Inspection Detail

Inspection: 1531994.015 - St Paper, Llc

Inspection Information - Office: Appleton Area Office

Investigation Summary

At 1:00 p.m. on May 17, 2021, an employee working as a press operator for a paper mill was attempting to align the top wire (fabric form) on a wet lap press. The press is an automatic press that feeds wet pulp through the headstock. The headstock at the front end of the machine pushes the wet pulp into the pre-nip rollers and squeezes the pulp between two fabric forms. The pulp and forms advance through the rollers, which are preset to the desired pressure to remove the designated amount of water. When pulp builds up on the rollers or air pressure decreases from the guide roll, the top or the bottom wire may become misaligned. The employee is responsible for the quality of the wet lap. If the wires became misaligned, the employee must realign the press before the wire is damaged. Typically, the pneumatic paddle on the top or bottom guide roll keeps the wire properly positioned. In this instance, the paddle was unable to align the top wire because the air cylinder was leaking. The employee contacted a coworker (team leader) to request assistance fixing the problem. The employee threw stock onto the roller to keep the wire in place until the coworker arrived. The employee was standing on the drive side of the press when he reached through the access door to remove the pulp from the headstock to throw onto the roller. As the employee was throwing the stock, he caught his left hand in the pre-nip rollers. The employee's hand was pulled into up to his shoulder. The coworker arrived and was briefed on the situation after hearing the employee yelling for help. The coworker pulled the pull cable on the tending side of the machine, but the e-stop stop wire broke. The coworker then ran to the control panel on the adjacent wall to press the red emergency stop button. The coworker called for maintenance to extract the employee from the machine before calling emergency services. The employee was hospitalized to treat crushing injuries to his hand and arm.

Keywords: Air Pressure, Arm, Automatic Machine, Caught Between, Crushed, Defect, Defective, Defective Equipment, Emergency Stop, Engineering Controls, Finger, Fracture, Hand, Lack of Engineering Controls, Leak, Lockout, Lockout/Tagout, Machine Guarding, Machine operator, Malfunction, Mech Malfunction, Misjudgment, Misjudgment of Hazardous Situation, Nip Point, Paper, Paper Machine, Pinch Point, Pinched, Power Roller, Press Cylinder, Press Operator, Pulled In, Removing, Roller--Mach/Part