"employee's ... hand got caught in a machine pinchpoint.."

As customary we shake hands of the individual(s) we are meeting on our plant tours throughout the industry. Over the years we have noticed on occasion the absence of finger(s) on those whose hand we are shaking. Almost always the workers will tell us what happened. Most times the finger(s) were lost operating a piece of equipment without proper guarding. Here is a recent story that emphasizes the need for proper machinery guarding.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has proposed a $70,000 fine for an aluminium manufacturer in the USA after an employee operating a machine coiler suffered a hand injury at one of their facilities in March 2016.

OSHA cited a "willful" workplace safety violation for failing to ensure the machine had adequate safety guards.

In the March 2016 accident, the employee's right hand got caught in a machine pinchpoint, resulting in three fingers being fractured.

"OSHA has specific guidelines to protect workers from dangerous machinery, chemicals and other hazards in the workplace," said OSHA's area director. "(the aluminium company) needs to re-evaluate its safety and health programs to ensure employees are being protected from job hazards." The aluminium company "did not ensure the coiler on the edge trim line was properly guarded, exposing employees to an in-going nip point created between the rotating coil and the metal strip," OSHA said after investigating the accident.

The fine was proposed this week and the aluminium company has 15 days to accept the fine or request a hearing with OSHA.

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog prays for the injured workers hands that they may heal fully. We hope that the aluminium company will offer both physical and mental rehab if so desired by the injured worker.

From our experience, we are making the assumption that this piece of equipment that broke three fingers was older in age. Old enough that when originally built machinery guarding was not mandated as it is today. This piece of equipment may have been decades old and worked perfectly. Unfortunately, it did not have current safety mechanisms installed to prevent an incident such as this from occurring. The APSB has posted incident after incident about the hazards associated with older equipment and their lack of current safety mechanisms. The Aluminium Times magazine had an article on this topic:

So, if you have older equipment in your plants. If you have purchased equipment from an auction. It is our recommendation that you contact the original equipment manufacturer (if they are still in business) and ask them to come and inspect the equipment. [Please document their visit]. Or ask them what is the difference between your specific equipment model versus a brand new one. In terms of safety mechanisms (or design improvements with safety in mind). You might be surprised.

Please Comment.