Article 4 ISSN 1443-8844 PREVENTION OF INJURY ASSOCIATED WITH ROTATING ACTION MACHINES

Repeated analyses of the Swedish national workers ’ compensation claims data material in the Occupational No-Fault Liability Insurance Scheme have pointed to the high incidence of severe hand injury associated with getting caught in rotating (drilling, milling, boring, turning, grinding) machines in the metal manufacturing and engineering industry (Jedeskog & Larsson, 1988; Larsson, 1990; Persson, 1992). In an analysis of all permanently disabling injuries sustained in the Swedish engineering industry during 1986, six out of ten injuries associated with machines for drilling, boring and threading were caused by the operator getting caught in the rotating tool or work-piece with his/her glove or other garment (Larsson, 1990). In a repeated analysis of the national claims data material from the Swedish engineering industry for the years 1987, 1988 and 1989, half of all injuries sustained at the same types of rotating machines were due to glove getting caught in the rotating action (Persson, 1992). A development project aimed at reducing the risk of traumatic hand injury associated with rotating action machines was initiated in 1994 by the Institute for Human Safety and Accident Research (IPSO), in co-operation with the Swedish Institute of Production Engineering Research. The main focus of the work has been to develop an improved solution to emergency braking and to drastically reduce inertia rotation in the relevant machine types