Inspection Detail

Inspection: 1497702.015 - Quad/Graphics Marketing Llc

Inspection Information - Office: Fairview Heights Area Office

Investigation Summary

At 11:00 a.m. on October 12, 2020, an employee working as a printing press operator for a printing company was cleaning the lower plate cylinder on an off-set press. The employee was operating a Harris M-1000A Web Offset Printing System. The employee had operated this system for approximately 15 years. The employee was working in the black (print color) printing unit. The press was on the shop floor with other similar printing units in a single-story climate-controlled building. The employee was using a rag to remove excess ink from the lower plate cylinder while the cylinders were running when he caught his finger between the lower large ink form cylinder and the lower vibrator cylinder on the press. Senior operators had provided other operators on-the-job-training to conduct this cleaning task. The manufacturer stated that blanket cleaning operations required the use of a stop-inch process. The employer had developed written procedures for cleaning the cylinders with rags, but only stated that the rag was to be maintained in a fashion to prevent loose ends from being exposed to nip points. The employee amputated his right middle finger and was hospitalized.

Keywords: Amputated, Amputation, Caught Between, Caught In, Cleaning, Finger, Instantaneous amputation, Lockout, Lockout/Tagout, Machine operator, Pinch Point, Pinched, Printer, Printing, Printing Press, Rag, Traumatic Amputation