Tyrone company fined for health and safety breach

A TYRONE engineering firm has been fined £25,000 after pleading guilty to a single health and safety offence at Craigavon Crown Court. 

Following an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI), a County Tyrone engineering company, Caledon Precision Engineering Limited has been fined for failing to ensure the safety of employees while working at an automatic lathe.

The Court heard that on October 10 2022, an employee sustained serious hand injuries while using emery cloth at an automatic lathe. A metal component had been placed into the automatic lathe and the emery cloth was applied by hand for the purposes of removing rust.

It was further established that the interlocking doors to the lathe had been bypassed meaning the lathe could be operated with the doors open.

Emery cloth is a type of abrasive paper or sandpaper, that can be used to debur, polish or size a wide range of metal components while held in the rotating chuck jaws of a lathe. Emery cloth should never be applied directly by hand to manual or automatic lathes.

HSENI Inspector, Gavin Rowan said, “Employers have a legal duty to ensure employees and others are not put at risk from unguarded machinery.

“Serious incidents involving the use of emery cloth at metalworking lathes are common and result in injuries such as broken bones, dislocations, and amputations.

“It is never acceptable to apply emery cloth directly by hand on a rotating automatic or manual metal working machine.”