Badger Solutions LLC: OSHA inspections and violations

Incident on Oct 20, 2021: Employee fractures foot when caught in conveyor

At 2:00 p.m. on October 20, 2021, an employee was working as a laborer for a firm that manufactured corrugated and solid fiber boxes. The employee was on the shop floor, working at the site's blue belt conveyor line. He was using a Taiwan Endurance Co., Ltd. board handling system. He was placing dunnage under a stack of cardboard so that the cardboard could be bundled. The conveyor system took stacks of cardboard and banded them together. The employer required that employees stand on the conveyor and place dunnage under the stacks before banding. The conveyor would start moving without warning with an employee standing on it. The employee was in an area where one section of conveyor ended, and another section of conveyor began. Each section of conveyor belt was 4 feet wide and 8 feet long (1.2 meters wide and 2.4 meters long). The gap between the two belts was 1 inch wide (25 mm wide). The employee's foot became caught between the two conveyor lines. He suffered a fracture or fractures to his foot. He was hospitalized. The employer had not ensured there was proper guarding to keep employees from getting caught in the conveyor.