A Coventry engineering firm has been fined after an employee was injured on an unguarded machine.
The employee was making a cut in a component on a horizontal borer at MNB Precision Ltd. on 20 May 2011 but as he reached over to check the cut, his sleeve came into contact with the rotating part. He was thrown over the top and suspended upside down when his belt caught on the component.
The 56-year-old, from Coventry, suffered minor lacerations, cuts and bruising to his right arm, side and leg and lower back. He returned to work for the company after about a month.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the borer had never been fitted with a guard, despite having been in the factory for more than 15 years.
MNB Precision Ltd., of Falkland Close, Charter Avenue Industrial Estate, Canley, Coventry, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. On 11 September, Coventry magistrates court fined the firm £18,000 and ordered it to pay full costs of £3,356.