Original Date: 11/03/1996
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

Oak Ridge procured a custom fabricated isolation work chamber or glovebox using a combination of three-dimensional computer simulation with written specification and hardware standards. This combination, called a VIDEOSPEC, eliminated the need for numerous engineering drawings and resulted in the finished glovebox being obtained in less time with enhanced quality assurance and reduced installation costs.

The glovebox is a chamber that isolates a work item and its often hazardous environment from workers, but still allows them to manipulate items and materials in the chamber by inserting their hands and arms into arm-length rubber gloves that extend into the chamber. The gloves are attached to an oval seal or gloveport on the transparent walls of the glovebox, thereby permitting workers to look into the chamber as they manipulate objects while being isolated from the hazardous chamber environment.

Newer glovebox designs are safer, have enhanced human factors and contamination control, more government imposed requirements, and also are more expensive. To keep design costs and human factor problems and installation difficulties to a minimum, a three-dimensional computer model of a glovebox with the required characteristics was constructed. The manual operation of this model was then simulated by including the fabrication of a moving, three-dimensional human model, thus permitting visual identification of human factor problems otherwise not noticed using conventional design practices. Glovebox parameters were quickly evaluated through computer graphic simulation which produced a trouble-free glovebox design. Similarly, the glovebox model was then inserted into another computer visual model of the plant facility which facilitated the best use of space and minimized installation problems.

For more information see the Point of Contact for this survey.