Suspension trauma is a condition that occurs when a person is suspended for a long time. In the construction sector, suspension trauma often occurs when workers wearing Full Body Harness (FBH) fall and hang for a long time. As a result, the part of the body that is pinched by the FBH experiences high pressure and causes narrowing of the blood vessels. Suspension trauma can have negative impacts ranging from decreased cardiac output, loss of consciousness, and even death.
Responding to this problem, five FMIPA UB students created a new innovation to overcome suspense trauma. They are Wildan Putra Yuniartha (Physics), Muhammad Imron Rosyadi (Physics), Fadhel Bima Nabaalah (Instrumentation), Khansa Nayottama (Instrumentation), and Elifes Ziliwu (Chemistry). Under the guidance of Prof. Dr.Ing. Setyawan Purnomo Sakti, M.Eng. they developed the Safety Harness Anti-Suspension Trauma (SANST) as Personal Protective Equipment for Construction Workers at Height. This project is funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture, Research and Technology and Universitas Brawijaya through the Student Creativity Program in the field of Creative Initiatives in 2024.
SANST innovation is designed to bring good news to workers at heights. This tool is an optimization of FBH by utilizing airbags and therapy devices. Airbags function to reduce pressure on the body when workers fall and hang. This reduces the obstruction of blood flow due to pinching. In addition, according to Weber et al. (2020), suspension trauma occurs due to pressure centered on a point originating from gravity and transmitted to the body through the FBH. As a result, body parts in direct contact with FBH experience pressure proportional to their body weight. The therapeutic device used is Electric Muscle Stimulation (EMS) which functions to keep muscles active, so that the role of muscles, especially lower extremity muscles, as blood pumps to the heart continues to work optimally.
“Full Body Harness is the main personal protective equipment for workers at height. However, the risk of suspension trauma still exists if the user hangs for too long after a fall. Therefore, we modified the Full Body Harness so that suspension trauma can be prevented,” said Wildan.
“We designed an innovative prototype of the Full Body Harness which is integrated with the airbag vest and EMS. Activation of the airbag and EMS depends on the stress and strain response during a fall. We use load cells and strain gauge sensors whose working principle is based on stress and strain. When the user falls and the load cell stretches, the airbag will deploy in under one second and EMS will also activate,” added Fadhel.
Testing of the SANST prototype was carried out in the rock climbing training area belonging to UKM IMPALA UB. Testing is divided into two: activation system testing and user impact testing. Activation system testing is a test to prove that SANST can activate EMS and deploy airbags from stress and strain responses. Meanwhile, impact testing on users is carried out using the hanging method for a specified time.
The requirements for this test are quite light, it only requires hanging media obtained from the climbing wall, volunteers who will be hanging, and initial steps. Even though they were hanging, security precautions were guaranteed and the height of the volunteer hanging was only around 0.5-1 meter above the ground.
“The SANST test is quite short and easy to implement. From the results, as expected, the prototype can be activated from the stress and strain response and the user’s comfort while hanging can last longer than the critical time where symptoms of suspension trauma begin to occur,” said Wildan. (pkmkc/wdd/UB PR/ Trans. Iir)
