Detta projekt syftar till vidareutveckling av en uppfinning som har potential att väsentligen förenkla och effektivisera ett arbetsmoment, att lyfta av och på utåtgående sidohängda fönster, som är ett välkänt arbetsmiljöproblem. Resultatet från undersökningen visar att verktyget har utvecklingsmöjligheter och att radikalt minskar de ergonomiska problemen och att användningen kan ge goda möjligheter att effektivisera arbetet. Verktyget måste betraktas som ett lyftredskap och omfattas av därför av ett regelverk som innebär att vissa kriterier måste uppfyllas. Undersökningar i detta projekt visar att verktyget uppfyller de formella krav som ställs på det. Undersökningen visar också att det fungerar på avsett sätt dvs för att lyfta ur och sätta tillbaka utåtgående sidohängda fönster. Verktyget har provats av branschfolk som varit positiva till lösningen men bedömt den som svår att använda beroende på att den består av för många delar och att det är en stor förändring jämför med dagens arbetssätt med två man i arbetslaget. Med hänsyn tagen till de synpunkter som kommit från branschfolk i detta projekt är ett naturligt nästa steg att förenkla och anpassa verktyget till ett tvåmansverktyg. Verktyget blir då mer lättanvänt för ett arbetslag på två personer. Tillverkningskostnaden blir dessutom lägre för det anpassade verktyget. Om den förenklade lösningen får ett genomslag på marknaden innebär detta att företaget kommer igång med försäljning och produktion. I ett senare skede kan företaget vidareutveckla och marknadsintroducera det enmans-verktyg som var ursprunget till detta projekt och som fortfarande bedöms vara den allra effektivaste lösningen för arbetsmomentet att lyfta av och på fönster.

Hand hygiene, cleaning and disinfection are pre-requirements for hygiene management in hospital settings and the food industry. In order to facilitate risk management, different contamination scenarios and interventions need to be evaluated. In the present study data on transfer rates and reductions of Staphylococcus aureus were provided in an experimental set-up using artificial skin. Using this methodology, test persons were not exposed with pathogenic bacteria. An exposure assessment model was developed and applied to evaluate different contamination routes and hygiene interventions. The transfer rates of S. aureus from inoculated VITRO-SKIN® to fomites were calculated from blotting series. The VITRO-SKIN® was more prone to spread bacteria than fomites. When different surfaces were cleaned, the reduction of S. aureus varied between <1 and 7 log CFU. It could not be concluded that a certain coupon material, cleaning agent, cleaning wipe, soiling or humidity consistently resulted in a high or low reduction of S. aureus. The reduction of S. aureus and E. coli during hand washing was evaluated on artificial skin, VITRO-SKIN®. The reduction of E. coli on VITRO-SKIN® was similar to the log reduction obtained when washing human hands. The S. aureus count on a human hand was both calculated in different scenarios describing different contamination routes starting from a contaminated hand using the exposure assessment model, and measured on an experimental setup using VITRO-SKIN® for validation. A linear relationship was obtained between the analysed level of S. aureus and the calculated level. However, the calculated levels of S. aureus on the VITRO-SKIN® in the scenarios were 1–1.5 log lower than the analysed level. One of the scenarios was used to study the effect of interventions like hand washing and cleaning of surfaces.

Glued-in rods have been used for a number of years in several of the EU Member States which are active in timber engineering. They are an economically, architecturally and industrially attractive means of transferring forces within a structure, and of providing local reinforcement to critical zones of timber members. They also provide an important technology for the repair and upgrading of historically important timber structures which exist throughout Europe. Not withstanding their importance, internatonally acknowledged design rules for glued-in rods do not exist. The lack of standards and design rules within the field of glued-in rods lead to this project being initiated.

The strengths of conventionally and high temperature dried spruce timber have been compared. Material from both southern and northern Sweden was included in the study. A total number of 1050 specimens (50mm x 150mm x 5m) were dried by using five different drying methods and then strength tested. The drying temperatures varied between 70°C and 125°C. The material was also strength graded by using a Cook Bolinder grading machine and the yield in class C30 was evaluated. Fracture energy (perpendicular to the grain direction) was measured for 25% of the tested material. The results show a decreased bending strength by, on the average, 5% for timber dried at 125°C compared to conventionally dried timber (at 70°C). For the 5th percentile value (characteristic value) corresponding decrease was 13%. The tensile strength was reduced more than the bending strength. The stiffness was not affected by high temperature drying, neither in bending nor in tension. The results also indicate that material from northern Sweden is more affected by high temperature drying than material from southern Sweden. No difference in fracture energy was found for the material dried by using the different drying methods. However, the maximum force measured during the fracture energy testing was significantly lower for the high temperature dried material. This indicated that the tensile strength perpendicular to the grain decreased during high temperature drying. The bending strength was lower after machine strength grading (class C30) for the high temperature dried timber compared to the conventionally dried timber. This was expected as the grading machine measures stiffness and the stiffness is, as shown, not affected by high temperature drying.

