Inspection Detail

Inspection: 309842748 - Appleton Papers Inc

Inspection Information - Office: Appleton Area Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 10:00 a.m. on July 11, 2008, Employee #1, a 38-year-old male who had worked as an operator of the #12 Coating Machine since 1999, was severely injured when he was pulled into an ingoing nip point in the unwind section of the paper coating machine. Employee #1 dislocated an unspecified body part. There were no witnesses, and Employee #1 did not remember the accident. Employee #2, another operator of the #12 Coating Machine, had requested that the paper web be broken because the coating material supply had ran out and the paper web was not being coated. The evidence indicated that Employee #1 was breaking the paper web with a mop handle-shaped stick and that both he and the stick were pulled into an ingoing nip point created by a paper roll and a paster roll. The ingoing nip point was not always present and was created during an automated splicing process. Employees were not prevented from entering the unwind area and several adjustments and readings were performed in that area. When interviewed, employees indicated that they did not enter the unwind area during the automated splicing process. Audible and visual alarms provided notice that the automated splicing process was active. The paper web was not intentionally broken often. Employee #1 recalled having broken the web three or four times in the nine years he had been a machine operator. Normal procedure was to run the paper roll out before making the required changes or repairs. The installed system for breaking the web from the control panel was not used because it broke the web in several locations, making cleanup more time consuming. This was the first time any operators of the #12 Coating Machine remembered intentionally breaking the paper web during the splicing sequence.

Keywords: MACHINE OPERATOR, CAUGHT BY, LOCKOUT, ROLLER--MACH/PART, DISLOCATED, NIP POINT