Calibrated Forms, Inc.: OSHA inspections and violations

Incident on Nov 11, 2021: Employee suffers amputation while cleaning printing press

At 8:45 a.m. on November 11, 2021, an employee was working for a commercial printer. He was in the firm's production department. He was operating the facility's printing press number 228. It was a Didde Compupress model number 206-678. He was warming up the press. It had had a paper jam that he was cleaning up. He reached for a piece of paper, and got his hand became caught in the press. He suffered the amputation of the tuft of the index and middle fingers on his left hand. The tuft is the end of the last bone in the finger. Elsewhere it was stated that two of his fingers were amputated as he was cleaning the rollers on the press. Either way, he was hospitalized. The guards on the press were not affixed to the machine. Employees at the facility opened the guard at least five times a day to clean the rollers. During an investigation, measurements were made. According to a tape measure, an employee would stand approximately 3 ft (0.9 meters) from the rollers and approximately 2 ft (0.6 meters) from the point of operations. The Didde Compupress operated at approximately 150 rpm when warming up and 300 to 450 rpm during production. The guards on the printing press that was involved in the amputation incident that occurred on November 11, 2021, were not affixed to the machine. The employer representative stated during the walkaround and during the interview that the guards had been that way for about 20 years. Employees did not require any tools to remove the guard. They just had to lift it up to access the rollers.