HSE safety alert to the printing industry: Fatalities on hand-fed platen machines

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has today issued a safety alert aimed at employers in the printing industry who use hand-fed platen machines. This follows two fatal incidents in the last 13 months where machine operators have been crushed between the platens.

In both cases the machines were being operated in ‘dwell’ mode at the time of the intervention. HSE is concerned with this activity in that the platen may automatically stroke at the end of the dwell period and safety devices may not be activated.