Our team of 30 UltraCare technical engineers cover the UK getting involved with regular service and maintenance contracts, PremiumCare, ServiceCare, breakdowns, installation and commissioning, health and safety training, risk assessments, rebuilds and upgrades.

During a service and maintenance visit one of our engineers was asked by a manager to assist in completing an accident form for an incident that had occurred some weeks previous: a piece of timber had been ejected from a machine and hit the operator in the stomach causing considerable injury. The manager could not comprehend how the accident had occurred when the machinery was being serviced regularly. The UltraCare engineer found that the riving knife was in the wrong position and the guards incorrectly set. This resulted in timber riding up the blade at 4,000rpm and then being ejected at high speed.

Ninety-nine per cent of accidents occur as a result of incorrect use of machinery whereby the operator does not fix guards correctly. We liken this to having a seat belt in the car but not wearing it. In many cases operators themselves choose to alter guards simply out of pure laziness.

Advice ignored

Another UltraCare engineer was in Ireland to install and commission a Wadkin moulder which has interlocking guards that shut down the machine to keep the operator safe if adjustments are being made. The engineer was asked to take off the interlocking device as the customer felt it was restrictive when needing to adjust the machine. He advised that this should not be done as it could result in a serious accident and explained and demonstrated the hazards. Just two weeks later the UltraCare service manager was asked to carry out an investigation following an accident on the new machine. The findings showed that the same operator with whom the UltraCare engineer had spent the time explaining the hazards of dismantling the interlocking system, had ignored the advice and adjusted the side guides with an open spanner as opposed to a ring spanner. His hand hit the top head block operating at 6,000rpm with four knives. He lost most of his hand and his thumb had to be amputated.

Many customers choose to give our engineers the authority to shut down/condemn a machine if not health and safety compliant or deemed to be unsafe. During another UltraCare engineer’s routine visit to a customer’s cross-cut saw he noticed that the whole stirrup that holds the motor and the saw itself was broken on one side and being held on by half the stirrup. It was moving a lot and unstable, causing the engineer concern as the blade was being propelled towards the operator. On this occasion the engineer took out the fuses; UltraCare engineers will not service a machine if it is unsafe. And certain colleges issue them with padlocks if they feel machines should be condemned.

Another example of customers taking their life in their hands was an operator who, when an extraction pipe on a moulder became jammed, decided to take off the extraction hose and put his hand in to clear the dust. Through the dust his hand met a revolving cutter; he lost most of his fingers.

&#8220Operators will often try and do that quick job – unaware of the consequences. Some of it comes down to ignorance and incorrect training – some of it is arrogance
”

Geoff Parry, UltraCare engineer

Another engineer witnessed at first hand a piece of timber being launched 200ft into the air. It missed the operator but was hurled over four workbenches before hitting a secretary and breaking her ankle. Again this was the result of guarding being incorrectly used.

“Operators will often try and do that quick job – unaware of the consequences. Some of it comes down to ignorance and incorrect training – some of it is arrogance,” said UltraCare engineer Geoff Parry.

Playing chicken

Perhaps one of the most incredulous examples of dicing with death was when an UltraCare engineer witnessed two trainee operators “playing chicken” on a single end tenoner. They put their arm in a bridge clamp to clamp their hand down while the other one rolled it through the cutters. Once they had done a pass the head was lowered gradually towards the cutters to see who would chicken out first. The pair were sacked on the spot.

UltraCare works closely with the Health & Safety Executive and with the WMSA to enhance operator perception of safety issues and good working practices and it also forms partnerships with customers to tailor-make training courses.

But many operators still regard safety issues as tedious and unimportant – until there is an accident. We will address this issue further in coming months through theUltraCare Training Academy which will offer a range of training options and accreditations from our new location at Bardon Hill, Coalville.