Inspection Detail

Inspection: 126109917 - Nissin Foods (Usa) Co Inc

Inspection Information - Office: Los Angeles District Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 4:50 a.m., on February 26, 2002, Employee #1 was working as a mixer operator at a company that manufactures a variety of instant noodles. The accident took place at the cup noodle department on line number 4 continuous rollers, located on the north west side of the facility. There are three such lines, in the same area. The equipment involved in the accident was Tokyo Menki Shokai Continuous Roller machine, having a series of five Teflon-coated rollers and one stainless steel roller. These rollers are in series and gradually roll dough into flat sheet and desired thickness. For each set of roller, there is an emergency stop button, located at the top of the frame, at approximately shoulder height. Each roller has an adjustment knob to obtain the desired dough thickness and tension. After the dough has been rolled into proper thickness and rolled through the final set of rollers, it goes through the wave box cutting area and the steam line. At the time of the accident, Employee #1 observed some dough stuck on the furthest end of the top roller (the second set of roller from the wave box end). The employee used his left hand and a small handled scraper to reach over the moving rollers to scrape off the excess dough. In doing so, the scrapper became caught in between two in-running rollers, which pulled the employee's fingers into the nip point. Employee #1 was hospitalized with an amputation of his left index finger. The accident investigation revealed that Employee #1, reached over the moving rollers to clean excess dough with a scraper prior to blocking or locking out movable parts of the machine. The employer required but did not provide employees with proper extension tools and training.

Keywords: AMPUTATED, FINGER, MACHINE OPERATOR, CAUGHT BETWEEN, HAND TOOL, NIP POINT, UNTRAINED