Failing to Guard a Pinchpoint Costs Manufacturer $90,000

A manufacturer’s worker taped a piece of plastic film onto a cardboard core on a spindle of a turret winder while standing on a safety mat. When he stepped off the mat, another worker turned on the power and the spindle began to rotate. The first worker saw that the plastic film had fallen off and stepped back onto the safety mat to re-tape it. While doing so, he got entangled and spun around the spindle once. Co-workers hit an emergency stop button. The worker sustained a fractured bone. An MOL investigation found that although the manufacturer had a written procedure stating that workers were never to tape plastic film to a core while a spindle was rotating, the machine wasn’t adequately guarded to prevent access to the pinchpoint. The manufacturer was fined $90,000 [Par-Pak Ltd., Govt. News Release, June 13, 2013].