A firm in West Yorkshire has appeared in court after an industrial oven exploded in its factory just minutes after its employees had left the area.
The incident, which happened at Flexitallic Ltd’s factory in Cleckheaton in March 2013, was investigated by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and it was found that a catalogue of errors had contributed to the explosion.
The oven, Huddersfield Magistrates heard earlier this month (10th March) was used as part of a production process in the ‘baking’ of gasket sheets. As such, components needed to be mixed with a flammable paraffin then formed into sheets and dried thoroughly to drive off the solvent. They were then put into the 360 degree oven.
On the evening the incident took place, night shift workers had followed the instructions left by their manager for them to transfer some sheets that were in the dryer into the ‘sinter’ oven. One of the workers opened the doors of the dryer and his colleague was using a forklift to load the sheets and transfer them to the oven. The man started the oven’s cycle then the two workers left the oven room.
After ten minutes, the oven exploded suddenly and violently, punching a large hole through the roof above and causing extensive damage to the factory room. Around a dozen workers were at the factory at the time and were taken to hospital to be checked over. Luckily, they were not harmed in the incident.
The court heard that, when loading the sheets into the oven, the workers were unaware that the oven was still very hot and the sheets were just partially dry. Flammable vapours therefore ignited as they made contact with electrical heating elements and this caused a flashover and a flashback into the main chamber, which subsequently exploded with the pressure.
HSE’s investigation found that although the company had drawn up a process to ensure that sheets were fully dried before they entered the oven, there were failings with regards to the critical instruction on the drier, which had not been repaired. The dryer machine was known to cut out and shut itself down and investigation found that this provided “the ingredients of an incident waiting to happen”.
Flexitallic Ltd was fined £10,000 alongside £1,588 in costs after it pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
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