Worker pulled into lathe, killed; OSHA fines company
May 28, 2009 by Fred HosierPosted in: Bizarre Accident of the Week, cost of safety, Fatality, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, OSHA news, Who Got Fined and Why?
PDF A company in Barboursville, WV, faces $56,250 in OSHA fines following a fatality at the plant earlier this year.
While working, an employee was pulled into and lodged in a large lathe. Emergency personnel pronounced him dead when they arrived. The worker died of severe trauma to his upper torso.
OSHA determined the lathe didn’t have proper machine guards.
In all, OSHA issued 23 alleged serious safety and health violations against the company, including:
- blocked or locked exit routes
- lack of proper fire protection equipment and training
- inadequate forklift truck training
- improper storage of compressed gas cylinders, and
- lack of protective gear for skin exposure to hexavalent chromium.
The company has 15 days to decide whether to pay the fines or contest them.
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Tags: blocked exit routes, machine guards, worker pulled into lathe
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June 2nd, 2009 at 7:46 am
Very unfortunate, I pray that we all learn a lesson from this accident.
June 8th, 2009 at 10:22 am
I have a picture that I post on my office window from time to time of a man who was torn to bits, on a lathe. It is very graphic, but it is a reminder of what can happen. when people loose concentration for only a moment.
June 8th, 2009 at 11:36 am
I’d be interested to know what machine guards are required on a lathe, which ones were missing in this case and how the missing guards contributed to the accident.
February 23rd, 2010 at 2:04 pm
I’d be interested in knowing exactly what type of guarding is required for a manual lathe ?
February 23rd, 2010 at 4:31 pm
I have asked what type of guarding is required on lathes, and it seems that the OSHA inspectors give their personal opinions. One has said that any guarding that is attached at the point of construction (by the factory producing the lathe) is required, while another has said that the guarding needs to be custom to the process.
While we try to make every machine as safe as possible to operate, there is no training available that can take the place of the operator knowing how dangerous the machine can be. I am in agreement with Hunter concerning concentration.
May 30th, 2010 at 12:08 pm
I know of one incident (Night shift) where a man was “Finishing” a lathe job with emery cloth. Instead of using a short length he was holding a nearly new roll of the 1 inch wide tape in his hand. You can imagine what comes next, the free end caught in the chuck pulling the rest of the roll though his hand, nearly losing him 3 fingers. Sometimes manual operations like this are necessary but here it was not the hand in what you might call the “Danger Zone”, it was the other hand that was simply holding something. If your company does lather work or anything like six spindle auto work you might find this interesting too…
We had some six spindle machines and for one job the steel came in lengths a couple of feet longer than the tubes. The bars had been “Cropped” in a way that resembles what you might see from bolt cutters, in other words they had a ragged end. A colleague wearing - let me say a garment like a lab coat - stepped back into on of the rotating bar ends. Fortunately he felt a small tug on his clothing and jumped forward as the machine literally ripped the coat off his back. Pretty flimsy garment but in this case just as well.
As I posted somewhere else on here I was an amusing sign that said “CAUTION - This machine has no brains - USE YOURS
November 16th, 2010 at 7:02 am
For those that asked:
http://www.atssafety.com/lathe.html
http://www.atssafety.com/lathe1.html
November 16th, 2010 at 10:07 am
If you guard a lathe so that it is “safe”, it no longer is a lathe, but an anchor. Metal working/machining by definition is a dangerous job. But when you actually tally the number of severe injuries per employee hour, it is safer than driving a car. I work on both sides of the fence, production and safety, and what I nearly always see when an accident takes place is a bunch of posturing by the safety guys. The people running the machines are, or at least should be, the experts at operating the equipment. Pretending as a safety officer, to know more about the process than the operator is nothing more than Monday morning quarterbacking.
November 16th, 2010 at 11:29 am
Since my last posting I found this:
[quote]Omron STI Answer: This is an interesting question, because lathes are one of those machines that fall under different OSHA safeguarding clauses depending on the application. If the lathe is being used for woodworking, then it must be guarded under 1910.213; however, if it is used for turning metal then it comes under the general safeguarding clause in 1910.212.
The requirements for guarding a woodworking lathe are defined in 1910.213(o): “(1)…shall have all cutting heads covered by a metal guard. If such a guard is constructed of sheet metal, the material used shall be not less than one-sixteenth inch in thickness; and if cast iron is used, it shall not be less than three-sixteenths inch in thickness. (2) Cutting heads on wood-turning lathes, whether rotating or not, shall be covered as completely as possible by hoods or shields. (3)… shall be equipped with hoods enclosing the cutter blades completely except at the contact points while the stock is being cut. (4) Lathes used for turning long pieces of wood stock held only between the two centers shall be equipped with long curved guards extending over the tops of the lathes in order to prevent the work pieces from being thrown out of the machines if they should become loose”
Lathes not used for woodworking fall under the general safeguarding clause, which requires that one or more methods of machine guarding shall be provided to protect the operator and other employees in the machine area from hazards such as those created by point of operation, ingoing nip points, rotating parts, flying chips and sparks. (1910.212(a)(1). This clause does not provide any specific guidance as to how this guarding is to be accomplished. The best way to ensure compliance is by using a consensus standard such as those published by ANSI. The ANSI standard B11.6-2001 (R2007), Safety Requirements for Manual Turning Machines with or without Manual Control provides all the detailed information required for guarding a lathe properly. We strongly recommend purchasing a copy and following its guidelines.[/quote]