OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #221383599

SMITHFIELD FOODS - DENISON

DENISON, IA· 2021-06-29T00:00:00

Event: Amputated, Amputation, Blade, Caught Between, Cutter, Cutting, Die Blades, Finger, Fingertip, Food processing, Hand, Instantaneous amputation, Jammed, Lockout, Lockout/Tagout, Machine Cycled, Machine Guarding, Machine operator, Manufacturing, Meat Processing, Misjudgment, Misjudgment of Hazardous Situation, Packaging, Packaging Machine, Packaging Machinery, Partial Amputation, Production Line, Shear, Sheared, Struck By, Thermoformer, Thumb, Traumatic Amputation
NAICS: 311611
Inspection type: Referral
Activity number: #345410930
Employer profile: SMITHFIELD FOODS - DENISON
Summary number: 221383599
Report ID: 0751910

Event description

Employee amputates thumb tip when struck by forming machine

Investigation abstract

At 10:50 a.m. on June 29, 2021, an employee working as a machine operator for a the packs and the blade guard. The employee had pulled two of the packs free and was reaching for the third when the blade activated. The blade contacted the employee's right hand. The employee received medical treatment without hospitalization for an amputated thumb tip. meat processing facility was operating a Multivac Model #R245 Flexible Thermoforming Packaging Machine (Serial# Iowa 141417). The machine forms plastic trays at the south end which are then loaded with product and sealed in the middle and separated into individual packs at the north end. The trays are separated by longitudinal cross-cutting blades. When activated, a cross-cutting blade rises up from an area located below the conveyor belt. The edge of the blade then moves into a guard located above the cut packs before returning to the home position. Three packs became jammed between the blade that separated

Victim

#1 Non-hospitalized injury Age 39 M

Event type
2

Occupation code
777

Codes shown verbatim from OSHA's accident-investigation database. A human-readable decoder is coming in a future release once the accident_lookup2 dictionary is loaded.