Inspection Detail

Inspection: 302654322 - Kci, Incorporated

Inspection Information - Office: Fort Worth Area Office

Investigation Summary

Employees #1 and #2 were a supervisor and a 19-year-old laborer, respectively, for a contractor that had been hired to conduct a scheduled overhaul of a production oven at a fiberglass manufacturing plant. Part of the overhaul was the installation of a new metal conveyor system and replacement of the metal seals between the three sections of the oven. The procedure for adding conveyor sections, referred to as flights, was for the first flight to be attached to a pulling beam, which was in turn attached to a wire rope and pulled by a winch through the oven. Other flights were attached on the outside of the oven and then pulled into the oven. Before Employees #1 and #2 entered the oven to inspect a metal seal that Employee #2 had just worked on, the winch operator called Employee #1 on the two-way radio and informed him that he was about to pull the conveyor chain. The winch operator had earlier been told by Employee #1 to attach and pull the flights continuously. Following this conversation with the winch operator, Employees #1 and #2 entered the oven and went to examine the seal, which could only be seen from a point that was in the path of the conveyor belt. When the winch operator pulled the next flight, Employees #1 and #2 became caught between the pulling beam and the metal oven seal. Employee #1 was killed. Employee #2 sustained crushing injuries to lower body, for which he was hospitalized.

Keywords: INSTALLING, UNSECURED, OVEN, WORK RULES, CONSTRUCTION, CAUGHT BETWEEN, CRUSHED, MECH MAT HANDLING, CONVEYOR BELT, COMMUNICATION