Abstract: At about 11:30 a.m. on June 21, 2006, Employee #1 was working as a ground beef patty machine operator for United Food Group (a company involved the production of fresh and frozen meat products). He was cleaning the area around the plungers on a Formax F-26C patty machine. The two plungers are steel units that slide in and out of the housing of the machine and force ground beef into the mold plates to form hamburger patties. The plungers are guarded by a stainless steel metal gate which is designed to be electronically interlocked. At the time of the accident, the interlock switch for the guard was defective, and had not been repaired or replaced. During the operation of the machine, a combination of meat, fat and liquid was forced out between the plungers and the frame of the machine, and collected around the plungers. The operator stated that he had stopped but did not lock out the machine to clean the area around the plungers and had placed the machine in the cleaning mode. In this mode, the plunger moves out of the housing and a 1-in. gap is created between the plunger and frame of the machine. Employee #1 stated that it was during this mode that he was removing a piece of meat from the side of the plunger with his right hand. The plunger unexpectedly moved forward and caught the tip of his right middle finger in the pinch point between the plunger and the machine frame. Employee #1 was treated at Stacey Medial Hospital for an amputation of the tip of his right middle finger. The factors in this accident were improper training of the employee, and failure to use an extension tools to clean the plungers of the machine if it needed to be energized during the cleaning process.