AG-Weld, Inc.: OSHA inspections and violations

Incident on Aug 25, 2011: Employee's fingers are amputated by punch press

At approximately 8:15 a.m. on August 25, 2011, Employee #1, a welder/fabricator with a company that manufactured custom agricultural equipment, was performing a regularly-assigned task of bending metal. He placed pieces of rectangular metal (5.5 in. wide, 3 in. long, and 0.375 in. thick) under a Bliss 60 ton punch pres s to be bent. Employee #1 used his left hand to place the metal pieces, one by o ne, on an elevated metal box with parallel tubes resting on the work surface. Th ere was a 4 in. separation between the tubes. The metal piece would be bent down ward between the two tubes. He would use his right hand remove each bent piece a nd toss it into a wooden bin. Employee #1 would use his right foot to depress a foot-operated treadle to initiate the downward stroke of the slide. This punch p ress had a full revolution clutch. Once activated, the press would not stop unti l the cycle was completed. Employee #1 placed his right hand under the downward slide of the upper die used to bend the piece and depressed the treadle at the s ame time. The upper metal die crushed his right hand. Employee #1 was hospitaliz ed at Kern Medical Center for amputations of his right middle and index fingers. The investigation concluded that the employer did not have guards on the punch press or its foot-operated treadle.