear for the grip core as well as for the horizontal
and vertical applied moment sensors. Creep, hysteresis,
and crosstalk e!ects were generally minimal. The work-
ing ranges and theoretical limits for applied moment are
consistent with those observed in the poultry and red
meat packing industries, and should be adequate for
other single-handled tool applications. Field and labor-
atory data collection will be necessary to determine
working ranges for various tasks and tools since little
data exists in the literature.
For this system, a working range was selected that
would include the maximum voluntary grip force for an
adult male. The reported mean power grip strength for
an adult male ranges from 430}500 N, depending on test
277
Thin
p Value Mean (Std. Dev.) p Value
37.2 (18.6)
(0.0001 0.040
21.8 (10.8)
0.93 (0.3)
0.0087 0.0035
0.56 (0.2)
conditions, and forces in the 600}700 N range are
possible for some individuals (Petrofsky, 1980; Agnew
and Maas, 1982; Young et al., 1989). The system range
of grip force measurement, 712 N, should be su$cient
for evaluating maximum voluntary contraction of
power grip.
The data from the six grip strain gauges can be reduced
by averaging, or determination of a maximum, to provide
a `generala measure of grip force associated with a
hand tool task. Alternately, data collected from the
six channels can be used in the analysis of the distribution
of grip force about the circumference and long axis
of a tool handle. Resolution was poor below 10}20 N,
but for loads greater than 25 N, the resolution was
better than 3 mm. The system was designed for measure-
ment throughout the feasible range of human grip force
and not for maximizing the longitudinal resolution of
small load applications. If so desired, low-end resolution
could be enhanced by increasing gauge sensitivity, at
the expense of high-end load capacity. For example,
increasing the gauge sensitivity by a factor of two
would decrease the measurement range available
without overloading, by one-half. This may be desirable
for precision tasks, where maximal grip forces are not
anticipated.
Di!erences in the dependent variables, grip force and
applied moment were slightly, though not signi"cantly
less for the thin (1.25 cm) than the thick (1.9 cm) clay for
both task precision conditions. One possible reason for
the small di!erences in the dependent variables was that
the separation in task di$culty between the two basis
levels of clay thickness was a less signi"cant factor than
the friction between blade and cutting board. Initially
a 2.5 cm thick clay was proposed for the `thicka level, but
based on pilot testing, the thicker clay was rejected be-
cause it was felt to be too di$cult for subjects with less
upper extremity strength to cut.
278 R.W. McGorry / Applied Ergonomics 32 (2001) 271}279
Individual variations in hand size, experience, neur-
ological status, and psychosocial factors can in#uence
exposure. For example, Lowe and Freivalds (1999) found
a signi"cantly greater pinch grip}moment ratio in sub-
jects with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) than in a control
group, suggesting they were not able to coordinate their
grip force as e$ciently. The decreased e$ciency of grip
force coordination was attributed to sensory impair-
ments secondary to CTS. Signi"cant di!erences in
grip}moment ratios, indicating individual variation in
the e$ciency of grip force, or safety margin, between
individuals were clearly discernible, in this study as well.
Though exploration of the reasons for the observed indi-
vidual di!erences in the meat cutting simulation is be-
yond the scope of this study, the "nding does suggest that
individual exposure to risk factors for UEMSDs can vary
for even a simple task. This lends credence to the concept
that risk factors, particularly physical loading, cannot be
accurately assessed independent of the individual, as in-
dividual factors can interact with the task itself to in#u-
ence exposure (Burdo! and van der Beek, 1999).
In conclusion, the proposed system has been found to
provide accurate and repeatable measurement of mean
(overall) grip force, estimation of the magnitude and
direction of the grip force vector, and the simultaneous
determination of applied moments produced in a task
simulation. Knowledge of the magnitude and frequency
of grip forces and externally applied moments, informa-
tion that might otherwise be di$cult or impractical to
capture, can complement biomechanical models, and in-
ternal force estimates as part of a comprehensive ergo-
nomic analysis. These measures could also be used for
comparison to individual- or population-based physical
capacity estimates, as they are developed, or for setting
realistic goals in the rehabilitation of work-related inju-
ries. Though the system was only evaluated when con-
"gured as a knife, the ability to use di!erent handles and
end e!ector con"gurations could allow for evaluation of
other single-handled tools.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Richard Holihan, Simon Matz, and
Patrick Dempsey of the Liberty Mutual Research Center
for Safety and Health, Hopkinton, MA for their contri-
butions to this project.
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