Excerpt from the OH&S Canada magazine
The Nova Scotia company registered to operate in Ontario was fined $130,000 on March 4, 2019 over a worker injury at its plant in Peterborough Ontario.
According to Ontario’s Ministry of Labour, venture group Company retained a contractor to provide industrial cleaning services at its Peterborough plant that manufactures injection-moulded plastic vehicle components.
An employee of the cleaning service was cleaning the area around various injection-moulding machines alone on September 30, 2017. The worker tried to clean a robot cage at the injection-moulding machine which has two robots inside the cage to pick, trim and place vehicle bumpers from the injection-moulding machine onto a conveyor.
Although the door to the robot cage was interlocked to shut both robots down upon opening the door, the interlock did not shut down the parts conveyor, which continued running. The worker entered the robot cage to clean the inside of the machine before exiting through the door to clean an area outside the cage near the conveyor.
Upon seeing some spent plastic pellets under the conveyor, the worker reached between existing guards on the conveyor to sweet the pellets with one hand. To access the area of the moving driveshaft, the workers squeeze through a small gap. But a rotating driver shaft, which was not visible to a person standing beside the conveyor, caught the workers hair and resulted in a critical injury.
According to the investigation, venture performs regular pre-start engineering reviews on its equipment as required by Occupational Health & Safety Act (OHSA) regulations and has retained an engineer to examine the robots for compliance with applicable regulations and standards. The engineer recommended additional guarding on top of the conveyor, which venture follow. The existing guards at the side of the conveyor near the tail pulley allowed, with some difficulty, access through the small gap to the area underneath the conveyor and the driveshaft.
The company pleaded guilty for failing to ensure that the exposed moving part of the machine or equipment is guarded or equipped with a device to prevent access to the moving part.
My opinion
This is my second report on this accident/incident. Peterborough is the centre for HRS group Inc. and to have an accident such as this, in our backyard, is unacceptable.
The first report I completed was directly from the Ministry of Labour’s bulletins. After reading the report from the OH&S Canada magazine, I felt compelled to discuss this again.
Section 24 of the Ontario ‘Industrial’ sector regulation states,
“Where a machine has an exposed moving part that may endanger the safety of any worker, the machine shall be equipped with and guarded by a guard or other device that prevents access to the moving part.”
HRS Group Inc. has a great team that can help you with all your health and safety needs. Contact Deborah toll free at 1-877-907-7744 or locally at 705-749-1259.
Remember – In Ontario, “ALL Accidents are Preventable”
HRS Group Inc. has a great team that can help you with all your health and safety needs including ‘Due Diligence’, ‘Machine Guarding’ and ‘Standard Operating Procedures’. Contact Deborah toll free at 1-877-907-7744 or locally at 705-749-1259.
‘Work’ and ‘Play’ safe.
Daniel L. Beal
CHSEP – Advanced Level
VP & Senior Trainer
HRS Group Inc.
Your article has taught me a lot.