Inspection Detail

Inspection: 1512570.015 - Hankook Atlasbx America Corp.

Inspection Information - Office: Tennessee Osha Nashville Office - Safety

Investigation Summary

At 7:45 p.m. on Tuesday, January 26, 2021, an employee was working for a firm that manufactured automotive lead-acid batteries. He operated shaping and joining machines. He was working in the facility's pasting area. The pasting area had mechanical power presses, a D-coiler, conveyors, rotating drives, drying ovens, and paste transfer equipment. The energy sources at this station were multiple 480-volt electrical sources; pneumatic; chemical, in the form of sulfuric acid; thermal, from a 4-inch (102-mm) natural gas pipe; potential, from gravity; and 2,000-kg (4,400-lb) wound-up coils of metal. The employee was starting the pasting line for production. He was connecting the long coil strip of plates into the pasting divider machine. After leaving the pasting machine, the coil strip came out to a sensor that detected the coil strip. Beyond the sensor, the coil strip came up to the divider machine. There, it entered rollers with blades that divided the strip into sections. The employee had the guard lifted so that he could insert the long coil strip into the divider. The pasting divider was in the AUTO mode. As the employee was inserting the strip in the rollers, the divider's sensor recognized the coil strip, and the machine activated. The ring, middle, and index fingers on the employee's left hand were amputated between their middle and distal phalanges by the pasting divider's in-running cut rollers. The employee was treated without hospitalization. The acting EHS manager was interviewed. He stated that the plant was new and had just started running in June 2020. The firm did not have machine-specific procedures for lockout/tagout (LOTO), not having had time to develop the procedures. The firm's Korean maintenance manager stated that LOTO procedures were required at the firm's parent owner's facilities in Korea. When asked about LOTO procedures at this plant, he stated that they do not have them, and that he would work on getting them.

Keywords: Activated, Amputated, Amputation, Caught Between, Caught In, Engineering Controls, Finger, Hand, Inexperience, Instantaneous amputation, Lockout, Lockout/Tagout, Machine Guarding, Production Line, Roller--Mach/Part, Traumatic Amputation, Work Rules