Aahs Enterprises, Inc.: OSHA inspections and violations

Incident on Jan 24, 2022: Employee degloves forearm when caught by printer carriage

At 10:45 a.m. on January 24, 2022, an employee was working for a company that does printing and assembly to make posters, stickers, and cut-outs by printing on cardboard or foam board. The employee worked at the facility for 4 months and was operating the VUTEk LX3 Pro wide format printer to print on cardboard. Coworker #1 was about 10 feet away operating an additional printer. The employee noticed deterioration in print quality, indicating that the material edge guides (MEGs) that hold the cardboard in place needed cleaning. In order to clean the MEGs, the employee must access the printer point of operation. According to Coworker #2 (Manager) and Coworker #3 (Owner) when the MEGS needed cleaning, the plastic cover over the printer carriage has an interlock that would shut down the printer. The employee said he was not aware there was an interlock and it did not work because he would often operate the printer with the cover open. Coworker #1 said he had never seen the employee operate the printer with the cover open. The employee said he had been told not to use the red emergency stop button because it would require starting the print job again costing too much time. Coworker #2 said she trained employees to hit "Pause" button when cleaning the MEGs, allowing the job to resume after cleaning. The employee and Coworker #1 said they had not received safety training apart from how to operate the printer. Coworker #1 confirmed that the interlocks on the printers didn't work. The employee stated as he was cleaning the MEGs and Coworker #1 distracted him by tapping him on the shoulder and he failed to remove his hand from the printer before the cartridge struck his right arm. Coworker #1 denied tapping the employee on the shoulder. The employee's right forearm was dragged by the carriage and the impact removed the skin and muscle. The employee admitted to the hospital for one week before being transferred to another hospital for a month, where he underwent surgery.