Inspection Detail

Inspection: 310486444 - Artsons Manufacturing Company Inc

Inspection Information - Office: Long Beach District Office

Investigation Summary

On December 28, 2006, Employee #1, a machine operator, was working on a wire drawing machine. As the wire leaves the machine, it has loose scale on the outside of it that needs to be stripped away. The employer had engineered an array of small, steel rollers enclosed in a box on the out-running side of a wire machine to descale the wire coming off the process. Employee #1 was lifting the cover off of the descaler, using a lifting bar that was too short. He was aware that this was a violation of company safety policy. The bar slipped out of the lifting eyelet of the descaler cover and came down on his finger, causing a laceration to the left mid finger tip. The machine had not been in use, and had not been under power at the time of the incident Employee #1 was taken to a clinic, where he was treated and released. Initially, there had been no amputation with bone loss. He continued to revisit the clinic for follow up evaluation and it was observed that the finger tip was not healing properly. The clinic then referred him to a specialist who believed that there was a need for surgery to clip the tip of the bone to allow for proper healing. Employee #1 underwent surgery on January 12, 2007.

Keywords: COVER, FINGER, MACHINE OPERATOR, LACERATION, WIRE DRAWING MACHINE, STRUCK BY, PROCESS SAFETY