seven figures cut off with (press brake)

 

The hazards associated with operating a press brake, shear or guillotine is well known. But, still incidents are still occurring. Here is a recent news media article highlighting the hazards associated with operating a shear.

A sheet metal manufacturing business has been fined $300,000 (and ordered to pay more than $6400 in costs) over an incident in which a 17-year-old apprentice had seven fingers severed.

The company pleaded guilty to failing to provide and maintain a safe work environment, and was fined in the Magistrates Court one day at the end of February 2023. It was not alleged that the company’s failures caused the apprentice’s injury.

The company specialises in the fabrication of stainless steel, aluminium and general sheet metal products and laser cutting, and in July 2019 a 17-year-old apprentice was using a guillotine to cut galvanised sheet metal.

The young man was only five months into his apprenticeship and had done general cleaning and worked in the press brakes and guillotining sections of the (company).

The guillotine he was operating had a fixed metal guard in place which had eight protection indents evenly spaced along it to allow a worker to push a narrow strip of sheet metal further into the guillotine.

On the day of this incident the apprentice was able to bypass the guard and push his hands past it and into the blade operating area.

The blade was activated by a foot pedal and, as the apprentice inadvertently stretched his hands past the guard, he also inadvertently pushed the foot pedal and activated the cutting blade.

The blade severed seven of his fingers, although all but the tip of one finger was able to be re-attached.

(Government safety organization) Commissioner said the case provided a reminder of the importance of pre-start checks of all machinery in workplaces.

“(Company name omitted) did not have a documented operating procedure in place to ensure that a pre-start was carried out before this machine was used,” commissioner said.

“The worker’s fingers should have been prevented from accessing the blade operating area and a pre-start check of the machinery may have identified a problem before this unfortunate incident could happen.

“The company carried out a monthly visual check of each piece of equipment in the workplace, but the checks didn’t include checking or inspecting the protection indents in the fixed metal guard on the guillotine.

“The guard on the guillotine was a fundamental safety measure, but the company’s checks failed to ensure that it was in good order and undamaged before this incident happened.

“The company did provide some of the required training and supervision for workers, and it did take steps immediately after this incident to replace the guard and implement new comprehensive procedures for checking equipment.

“This case needs to serve as a reminder to all manufacturing businesses that pre-start checking of all machinery in the workplace is crucial in keeping workers safe at all times.”

We pray that the injured worker recovers as much as one can when seven fingers are amputated. We are thankful that most of the worker’s fingers were able to be reattached. We hope that the worker was provided with both physical rehab and mental health counseling.

The Aluminium Times had two articles on the importance of machine guarding inspection. They can be found here.

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