OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #888669
DIE,SPOT WELDING,AMPUTATED,FINGER,WORK RULES,FOOT CONTROL,WELDER,CAUGHT BETWEEN,POINT OF OPERATION,UNGUARDED
Event description
Employee's fingertip amputated when caught in welding gun
Investigation abstract
On January 4, 1989, Employee #1 was using a Voltra Trans-gun on a centerline wel ocedure from the general production supervisor. After performing the task for fo ur hours, she actuated the gun while her right index finger was in the point of operation, amputating it to the first knuckle. She was hospitalized and is curre ntly unable to work. Subsequent investigation revealed that there is a gap on th e machine between the die and the electrode after the two parts are placed. Empl oyees do not remove their feet from the covered foot pedal after each actuation. The machine has no barrier guard or sensing device to prevent employees from en tering the point of operation. On January 5, 1989, the employer disconnected the foot pedal and installed two hand-palm buttons for machine actuation. der to spot weld an M-10 nut to a 688 bracket for Honda automobiles. The employe e had operated this machine when welding a larger part that had to be held with both hands; at that time, the machine had guns on it and was activated via foot pedal. The left gun had been made nonoperative by company engineers on December 30, 1988. On the day of the accident, the employee placed the nut on the lower d ie of the welding gun, then placed the brackets in a hole on a small raised ridg e. She then depressed the cover, completed the weld, removed the finished produc t, and began the process again. She had received instructions concerning this pr
Victim
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 38 F
- Nature of injury
- 1
- Part of body
- 10
- Event type
- 2
- Source
- 26
- Occupation code
- 634
- Human factor
- 6
- Environmental factor
- 4
- 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.