Inspection Detail

Inspection: 1550992.015 - The Wilson Bohannan Co.

Inspection Information - Office: Toledo Area Office

Investigation Summary

At 11:00 a.m. on August 24, 2021, an employee working as a machinery maintenance technician for a hardware manufacturer was observing machine operations. The employee was walking by the #168M bar loader machine used to cut long bar stock to size for lock body parts. The bar stock is loaded into one section of the machine and a clamp pulls the bar forward to the saw. As the employee walked by he noticed the saw had stopped and observed a lock body turned sideways just before a fixed chute that drops the cut piece into a conveyor. The employee used a screwdriver in an attempt to move the lock body in line with the other locks, but he had difficulty maneuvering it into place because of the lack of friction between the metal screw driver and metal part. After several attempts, the employee used his finger to move the part into place. At that point the lock flipped down the chute to the conveyor and triggered the sensor to start the previously stopped machine. The employee had placed his finger near the chute cover causing it to be pinched between the cover and another lock blank that was pushed forward from the bar loader. The employee received medical treatment for a partially amputated finger but was not hospitalized. There were no witnesses to the incident.

Keywords: Amputated, Amputation, Caught Between, Engineering Controls, Finger, Hand Tool, Instantaneous amputation, Jammed, Lack of Engineering Controls, Machine Cycled, Machine Guarding, Maintenance, Manufacturing, Metal, Metal Bar, Partial Amputation, Pinch Point, Pinched, Production Line, Traumatic Amputation