- The company retained a contractor to provide industrial cleaning services at the plant.
- An employee of the cleaning service was working alone, cleaning the area around various injection molding machines.
- The worker approached the robot cage at an injection molding machine, intending to enter for cleaning purposes.
- Two robots located inside the cage pick, trim and place vehicle bumpers from the injection molding machine onto a conveyor. The door to the robot cage was interlocked so as to shut both robots down upon opening the door. The interlock did not shut down the parts conveyor.
- The parts conveyor was partially inside and partially outside the robot cage and remained continuously running.
- The worker entered the robot cage through the door to clean inside and then exited to clean an area outside the cage near the conveyor.
- Seeing some spent plastic pellets under the conveyor, the worker reached between existing guards on the conveyor and was placed beneath the conveyor to sweep the pellets with one hand.
- To access the moving drive shaft area, the worker squeezed through a small gap.
- The worker’s hair was caught by a rotating drive shaft located near the tail pulley and beneath the conveyor. The rotating drive shaft was not visible to a person standing beside the conveyor.
- The worker received a critical injury but was able to move away from the machine and was eventually attended to by paramedics.