Inspection Detail

Inspection: 305416273 - Dixon Valve & Coupling Company

Inspection Information - Office: Department Of Labor, Licensing, And Regulation Division Of Labor And Industry Maryland Occupational Safety And Health

Investigation Summary

Employee #1 was operating a Finn Power FP 140 VS swaging machine attempting to create a crimp reduction on a carbon steel piece of tubing. This was a new process that Employee #1 had never performed in that the crimp reduction was much smaller than regular workload. Employee #1 had successfully performed three or four different jobs that day. A die change was made from a Number 35 to a Number 30 die in order to do a smaller crimp. Employee #1 had never worked with tubing before which has a different wall thickness (3.125-in. outer diameter) from the pipe usually worked. According to Employee #1, the dies for this crimp were a little longer, and an adaptor die was used as well. For the first procedure (crimp), the machine was set on manual in order to crimp it down gradually. The size of the desired crimp was 1.125-in. to 1.25-in. for a length of approximately 6 in. at the end of the tubing. This made it necessary to hold the tubing with the hand as the crimp was being performed so the machine could hold the part. The first part put in for this particular process just before the accident occurred did not perform correctly. According to Employee #1, the second part was properly seated in the machine, and the machine was on the automatic process. However, during the brief interview in the afternoon of the accident, Employee #1 stated the part was seated properly in the machine and when she hit the close button (which only occurs in the manual mode); the part was ejected out of the machine and struck her in the chest. Employee #1 called for help and two coworkers responded. The supervisor then shut down the machine by turning it off and unplugging it. The supervisor stated that the dies were in the closed position which would indicate a manual mode, if the mode was in automatic, the dies would automatically return to the open position. Employee #1 was taken to the local hospital where she received a Chest X-Ray, an EKG, and it was determined that there was trauma in the area of the chest where Employee #1 was struck. Employee #1 was hospitalized.