Fatigue endurance assessments of welded details are normally carried out by calculating the relevant stress acting on the detail and identifying a relevant fatigue class (or detail category) with its associated S-N curve. The fatigue strength of most structural details incorporated in design codes has been obtained from fatigue tests conducted under uni-axial loading conditions, which normally result in a uni-axial stress state in the detail. Many of the structural details that exist in fatigue-loaded structures experience some kind of multi-axial loading condition. The subject of the fatigue strength of welded details under multi-axial loads has been the topic of numerous research projects in recent years. The vast majority of these projects were, however, devoted to cracking in the base metal (i.e. toe cracking). Very little has been done with reference to the cracking of fillet welds in combined loading situations (i.e. root cracking). This paper presents new test results from cruciform specimens, in which weld failure initiated at the root in a multi-axial stress state. The tests have been performed at two different load levels and on three different specimen configurations giving different τ/σ ratios. This permitted an examination of the effect of the shear to normal stress ratio on the fatigue strength of fillet welds. The results of these tests, together with other relevant tests reported in the literature, are then evaluated in relation to the design models proposed in three design standards: Eurocode, IIW and DNV. No obvious dependence on the τ/σ ratios could be found. The evaluated models all appear to be able to predict the fatigue life of a cruciform weld failing from the root under combined shear and normal stress.

Wood is traditionally used in indoor as well as outdoor applications. However, wood is easily attacked by wood degrading micro-organisms in damp situations and the service life is heavily affected by construction design, choice of wood species and wood treatment. For most constructions there is an expected service life. The expectations concerning wooden constructions and what kind of wood is chosen to fulfil the expectations is not very well known. To increase the knowledge about professionals’ as well as house owners’ expectations of the service life of outdoor wooden constructions an inquiry was carried out. In addition a literature survey was made. According to the literature survey there are requirements of service life for all building materials, including wood, following the European Construction Products Directive, CPD. All materials permanently included in a construction shall have a declaration of service life. Standards and standardized products become more and more important. For the DIY builder there is very little written about durability of wood. In principle, he only learns that a well designed wooden construction will last for a long time. The inquiry showed that many private house owners expect wood to last for long time even in outdoor conditions. About 25 % thought that a service life between 10 and 20 years was sufficient while more than 40 % wanted the constructions to last for more than 40 years. The professional builders require service lives of load-bearing wooden constructions according to the CPD. For non-structural constructions the majority of the professionals found 30 years an acceptable service life.

This report is a survey of present guideline values and limit values for materials like earth, polluted earth, soil improvers, sewage sludge, compost etc. The survey covers most of the west European countries and USA, Canada and New Zeeland. The background to the survey is a need from the soil producing companies in Sweden to define what is meant with “soil of good quality”. In the present situation there is no recommendation available which defines a suitable level of nutrients, a maximum level of metals, a maximum level of undesired objects etc. Another reason for the project is that soil producers recent years have been offered different types of rest materials which should be good for soil production, according to the owner of the materials. An explanation to this development is that from the year of 2002 no combustible waste is allowed for landfill and from 2005 organic waste will not be allowed for landfill. Five organisations in Sweden (The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, The Swedish Water & Wastewater Association, Stockholm Vatten, Swedish Waste Management, and Swedish Peat Producers Association) funded the Swedish Test and Research Institute to develop quality criteria for soil supposed to be used in civil engineering. The quality criteria are supposed to be used for soil of large quantities, not for small consumers as single households. The work to develop quality criteria was divided in two parts. The first part is an international survey of the existing limit- and guideline values for soil and similar materials. This report is the result of that part. The second part is a consensus process were the reference group in the project will suggest a set of criteria to control the content of nutrients, the content of pollutants (organic and inorganic), physical parameters as grain size distribution, and also different quality classes of the soil depending on the end use. The goal is to achieve national widely accepted soil quality criteria for both producers and end users of the material. The results in this report are: · A set of quality criteria, like the aim in this project, was not found anywhere in the survey. As supposed, most regulations aim at controlling unwanted substances in the soil. The only recommendation values about nutrition and some structural parameters were found in a national guideline document for municipalities. · The extent of national limit values for polluted soil was large in the studied countries. The limit values differed a lot between the countries and also the approach to the problem of soil pollution differed. Some countries used a risk-based approach while the others used a set of different quality classes for the soil. · Regarding metals, the selection is quite similar between the countries, but are not so similar for organic substances. Sweden has some substances on the Swedish list that are lacking on the lists of other countries, for example dibromchlormethane, bromdichlormethane, tetrachlormethane and 2,4-dinitrotoluende. The opposite is valid for mineral oil, 1,2-dichlorethane, vinylchloride and DDT etc. · Most of the studied countries have limit values for sewage sludge to be spread on agricultural soil, and also limit values for soil on which the sewage sludge is to be spread. · Many of the studies countries have guideline values for compost. The development in the compost sector differs a lot between the studied countries. Two non-compulsory system have been studied, the EU-flower and KRAV (a Swedish organisation for organic cultivation). The regulation of metals for the EU-flower corresponds completely with the third-party-certification system for compost in Sweden. KRAV has a set of limits for the metal content in soil improvers.