"man's screams of pain brought colleagues who found themselves faced with a chilling scene."

The uses of presses and punches in our industry is common. The hazard associated with these machinery is sometimes overlooked depending on the age of the equipment. We need to state that we not saying that older equipment is dangerous and should be removed. There is nothing wrong with older machinery. As long as it has the latest safety mechanisms installed. Here is a recent incident that occurred that high lights the danger to machinery in our industry.

Serious accident at work, yesterday morning, in a company in a town in Europe. A worker was transported to the hospital after a press pierced his hand. For the moment he is hospitalized at the Infirm, but given the severity of the wound, his transfer to a specialized facility is likely. Investigations are being carried out by the police of the (local) station and the technicians of occupational medicine.

The accident occurred one morning during the week of May 16, 2021 , around 11.30 am, at an (aluminium) foundry. The employee, a 36-year-old,, appears to have been working on a press, consisting of a pin, when his hand is left in the middle which has been pierced from side to side. The young man's screams of pain brought colleagues who found themselves faced with a chilling scene. The press had literally punctured the worker's hand. They immediately alerted 118 while they freed him from that terrible trap, and after a few minutes the ambulance arrived with the doctor. The wound immediately appeared very serious, and after stabilizing him, they transported him to the emergency room of the Infirm hospital, where they are still subjecting him to all the tests.

The police of the local station arrived on the spot and collected the first testimonies of the employees of the company and immediately afterwards also the operators of Occupational Medicine. It will be up to the latter to accurately reconstruct the dynamics of the accident, to try to understand if it was a distraction of the worker or if instead the accident is somehow attributable to the machine. It is not clear whether witnesses were present at the time of the accident, the Occupational Medicine technicians will therefore have to listen to their colleagues, and reconstruct the entire dynamic, under the coordination of the magistrate who has already opened a file.

We pray that the injured worker recovers fully from his injuries. If the worker has limitations due to his injury we pray that the foundry will assign him another position with the same salary.

Due to the age of the company. We are making a large assumption that the press was older. Now what do we consider older? In our minds older means equipment that does not have latest current safety mechanisms installed. If the press had the latest safety mechanisms on there would have been a higher probability that his hand would not have been allowed in the opening of the press.

So how does a company know if they machinery/equipment has the latest safety mechanisms? In the simplest way, contact the equipment manufacturer and ask. It is that easy. Any modifications can be done by the manufacturer. If you decide to add a different safety mechanism from what the original equipment manufacturer recommends or has available. You must use a licensed engineer for the design and implementation of the new safety mechanism.

The other possible cause for this incident is a lack of machine guards. Which is very common with older machinery. The Aluminium Times magazine had an article about machinery guards:

The Aluminium Times magazine had an article on the hidden hazards associated with older machinery. 

The above articles can be found here. Please comment.