Extrusion Machine Operator Dies of Head Injuries Received When His Head Became Caught in Extrusion Machine Rollers – South Carolina

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program
• Description:
  This report concerned the death of a 25-year-old male extrusion machine operator employed by a manufacturing facility which produced polyester/nylon monofilaments. The company had been operating for 37 years and employed 285 workers. The production/extrusion process started with polyester/nylon chips being fed into a hopper barrel and melted. The liquid material then moved to a quench tank where it was partially hardened. The monofilaments passed through a series of three ovens, and then exited through the extrusion machine and passed through five rollers to an accumulator where the finished products were checked. The victim was operating an extrusion machine discharging 6-pound test monofilament fishing line. The line was being fed to board mounted spools. Apparently one of the monofilament strands broke as it was discharged from the extrusion machine and the material began to wrap around the end of the roller. While attempting to clear the material from the roller, the victim's right arm became entangled between rollers and his head was pulled between the rollers. The cause of death was listed as major head trauma. It was recommended that machines be equipped with safety trip controls and machine rollers be guarded. Employees should be instructed not to attempt to clear fouled material from rotating rollers. Means to prevent broken monofilaments from building up on machine rollers should be found.
• Subjects:
  Accidents, Occupational Manufacturing And Industrial Facilities Nervous System Occupational Health Plastics Safety
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis FACE-94-06 Head-injuries Machine-operators OSHA Region 4 Plastics-industry Safety-research Traumatic-injuries Work-practices
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Machine (All) ; Machine - Manufacturing ; Prevention through Design (PtD)
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  NIOSH (In-House)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHFACE9406
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  South Carolina ; OSHA Region 4
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSR - Division of Safety Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  3 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00223309
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB95-171245
• Citation:
  Morgantown, : U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1995
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  31-33 - Manufacturing - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1994/03/14
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:f62efd41e256ecfde700e0faae096b2a5720b5b7d7fb3789a0be2d58f288d6c33326b0e096cab878248376ae27cbf1efbf5dc14bb32676ad321e0b35231cbd7f
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/167468/cdc_167468_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 265.75 KB ]