Abstract: At about 6:15 p.m. on January 4, 2000, a maintenance employee was asked to look at an L-400 laminator extruder. Employee #2, the operator, had said the machine was running hot. Employee #1 felt the inlet hose and the outlet hose and determined the outlet hose was hot. He then checked the pressure on the filter and determined that scaling had clogged the filter. A third employee began to loosen the bolts that held the flanges in place in order to remove the filter, but Employee #1 took over and continued to loosen the two bolts. Employee #1 slowly loosened the bolts to release pressure, but nothing happened. As he continued to loosen the bolts, 200-degree-Fahrenheit steam sprayed from between the flanges onto Employee #1. He suffered second and third degree burns to his legs, hands, abdomen, and genitalia; and was hospitalized. Normal operating temperature was between 120 and 140 degrees-Fahrenheit and the machine did not have a proper valve system for venting steam.