Inspection Detail

Inspection: 1549893.015 - Worzalla, Inc.

Inspection Information - Office: Appleton Area Office

Investigation Summary

At 1:30 a.m. on August 23, 2021, an employee working as an assistant web operator for a book printer was cleaning a hickie from the plate. The employee was promoted to his position in June 2021. The employee had the Lithoman 4 web press at a crawl speed while troubleshooting the folding section of the machine. The press was webbed up, and the print decks were engaged. While troubleshooting, the employee observed a hickey, which is a small fiber that gets caught on the plate, on the signature. The employee attempted to clean the plate, which was of his responsibilities. The employee moved to the infeed side of Unit 2 to clean the hickey, which was located on the lower black gear side of the plate. As the employee was wiping the plate with his fingers pointing up, the rag caught and was pulled into the machine between the plate cylinder and the water form cylinder along with the employee's left hand. The employee was able to hit the emergency stop button located right behind him. He screamed for help and Coworker #1, the web operator and bundler, came over to assist in disengaging and reversing the press to free the employee. Coworker #1, the supervisor, was paged to the area and medical treatment was provided while they waited for the ambulance. The employee received medical treatment without hospitalization for an amputation of his thumb and degloving to his hand.

Keywords: Amputated, Amputation, Caught Between, Cleaning, Degloving, Finger, Fracture, Hand, Inexperience, Instantaneous amputation, Insufficient Supervision, Lack of Work Procedures, Machine Guarding, Machine operator, Nip Point, Power Press, Press, Press Operator, Printer, Printing, Printing Press, Thumb, Traumatic Amputation