Application of Innovative Materials in Operator's Protective Structures for Agricultural and Earth Moving Machinery

The protective structures are the main defense tool for operator safety in many type of industrial and agricultural machinery. The use of this type of structures is conditioned by the overcome of precise standards in which the falling of an object [ISO 3449] and the rollover of the machine [ISO 3471] are simulated. The same standards not allow the use of material other than metallic to make the protective structures. The present work intend to demonstrate the ability of a polymeric material (polyethylene) to meet the same requirements asked, for the metallic material, in the protective structures standards.