New York Machinery Amputation Attorneys

Amputations are some of the most serious and debilitating workplace injuries. They are widespread and involve a variety of activities and equipment.

Amputations occur most often when workers operate unguarded or inadequately safeguarded mechanical power presses, power press brakes, powered and non-powered conveyors, printing presses, roll-forming and roll-bending machines, food slicers, meat grinders, meat-cutting band saws, drill presses, and milling machines as well as shears, grinders, and slitters.

These injuries also happen during materials handling activities and when using forklifts and doors as well as trash compactors and powered and non-powered hand tools.

Activities involving stationary machines also expose workers to potential amputation hazards: setting-up, threading, preparing, adjusting, cleaning, lubricating, and maintaining machines as well as clearing jams.

According to OSHA, the following types of mechanical components present amputation hazards:

Point of Operation - the area of a machine where it performs work on material

Power transmission apparatuses - flywheels, pulleys, belts, chains, couplings, spindles, cams and gears in addition to connecting rods and other machine components that transmit energy

In addition to mechanical components, mechanical motion is also hazardous.

In running nip points (pinch points) - occur when two parts move together and at least on moves in a rotary or circular motion that gears, rollers, belt drives, and pulleys generate. The most common types of hazardous mechanical motion includes:

Rotating - circular movement of couplings, cam, clutches, flywheels, and spondles as well as shaft ends and rotating collard that may grip clothing or otherwise force a body part into a dangerous location

Reciprocating - back and forth or up and down action that may strike or enter a worker between a moving part and a fixed object.

Transversing - movement in a straight, continuous line that may strike or catch a worker in a pinch or shear point created between the moving part and a fixed object.

Cutting - action generated during sawing, boring, drilling, millings, slicing, and slitting.

Punching - motion resulting when a machine moves a slide (ram) to stamp or blank metal or other material.

Shearing - movement of a powered slide or knife during metal trimming or shearing.

Bending - action occurring when power is applied to a slide to draw or form metal or other materials.

Employers must recognize, identify, manage, and control amputation hazards commonly found in the workplace such as those caused by mechanical components of machinery, the mechanical motion that occurs in or near these components, and the activities that workers perform during mechanical operation.

Employers must also comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act which generally prohibits employees under the age of 18 from operating band saws, circular saws, guillotine shears, punching and shearing machines, meatpacking or meat processing machines, paper products machines, woodworking machines, metal forming machines, and meat slicers.

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