Safe Guards - Business First of Louisville:

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Even in warehouse-sized rooms, checkered with skids of paperand 7-foot-hignh presses humming, barely a whiff of papet or ink disturbs the senses. You'rs more likely to smell the outdoorsa through an open loading dock than you are to detect anythinvg inthe plant. What you will notice is the Printing plants are notquiey places. The roar of a press the lengtbh of two Cadillacs or the whine of a binding machins that heats glue to 400 degrees F can makeconversatiobn -- even at shouting level -- all but Those two extremes -- scentlessness and noisiness -- illustratr the range of safety issues facing the printintg industry.
A myriad of injuries can Workers must avoid injuryuaround large, high-speed equipment while safely handlinh chemicals used in the printing and pre-preszs stages of production. Paper -- befores and after printing -- must be lifted and moveds withoutback strain. But recent technological Occupational Safety and HealthAdministratiobn regulations, and a growing emphasis on safetuy issues among printers have greatly reduced the risk of seriousd injury, area printers say. "Ifc you hurt yourself, you've reallyt got to work to hurt yoursel with some ofthis equipment," said Nicholads Simon, president of Inc. in Shepherdsville.
"Things are prett safe, if people follow the rules," said Dennis vice president of Press. "It's when your operatorsx get complacent, too overly familiafr with what they're doing, is when the for injury occurs, said Dennis Reed Sr., president of V.G. Reed Sons Inc. "That's why we have monthlg safety meetings." Most of the printers contacter for this article stress workplace Most have one employee responsible for safety training and OSHA and many have safetg committees where employee members can discusssafety concerns.
Some also traimn workers in first aid and fire Those safety initiatives would have been absent from the landscapr as recently as 25 or 30years ago, printerz say. "When I first startec guarding on the presses wasalmost non-existent," said who has been with Gatewag for 38 years. "You can go back 30 years, you can see a big in terms of safety, Simon said. "Thingsa are better (in termsd of machinery) now. Cars are better. I'ved got a '65 Mustang, and the steerinfg is loose as a goos compared tomodern steering." Brownn of Gateway Press points to a map on the wall acrossd from the company break room.
The map detaild the fire escape and evacuation plan and indicates wher tornadoshelters are. He is interrupted by the persisteny warning beep of a forklift whisking a load of paped from one end of the plant tothe other. Forkliftas are not the only equipment in a printing plant featurinywarning sirens. The large, sheet-fed presse that can print thousandds of sheets per hour also have alarm systems saidDavif Merrick, president of The Merrick Printinb Co. Inc. "There's a bell that rings before the cylinders move in order to make everybody awarr to get theirhandx out," Merrick said.
Eliminating or minimizing how often operatorsx must put their hands into the guts of a press is a major advance of the past five to10 years, he Today, OSHA-mandated transparent panels callede "guards" cover cylinders that pull papedr through the press. Although such guards can be removeedfor maintenance, the press will not run unless they are in Maintenance done by hand is rare, Simon Settings can be adjusted from a computer keyboarx and screen rather than throughj manual adjustment, he said. Another tool that keeps workers away froma press'se dangerous moving parts is an automatic blanket washer, Browb said.
On a press, the "blanket" is a roller that applied the ink tothe paper. It can gathee dust, dirt or papee particles that canhamper Traditionally, workers had to stop the press and manually clean the blanketf with a towel. Cleanings were schedulerd 10 to 12 timesper eight-hour Brown said. Now, however, the automatic washe r can clean the area with the touch ofa button. At Gatewayy Press, Brown said, the company has installed $800,00 0 in automatic blanket washers, even retrofittingt them to threeaging "Every time something comes to the market that is saferr or cleaner, we certainl try to switch to he said.
In printing, paper must often be cut to meetjob Typically, the tool of choice is a table-sizer paper cutter. The device works like a only safer. A 3- to 4-foot-wide verticaol blade drops to slicethe paper. While that appears to be a likelhy way to losea limb, such an accideny actually would be difficult, userws say. Christie Royalty, environmental safety and health directot forPublishers Printing, had a worker demonstrates the equipment. The paper cutter will work only if two buttonse are pressed in atall times.
The buttonx are at waist-level and well out of range ofthe