Fatal Accidents Prompt Hand-Fed Platen Warnings

The UK's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) yesterday issued a safety alert to safeguard the users of hand-fed platen machines.

The warning has followed two fatal incidents in the last 13 months where machine operators have been crushed between the platens.

In both cases the machines were being operated in 'dwell' mode at the time of the intervention.

HSE said that is concerned that platens may automatically stroke at the end of the dwell period and safety devices may not be activated.

HSE added that the alert highlights the dangers of using the dwell facility on such machines, together with the steps employers need to take to ensure the machine can be used safely.

The first of the two fatal incidents took place earlier this month in Wakefield, Yorkshire, whilst the other accident was in April 2007 in West Drayton, London.

Both incidents are currently under investigation by HSE and the organisation said that no further details could yet be given.

HSE said that the dwell mode on platen machines is effectively a continuous cycle with an adjustable delay to allow the completed blank to be removed and the new one inserted.

Once activated, the machine will continue to cycle in that fashion until a stop button and guard are activated.

The dwell can be set anywhere between 0.5 seconds and 12 seconds.

According to HSE, hand-fed platens are versatile machines with a long history.

Their design is based on old platen printing presses and they are widely used in the printing, corrugating, packaging and paper industries for a range of jobs from making cardboard packaging to manufacture of point of sale displays.

HSE added that it has written to the British Printing Industries Federation (BPIF), the Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI) and members of the Printing Industry Advisory Committee (PIAC) and the Paper and Board Industry Advisory Committee (PABIAC) to ensure that they are aware of the alert.

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