OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #745307
BURN,LADLE,WORK RULES,FIRE,EQUIPMENT FAILURE,MOLTEN METAL,ACCIDENTAL DISCHARGE,HIGH TEMPERATURE
Event description
Employee burned by molten material from tapping ladle
Investigation abstract
Employee #1 was withdrawing molten material from an aluminum smelting pot to sea er but with some disability. The pot was a start-up pot that was operating at a higher temperature than a normal pot. There was a gasket between the ladle top a nd bottom. The ladle was found bowed and distorted from the heat, with a 0.18-in . gap between the top and bottom. l a leaking spout. The molten material was tapped by placing the spout of the ta pping ladle into the pot. The tapping ladle was a steel shell lined with refract ory material. Air pressure was then used to create a vacuum, and the material in the pot was drawn into the ladle. The material was ejected by reversing the air flow. Employee #1 attempted to eject the material back into the pot once he had withdrawn the material into the tapping ladle, but the molten material sprayed out of the ladle, striking him in the back and igniting his clothing. Employee # 1 suffered serious burns for which he was hospitalized. He was expected to recov
Victim
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 34 M
- Nature of injury
- 5
- Part of body
- 19
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 9
- Occupation code
- 655
- Human factor
- 18
- Environmental factor
- 9
- Hazardous substance
- 0160
- Task assigned
- 1
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.