Thermal Engineering Ltd fined £40,834 after worker loses part of finger in manually-operated lathe.

Thermal Engineering Ltd was fined £40,834 (inc.costs) after a worker suffered a serious hand injury after a machinery incident.

The circumstances were:

• On 15 December 2015 Chris Davis was using a manually operated  metalworking lathe.
• The lathe had a faulty emergency footbrake, which had been reported to the company at an early date, but had not been taken out of service.
• Mr Davis was using hand-held emery cloth when when his hand became entangled  with the rotating workpiece.
• He required surgical amputation to part of his left index finger.

The HSE inspector said:
“Thermal Engineering Ltd failed to identify that employees were routinely carrying out an unsafe work practice when hand applying emery cloth to a workpiece rotating at speed. The company also failed to take the faulty lathe out of service, resulting in Mr Davis not being able to stop the lathe immediately. “All companies have a duty to ensure employees carry out work in a safe way and the machinery they are using is in good working order.”