OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #221440365

OHIO POLYTECH, LLC

BUCYRUS, OH· 2022-02-13T00:00:00

Event: Amputated, Amputation, Caught Between, Conveyor, Finger, Open Fracture, Plastic Mfg
NAICS: 423930
Inspection type: Referral
Activity number: #345802425
Employer profile: OHIO POLYTECH, LLC
Summary number: 221440365
Report ID: 0524700

Event description

Employee receives open fracture and amputation finger injury

Investigation abstract

At approximately 4:30 a.m. on February 13, 2022, an employee operated the where they are required to manually sort the recycled plastic components to remove contaminants as the components transfer from the "sorting belt" to the inclined "Titan Conveyor" into the "Republic Shredder". Machine operators manually sort the components while the "Titan conveyor" operates. The employee was attempting to dislodge a plastic "disc" (approximately 15" diameter and 3" thick) that became lodged between the in-running nip points at the outfeed side (bottom belt) of the "sorting conveyor" and the infeed side of the "Titan conveyor" when the middle finger of their left hand became caught between a cleat of the "Titan conveyor" and the material that was lodged at the in-running points of the conveyor system. Employee #1 received open fracture injuries to "Shredder" line in the "Reclaim Building" with two other coworkers. The the middle finger of the left hand, ultimately resulting in partial amputation of bone in the finger. The employee was hospitalized to treat these injuries. "Shredder" is comprised of a conveyor system, a "sorting belt" and an inclined "Titan conveyor", that transports recycled plastic components to the "Republic" Shredder. Normal operation of the "Shredder" line requires approximately three employees; one employee is tasked with operating the "butterfly" forklift to transport cardboard boxes of recycled plastic components (boxes weigh approximately 800-1,200lbs) onto the "sorting belt" where two machine operators are stationed on opposite sides of the line ("control side" and "box side")

Victim

#1 Non-hospitalized injury Age 33 F

Event type
2

Occupation code
779

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.