ABSTRACT
Hand grasp and finger pinch forces (compressive, thrust, or rotational) may be required for holding and stabilizing an object or system, squeezing mechanical parts together or helping to create torques on handles, but the type of hand grasp or pinch used by a person and the amount of force applied depend on several factors, among the most important of which are the intended activity and the size, weight, and shape of the object. In the industrial workplace, other factors, such as frictional properties at the hand-object contact or stability of the object may also modify the type of grip and amount of muscular force generated [16,17]. The influential factors do not necessarily act independent of each other. A short cylinder (jar lid), for example, may be gripped differently from a long one (screwdriver handle) for the same activity (generating torque, for example); and the hand may change from a power grip to a precision grip according to the force requirements [7].
