Inspection Detail

Inspection: 1477973.015 - Essity Professional Hygiene North America

Inspection Information - Office: Albany Area Office

Investigation Summary

At 2:30 p.m. on June 7, 2020 (the worksheet said June 6), an employee was working for a firm that made single-use hygiene and health products. The employee was working in the facility's location PM 11, the finish end. He was tending to a Cameron model 450 slitter/rewinder. Two web breaks in close succession on this slitter/rewinder necessitated removing the broken paper from the roll ("pulling slab") and rethreading the machine to continue production. Pulling a slab was a common procedure in the event of a web break at the rewinder. To remove the slab, the employee placed the machine in crawl mode at the human-machine interface (HMI) control panel. The employee and a coworker entered an interlocked safety enclosure (safety cell) around the rewinder. With the machine running in a crawl mode of about 15 meters per minute, (49 feet per minute) and no one at the HMI control panel, the employee and his coworker began pulling the slab. As the employee was tucking the paper back into the infeed nip between the bed roll and the finished roll, his left hand got caught in the nip. His arm was pulled in up to his elbow. It was crushed. The coworker left the safety cell and got to the HMI control panel, where he reversed the roll direction, freeing the employee's arm. A second coworker called the guard shack to notify 911, while a third coworker wrapped the employee's arm in paper and comforted the employee until EMS arrived. It took about 20 minutes for emergency medical personnel to respond. The employee was hospitalized. He was expected to regain full use of his arm. The delay in response was attributed to the procedure in contacting off-site emergency medical personnel. Plant procedure was to contact security at the guard shack. Security then called in the emergency. A plant nurse was at the facility every other day from Monday through Friday, but the facility ran 24 hours per day, including weekends. There was no onsite emergency response team when the incident occurred.

Keywords: Arm, Caught Between, Caught In, Crushed, Elbow, Emergency Response, Hand, Interlock, Lockout, Lockout/Tagout, Medical Attention, Nip Point, Nurse, Roller--Mach/Part, Safety Cage, Safety Device