Crown Poly, Inc.: OSHA inspections and violations

Incident on Feb 14, 2022: Employee is injured after hand is caught in bag machine

At approximately 7:30 a.m. on February 14, 2022, an employee was a machine operator. The employee was doing a setup operation on the bag machine (Equipment # PNP18-E) of production line L18. The employee started the bag machine (Equipment # PNP18-E) of production line L18 and noticed that the nips were rolling in an inward direction as opposed to roll in an outward direction. Then he stopped the machine and called the mechanic. When the mechanic started the machine, the nips rolled in the outward (right) direction, and he left. The employee stopped the bag machine (Equipment # PNP18-E) of production line L18 and started setting it up for production run. As soon as the employee put his hands in the (open) nips, the nips closed on his hand and started pulling his hand in slowly. This resulted in serious injury to his left hand, and he was hospitalized to treat these injuries.

Incident on Nov 20, 2005: Employee's finger tip is amputated by machine

At approximately 9:15 a.m. on November 20, 2005, Employee #1, a Winder machine o perator in the manufacturing of plastic bags, was assigned to work on Machine nu mber 9. The Winder is the machine that winds the thin mill polyethylene type fil ms onto 1-inch plastic cores. When finished, the roll of plastic bags is approxi mately 4 inches in width by approximately 10 inches in diameter. The Winder was setup to wind the plastic bag material coming from the Extruder. The material is fed through the back of the Winder machine onto a series of rollers. In front o f the machine, the end of the film is looped around a shaft to begin the winding process. The Extruder is designed to manufacture a tube type sheet of plastic f ilm and make perforations and seals approximately every 19 inches. As Employee # 1 was working, the plastic film line broke between the Extruder and the Winder m achine. After removing the unusable portion of film from the Winder, Employee #1 , with the help of a coworker, was going to attempt to rethread the film through the Winder. He was standing in front of the Winder machine facing the controls. While the Winder machine was still energized, the coworker was threading the fi lm through the rear rollers and told Employee #1 to pull the end of the film, wh ich was in close proximity to the rotating shaft. With the clear guard in place, Employee #1 was able to reach under the guard with his left hand and grab the p lastic. When he reached for the plastic sheeting, the rotating shaft caught the plastic material and pulled his left hand into the rotating shaft. The shaft sev erely cut his left index finger, resulting in the amputation of his left distal tip. He was taken to Technimed Medical Clinic by a coworker, where first aid was rendered. He was then taken to Downey Community Hospital, where he was treated for the amputation and released.

Incident on Sep 4, 1999: Employee injured when finger caught in a running roller

Around 5:20 p.m. on September 4, 1999, Employee #1, a packer, suffered a right m iddle fingertip amputation while attempting to clean printer rollers during oper ation. The facility involved in the accident was a large polyethylene bag manufa cturing company. Employee #1 had been working there one and a half years, as a p acker. At the time of the accident she noticed ink smears on the product, and, a lthough formally instructed not to perform any operator's duties, took it upon h erself to clean the rollers. No operator was in sight, and Employee #1 had previ ously been reprimanded for not taking action to correct a similar problem. Becau se she had not been given training on proper clean-up procedures, she used a rag to wipe off a ball of ink; the in-running rollers pulled the rag, and Employee #1's finger, into the nip point. Employee #1 was transported, by the supervisor, to Lemus Medical Center, and then had surgery at Western Hand Specialists. Inte rviews were conducted with Employee #1, another packer, and one machine operator . There were no witnesses to the accident.

Incident on Sep 8, 1998: Employee's arm caught in machine and lacerated

On September 8, 1998, Employee #1, a worker at Crown Poly Inc., was involved in the manufacturing of plastic-film paper bags. The bags are extruded using high d ensity polyethylene material and the resulting film is cut into film bags. These bags are printed in a bag printer machine, and then cut into bags by a bag cutt er. Lastly, these bags are wound into a roll, using a winder. All these machines are considered as one "line". The accident occurred when Employee #1 was called to Line Number 12, because the line was down. A drum roll was all wound up with plastic film and a feeder roll was tensioned tight. When Employee #1 got to the line, another employee, the lead person, was already working on the feeder roll . The machine's door gates were up, over the drum roll and the feeder roll secti ons. Employee #1 started cutting the plastic film off the drum roll, using a "j" knife. Finding the plastic roll too thick, she then tried to pull off the plast ic film by using both hands. The machine line started and the drum roll began ro lling. Employee #1's left hand was drawn in and that caused laceration to her le ft forearm and upper arm. Employee #1 was hospitalized and more than four months after the accident, she was still undergoing physical therapy.